Bluebeard First Impression

When looking over the sylabus this first day I knew every story we were going to study except for the story of Bluebeard. I has never even heard of the tale before so I was at a loss as to what it could be about. After reading it I am not really surprised I have never heard it before because it is certainly not something we would deem as "child friendly." It was interesting to read something so violent and then remember it is supposed to be a fairy tale but when we think of fairy tales we don't really think of exessive violence or fear. It was interesting however for the first time this semester to read a tale without already having a story or picture in my head. All the other tales have almost had a kind of bias as we remember them in a very particular way, often a Disney way. So reading a story with no prior knowledge was interesting and left me more open and receptive to alternative versions than I think I might have been to the non-Disney versions of the other tales. The violence in Bluebeard is quite startling in contrast with the other tales and seems almost like a scare tactic to the readers. The images presented reminded me not of a fairy tale but of a modern crime investigation show. We have taken the violence of tales and turned it into television entertainment.