History YMMV / Bluebeard

 * AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: Perrault did not write Bluebeard or any of his other stories for children, yet they were commonly marketed to children for centuries. Bluebeard frequently appeared in fairy tale collections for children until the early twentieth century. This is Lampshaded in ''Literature/TheShining'' when one night Jack drunkenly read the story to Danny - scaring the ever-loving shit out of him and making Wendy furious.

* AccidentalAesop: In some versions of the story the young maiden admires Blue Beard for being wealthy this in turn leads to the moral that being a GoldDigger can get you killed if your not lucky.

* CommonKnowledge: The Grimms brothers did ''not'' write this tale - it was actually put to text by Perrault, but was told enough that the Grimms brothers collected aversion of the tale.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: There supposedly exists a poem version of the story where Bluebeard is a regular man, the bride is very selfish, and the room is merely an empty room for Bluebeard to gather his thoughts. The bride, not being able to bear the thought of her husband keeping secrets from her, opens the room, and when Bluebeard finds out, he merely divorces her.
** This is almost certainly referring to the Edna St. Vincent Millay sonnet "Bluebeard" ([[http://www.bartleby.com/131/23.html here]]).
** There is also an absolutely hilarious [[EasternEuropeanAnimation Soviet cartoon]] called "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pVX32r6RFM The Very Blue Beard]]" in which the Bluebeard gets to tell his own side of the story to a detective. One wife was fashion obsessed, the other health obsessed, the third believed in an open relationship - well, sorry, love, that's the way it turned out.
*** In case you're wondering, [[spoiler: Brides #1 and #2 were literally TooDumbToLive, and Bride #3 did poor Bluebeard in after he caught her with another man, presumably making up the classic fairy tale to save face. He's somehow alive, however, since he is telling all this to the narrator. The obvious solution being that [[UnreliableNarrator he’s lying.]]]]

* ValuesDissonance: In some versions, the interpreted moral is "curiosity killed the cat"... because the woman provoked Bluebeard when she looked in the room and if she hadn't, she'd have been fine, you see. Never minding that living with a murderer is not known to be a safe activity to begin with.

* BrokenAesop: The moral of the story is that Bluebeard's wife should have been obedient to her husband and she would've been okay. Except that had she been obedient and not looked in the room she would never have discovered that her husband was a SerialKiller and probably would've been killed, so in this case the wife not being obedient to her husband was a very good thing.

** She was disobedient in some other way.

* FamilyUnfriendlyAesop: Some versions (including Fitcher's Bird) give the moral "It's ok to betray someone's trust as long as you aren't caught."
** Perrault ends his story with the moral that a woman sticking her nose in her husband's affairs will ruin a perfectly good marriage - even if said affairs include murdering countless women.[[note]] It should be noted, however, that Perrault might have been [[SarcasmMode being sarcastic]] here; there are other examples of him telling perfectly immoral stories with an immoral Aesop in order to cause a repulsion from the reader against the fact that this Aesop sometimes happens. The most well-known example is the fable of the Wolf and the Lamb. The Wolf decides to eat the Lamb, gives a fallacious reason for it, the Lamb is obviously right, the Wolf eats him anyway, and the Aesop given is "The law of the strongest is always the best". Yet you can bet that Perrault didn't believe a single word of that as a moral value. [[/note]]

*** In case you're wondering, [[spoiler: Brides #1 and #2 were literally TooDumbToLive, and Bride #3 did poor Bluebeard in after he caught her with another man, presumably making up the classic fairy tale to save face. He's somehow alive, however, since he is telling all this to the narrator.]]

* CompleteMonster: The titular Bluebeard seems to be at first a rich gentleman who wins the heart of a young maiden. In truth, Bluebeard is a SerialKiller who selects his victims by seducing them into marriage before cutting open their throats and hanging their bodies in his mansion. When the young maiden's curiosity leads her to find the one forbidden room in Bluebeard's mansion filled with the bodies of his previous victims, Bluebeard attempts to slaughter her as well in a fit of rage. With little motivation to couple his spree-killing aside from occasionally being depicted as greedy, the [[UrExample original incarnation]] of Bluebeard defined, and still stands as the most infamously brutal incarnation of, [[TheBluebeard one of the most terrifying modern serial killer tropes]].

** In ''The Seventh Bride'', the Bluebeard figure steals something from each of his wives--sight, voice, life, etc. While he doesn't necessarily ''intend'' to kill them, he certainly doesn't seem to care if they don't survive the process.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: The Creator/CatherineBreillat movie version has the story being recounted by two little girls. When they get to the part where the girl in the story marries Bluebeard, they argue, because they don't seem to understand what marriage entails. The younger girl at first insists that it entails the wife being cooked and eaten by the husband, then claims that it's something involving an ogress, than claims that it means that the husband and wife become homosexuals.
* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: In "Mr. Fox", the bride keeps her head even when finding her husband-to-be's TortureCellar, watching him kill another woman, and having said woman's severed hand fall in her lap. She keeps the hand, bides her time, and chooses to confront Mr. Fox about it at breakfast, when the rest of her family is with them. Instead of directly accusing him, she poses the whole scenario as a dream she had, which Mr. Fox responds with by saying he's glad it isn't true. Before he can run, she shouts that it ''is'' true, and she shows the woman's hand as evidence. And then her brothers and suitors stand up and kill Mr. Fox before he can escape.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr6a6v21TIc ...And then they had a fashion show!]]

* CompleteMonster: The [[UrExample original incarnation]] of the [[AntagonistTitle titular Bluebeard]] stands as one of the earliest examples of a vicious killer. [[FauxAffablyEvil Posing as a rich gentlemen]] to win the heart of a young maiden, Bluebeard seduces the girl into marriage. Bluebeard hands the maiden all the keys to the doors in his mansion, but warns her never to open one particular door. Inevitably, [[CuriosityIsACrapshoot the maiden's curiosity]] drives her to open the door, revealing Bluebeard as a {{serial killer}} who married many women, murdered them by [[SlashedThroat slitting their throats]], then hid their bodies in his mansion. Bluebeard finds out, and in a fit of rage, tries to kill the maiden as well before being stopped. With little motivation to couple his spree-killing aside from occasionally being depicted as {{greed}}y, Bluebeard defined, and still stands as the most brutal incarnation of, [[TheBluebeard one of the most terrifying modern serial killer tropes]].