Bluebeard - AT 312

Tales about women being saved by their brothers

The Brahman Girl That Married a Tiger (India) Tiger changes form to trick a girl

into marrying him

After the two marry, the two depart back home

Girl realizes husband’s true nature/self

Girl is saved by her brothers, and returns home

Tiger is killed, and girl builds a Tulsi tree that she sprinkles with cow dung

Tamil Proverb: “Be quiet or I shall show you my original shape”

Folktale that was collected by Georgina Wolff Kingscote and Pandit Natesa Sastri (1890)

Tamil, India

Highest Caste

Indian Caste System

Villain (Character Motif)

In this story, a Tiger, who disguises himself as a man, is the Villain

Animal depicts the villain, and not a human

Represents Indian Society where it was believed that both men and women were equal

Conventions of Style ● Story was told as a normal

folktale “In a certain village…”

● Had dialogue to express thoughts

● Main purpose was to explain the Tamil Proverb “Be quiet, or I shall show you my original shape”

● In doing this, it depicts Indian culture - specifically those of the Tamil Brahmins

○ Oil Bath -> Thalaikoothal

○ Tamil Shrub with Cow dung

Don Firriulieddudaughter follows bran to

head home

ogre tricks the daughter to follow the bran to his home

father has a son, Don Firriulieddu

three days old, saves the sister and kills the ogre, who is afraid of Don Firriulieddu

Thomas Frederick CraneAmerican folklorist, professor, and lawyer

taught French, Italian, Spanish, and medieval literature

an author for Journal of American folklore and The

Exempla

In The Exempla characterizes men and women

women are quarrelsome and don’t want to be under the men’s control

men must control to show masculinity

19th century gender roles:men work and socialize while women worked at the home

villain (character motif)ogre tricks the young girl to following the

bran to his home

feared and ran away from Don Firriulieddu

ogres’ history includes how they are easily filled with fear, have no intelligence, and therefore easily destroyed

conventions of styledialogue:

“When the ogre saw the young girl, he said, “You must be my wife.” Then she began to weep.”

submitted yet weeped

“When the child was three days old it spoke, and said, “Have you made me a cloak? Now give me a little dog and the cloak, for I must look for my sister.” “

masculinity and control characteristics

Blue-Beard

Difference from other version:

Wives7th wife

7 prayers7 brothers

Elsie Clews Parsons

Context of Style

he grabbed 'em in the basket an' run away wi' them.

Villain

=

Wives7th wife

7 prayers7 brothers

=

Object in groups make a pattern

Rescue

her seven brothers came jus' as he went to kill her. An' he ran away into

the woods, an' never been seen since.

=

The Boy and His Two Dogs by Joel Chandler Harris

1) Boy takes two fine folk (secretly wolves) to the road’s fork

2) Saved by his dogs

3) Boy goes to forest to find his lost sister

4) Finds out she was kidnaped and made a slave by a bear

5) Boy tricks the bear to stick his head in a pot of hot water

6) Bear dies

7) Girl rescued

Who is Joel Chandler Harris?-From the Post-Reconstruction Era

-After the Civil War

-America was rebuilding the South

-Believed in a “New South”

-Change southern society and attitudes

1)Slave-based economy

2)Traditions

Why Harris wrote Bluebeard?-Influenced by Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin

She “attacked the possibilities of slavery...but... painted the portrait of the Southern slave-owner, and defended him”

(Bernstein 141)

-He wanted to:

1) Attack slavery

2) Show people that Southern slave owners aren’t as evil as they were depicted in the news

The Villain (character motif)The Big Black Bear kidnaps a “milky white” girl with “yellow

hair”

-Roles reversed

-Little white girl cries = audience’s empathy

*Changing audience’s attitude toward slavery

-The bear is: 1) Polite (shakes everyone’s hand)

2) Mundane (dries his boots)

3) Innocent (just wanted to curl his hair)

*shows that slave owners aren’t always evil

Conventions of Style-Folk tales are being told to you by a black slave (Uncle Remus)

-The diction of the story makes him seem real

- Audience gets emotionally attached

*Changes audience’s attitude toward slavery

-Repeats “I reckon that’s the way the quality folk’s do.”

-emphasizes that it’s usually the rich folk who are the “wolves”

*Shows not all southern whites are evil

Uncle Remus

Reference:Wood, L. Maren. Families in colonial North Carolina. n.d. <

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-colonial/4107>.

Censer, Jane Turner. "An Introduction to the Planter Elite." North Carolina Planters and Their Children, 1800-1860. 1984. p.5.

Works Cited "Antim Samskara (The Final Phase); After Death Rituals in a Hindu Brahmin Family (3 Days Video

Documentation)." Antim Samskara (The Final Phase); After Death Rituals in a Hindu Brahmin Family (3 Days Video Documentation). Web. 26 Jan. 2016.

Bernstein, Robin. Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights. New York: New York Up, 2011. Print.

"Bluebeard – And Other Mysterious Men with Even Stranger Facial Hair (Origins of Fairy Tales from Around the World)." Google Books. Web. 26 Jan. 2016.

"Brahmin, Brahmana, Caste, Tribe, Gotra, Rishi, Ritual, India, Hindu, Religion, Mana Sanskriti (Our Culture), Issue 69." Brahmin, Brahmana, Caste, Tribe, Gotra, Rishi, Ritual, India, Hindu, Religion,

Mana Sanskriti (Our Culture), Issue 69. Web. 26 Jan. 2016.

"Hinduism Facts | Facts about Hindu Religion." Hinduism Facts Facts about Hindu Religion. Web. 26 Jan. 2016.

Magnier, Mark. "In Southern India, Relatives Sometimes Quietly Kill Their Elders." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 2013. Web. 26 Jan. 2016.

Works Cited (cont.)Tatar, Maria. The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1987. Print.

"Feminism in the 19th Century: Women's Rights, Roles, and Limits - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com." Study.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2016.

Cranes, Thomas Frederick. "Intertextual Masculinity in French Renaissance Literature." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2016.