Fairy Tales 2010

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Anatole France blurs history and reality

While the humor in the Anatole France version of "Bluebeard" is what obviously stands out to me the most, his blurring of the lines between fictional story and historical story was one of the more interesting aspects of his story. From the beginning, France starts by justifying that Bluebeard, rather than being a made-up character, actually existed, just like Napoleon. By pairing a fictional person with one who did indeed exist, France begins to play with this line of what historical accounts can be trusted and which ones are actually true. He makes fiction seem plausible.

The most memorable story he brings to life (other than Bluebeard) is that of Macbeth, which I initially thought was a strange parallel to this story. However, there are two key things in common between the two accounts. The first is the actual key, the parallel of which was briefly mentioned in class, I think. The key becomes stained with blood that Bluebeard's wife cannot wash out in the Perrault version; Lady Macbeth's famous lines of "Out damn spot!" with the invisible blood on her hands fall into this motif.

This blood problem sets up the parallel of Jeanne as Lady Macbeth, implying that both were involved in a conspiracy to kill someone who did not deserve it. France draws a line for us near the end of the story when he says Jeanne's "hallucinations must be compared with those of Lady Macbeth" (Zipes 579). But since that paragraph also discussions conspiring with lovers to kill men who stand in their way, it is implied that there are more comparisons that could be made between Lady Macbeth and Jeanne. Jeanne is cunning, malicious, enjoys sex, and is cruel to her supposedly good and faithful husband.

Again, these are all fictional characters, although France discusses them as though they existed in history. I'm not sure what to make of using Macbeth's supposed true account to make Bluebeard seem true, but overall, France's use of all types of stories as real stories was intriguing. I think since the original Bluebeard story was so un-fairy tale-like, it almost makes more sense as a real historical account than as a fictional story. Horror itself plays with the ideas of reality, and horror seems more plausible in real life than magic does. France's use of fictional stories as reality makes the reader question what he or she reads.

1 comment:

  1. I totally agree with your posting! France calls on historical documents several times in order to make his version of "Bluebeard" seem to be the most credible one, but he never actually cites them. Instead, he forges his own narrative while incorporating the names of real people who died similar deaths in history.

    I also wonder what elements of his tale are real or false. In a way, we might be overlooking the fact that his tale is just that - A TALE, a work of fiction. On the other hand, his rhetoric obscures any traces of fiction. I agree that the end result leaves the reader questioning what he or she reads.

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