Title: Secrets Beyond the Door: The Story of Bluebeard and His Wives Author: Maria Tatar Publisher: Princeton University Press Publish Date: 2004 Pages: 207 Genres:: Literature, Gender Studies, Women's Studies Reviewer: SexHerald Staff

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In Secrets Beyond the Door, Tatar examines in depth Charles Perrault’s 17 th century horror story/fairytale/marriage allegory of a wife who discovers the mutilated bodies of her husband’s previous wives when she disobeys his command to never unlock the door to a particular room in his home.

Over time, “Bluebeard” has become the literary equivalent of a shot heard round the world as forms of it appear in many cultures beyond its French origin. Crossing the globe from France to Greece to England and beyond, details of the story change (in the Italian version, Bluebeard is found out not by his wife, but the woman hired to do his laundry), but its powerful impact has not. Tatar shows how its themes reflect latter-day mistrust and hatred of women. Instead of being commended for the inquisitiveness which helped her escape the fate that had befallen her two sisters, Bluebeard’s wife is seemingly portrayed as a force of womanly deceit, in a way just as if not more evil than her savagely violent, murderous husband. After all, not only does she defy his wishes, she ultimately robs him of the opportunity to kill her when she is rescued by her brothers. Tatar quotes a British source using the terms ‘dangerous curiosity and justifiable homicide’ in reference to the story, an ultimate example of blaming the victim.

Introduced as part of an anthology for children, this was no ordinary fairy tale, as the illustrations from Bluebeard storybooks throughout the different eras of its publication and republication attest. While reading Tatar’s book, I began to perceive Bluebeard as a composite of all men who so deeply fear female power that the only way to quell their shaking knees is to kill them. There is a particularly chilling near-erotic excitement on the character’s faces, especially that of the stern Bluebeard warning his wife not to use the key she grasps with both hands in Gustave Dore’s version of the story. The book also contains poems inspired by Perrault’s “Bluebeard” and the authors include Edna St. Vincent Millay, Guy Wetmore Carrel, and Rose Terry Cooke.

Interestingly, Tatar parallels Bluebeardian secrecy murder and lust to Stephen King’s character little Danny in The Shining, who senses a terror beyond comprehension in his father’s slow transformation into a killer. He remembers reading the story of “Bluebeard” and compares it to his own present situation. “Bluebeard” can also be perceived as the ultimate allegory about the pitfalls of marriage and intimacy. At some point, one way or another both partners will let each other down. When Bluebeard’s final wife opens the door to the room, she drops the key into a clot of blood on the floor as she recoils in horror at the sight of the hanging corpses of his previous wives. When she retrieves it, she cannot remove the bloodstains from it despite ferocious efforts as nothing can erase the stain of duplicity. Later, feminist writings praised Bluebeard’s wife as a heroine for acting on her instincts to save her own life.

It is no small feat to make the academic entertaining and Maria Tatar has done it.