Bluebeard is certainly one of the more interesting fairy tales to have emerged. Common themes are an ambiguous villain, coupled with a heroine that is assertive, yet not at the same time. The tale has the same story overall, in most adaptations, but some take of it are more interesting than others. First off, all three contain an interesting villain, probably one of the better-developed ones, as he isn’t just “evil” like most fairy tale villains are. He actually has an element of cunning and trickery to his personality and the way in which he secures victims by temping their curiosity. In each adaptation of the tale, he gives his newest wife a key to a forbidden room and then travels away to see if they’ll break in or not. However, this standard method Bluebeard uses and the development of Bluebeard himself was different in three prominent adaptations: the film Barbe Bleu, the original Grimm tale, and then the tale by Charles Perrault. 

In the original Grimm tale, which is the farthest removed from other adaptations, has several differences. First of all, Bluebeard wasn’t even named Bluebeard. He was just referred to as The Sorcerer. He also tricked a group of sisters, two of them succumbing, but the third one saving them by assembling their bodies from the parts that Bluebeard chopped up. Not only this, but the heroine also tricks him into taking her sisters back to their parent’s house and giving over lots of his own gold. But before this, when Bluebeard was initially handing his wife the key to the forbidden room, he also gave her an egg to hold and carry with her everywhere. He did not want the egg to be broken at all, for if they did, then he would be angry.

The Charles Perrault version is actually called “Bluebeard” unlike the Grimm version which goes by a different name. Unlike in the Grimm tale, Bluebeard wasn’t an actual sorcerer, nor did he possess magic beyond a bewitched key, which if it got stained with blood, could never be cleaned. After he tricked her, he wanted to kill her, but she kept stalling long enough that her brothers came and impaled him to death, thus saving her. He also only attempted to trick one gal in this tale rather than three.

Barbe Bleu is very similar to the Perrault version of the tale. It is basically a movie adaptation and a more developed version. In this tale, there are two sisters, both of whom live a poor life after their father passes away. Bluebeard is a wealthy lord who is known for marrying women who suddenly disappear, but one of the daughters marries him anyway. She lives a relatively good life with him until Bluebeard tricks her in a similar way, eventually causing him to want to kill her. However, instead of knights running him through, chose to behead Bluebeard instead, thus saving the wife from death. She also stalls him in killing her, which helps the knights arrive in time to behead him. She is later saved, as she was trapped by Bluebeard before.

All in all, I like the movie version of the tale, as it is the most developed and story-like. The wife of Bluebeard has an almost fully-fledged backstory and actually has a personality beyond just cunning. Usually, movie adaptations of tales are more advanced than the original fairy tales they’re based off of, and this is very true for Barbe Bleu, which is why I like it best out of all the adaptations of the tale.