Comparing The Bridegroom And The Forbidden Room

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Through different versions of the Bluebeard tale, men and their abusive acts enforce a dangerous patriarchal society system. Such stories like “Bluebeard” written by Charles Perrault, “The Robber Bridegroom” by Brothers Grimm and “The Forbidden Room” from Joseph Jacobs, prove the unpleasant consequences of curiosity and suggest women to follow the obedience of a patriarch.
Passivity in fairy tales is the most valued trait a woman can obtain in life. Perrault’s “Bluebeard” features disempowered women such as the Bluebeard’s wife, the corpses of his previous wives and his wife’s sister. Once the bride’s brother rescues her, she is immediately reincorporated into the dominant order with another marriage that closes the fairy tale. This act reveals …show more content…

A beautiful girl named Mary Bell married to a man that “all over was gold” (Jacob 203), who owned a horse named Sixty-Miles. The male figure is dominant and they play a large part in triggering the women’s curiosity such as in the way Mary’s husband gave her “a bunch of keys and take her around to all the room” (Jacob 203) inside his house. He then warned her that she “can open all the room except one room” (Jacob 203) and he would kill her if she decided to not obey.. Mary Bell did was curious and so after opened the locked door, she was scared and “began to mourn” (Jacob 203). This illuminated the lack of power and choice that women have over choosing between life and death as a punishment for their violation to men’s rules. Not only this, Mary Bell alone in “The Forbidden Room” or other women as a whole are the ones being illustrated as those who does not have the power and ability to keep secrets. And the fact that Mary’s husband directly gave the key to his wife can somehow implies that he was planning on trapping and killing her. As a result, the inequality between genders in a society and the societal power given to those who are unfit of it will threaten the safety of the inferior …show more content…

The use of transformational power of speech has helped the bride and other women who were the objects of desire to strive forward to find their own voices. The Robber Bridegroom begins with “a miller who had a beautiful daughter” (Grimm 196) and his decision of arranging her a marriage with a wealthy man. The suitor he was looking for his daughter “seemed to be rich” (Grimm 196) and so the miller “could find nothing wrong with him” (Grimm 196). It turns out that the daughter’s betrothed is a murderer and practices cannibalism. From the beginning, the bride “didn’t trust him” (Grimm 197), her “heart filled with dread” (Grimm 197) and rejected his invitation to visit his house in the forest by making excuses. When she was forced to visit her future husband’s place, the bride makes her escape with the ring from the dead body as a powerful evident to tell everyone, especially her father. The miller’s daughter was smart when considered using her voice to present her testimony from the perspective of recalling a dream she had at the wedding ceremony. This exemplifies the way in which the patriarchal societies attempt to silence women, which in this case is the bride, and how women turned to storytelling to overcome the subjugation they’re facing with. The bride’s dream-like story in this tale indicate the

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