The Bluebeard In Fitcher's Bird

“Fitcher’s Bird” differs to “Bluebeard” in several ways, the bride does not willingly marry the sorcerer but is taken captive. The bride also shows stronger characteristics as she uses her intelligence and cunning to disobey the sorcerer and escape from his house. She is able to save herself and her two sisters from a Bluebeard-like character (Grimm & Grimm, 1812a). The bride as a captive can lead the audience to interpret her circumstances in a different way. Far from being a classified as a princess in Propp’s model, the bride transforms from being a victim to the hero of her own story. The bride further violates Propp’s theory as she does not receive any magical aid, instead she uses her wits to save her sisters and trickery and disguise

Her conflict began when her father betroths her to a rich suitor (Grimm & Grimm, 1812b). She is portrayed to be cautious and suspicious of her betrothed and as we can see later in the tale, rightly so. “But the girl didn’t care for him as a girl should care for her betrothed, and she didn’t trust him. Whenever she looked at him or thought of him, her heart filled with dread” (Grimm & Grimm, 1812b, p.151). The characteristics associated with this bride are helpful for identifying her as the hero of the story, her caution and canniness led to the punishment of the villainous robber. The girl of this story shows her cleverness in subtle ways, “she filled both her pockets with peas and lentils to mark the way” instead of trusting her bridegroom’s word to follow the ashes on the path (Grimm & Grimm, 1812b, p. 151). There are several functions of Propp’s model which fall out of sequence and thus violates the theoretical framework. For example the bride returns to her home before the villain is defeated and although she fulfilled the dramatis personae of princess at start, she transforms into the hero by the end (Propp, 1968). The bride undergoes a terrifying ordeal where she witnesses the robbers murdering a beautiful young maiden. Out of this ordeal the bride comes away with the murdered maiden’s finger which she uses as

This difference between the two versions may indicate a change in the editorial decisions by the Grimm brothers (Tatar, 1999). The Grimm brothers may have intended “Fitcher’s Bird” to be aimed at a different audience with its lack of sexuality and “The Robber Bridegroom” may have been intended for a more mature audience. We can also compare the differences between the Grimm brothers and Perrault’s writing, the Grimm brothers do not use marriage as a resolution to either of their tales. The lack of reward or prize of marriage to a princess further violates Propp’s model (1968), the resolution to the story is punishment of the villain (Grimm & Grimm, 1812a, b). Instead the reward is escaping death at the hands of the bridegroom and seeing that he receives his punishment for what he has done (Grimm & Grimm, 1812a, b). Perrault’s tales have a primary goal of marriage or some recognition of success, he uses marriage as a resolution to his narrative almost as a compensation to the bride for the horrors she has experienced (Perrault, 1697). This could lead to different interpretations of the portrayal of the bride’s relationships, the Grimm brothers end their tales with the brides going back to their families. This may also be