Bluebeard Symbols, Allegory and Motifs

Bluebeard Symbols, Allegory and Motifs

A closet (symbol)

The closet is a symbol of a dark past everyone tries to keep in secret from the rest of the world. Those skeletons in the closet might destroy a life, for there are some mistakes people do that are extremely difficult to improve. When Bluebeard forbids his wife to enter “that little closet”, he forbids her to pry into his past. When she enters it, she can’t see anything because “windows were shut”, the secret is highly protected. Later on, “after some moments”, she starts perceiving blood on the floor.

Blue beard (allegory)

A blue beard is an allegory of abnormality. It Is said that Bluebeard's facial hair “made him so frightfully ugly, that all the women and girls ran away from him”. This means that there is something about him that makes other people be afraid of him. The author leaves it to our imagination. One might think that his blue beard stands for cruelty, other might think that it stands for other deviations such as jealousy or dangerous addictions.

Curiosity (motif)

The narrator calls curiosity “mortal bane”, which “causes often pain and sore regret”. It is one of the main motives of the story. The young lady can’t be happy and enjoy her family life and wealth of her husband knowing that he hides something from her. So she prefers to risk her life in order to satisfy her curiosity and she almost pays for it with her own life.

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