Blue Beard Charles Perraults story Blue Beard contains many symbols and motives that can only be understood within the context of Freudian theory. We can define it as the tale of sexual frustration, affected by psychological deviation, on the part of Blue Beard. The reason why he killed his previous wives was that he thrived to achieve a complete control over their lives and it proved to be impossible. You went into the closet, did you not? Very well, madam; you shall go back, and take your place among the ladies you saw there says Blue Beard and it reveals him as person who is clearly obsessed with exercising his power over others. It appears that marriage is viewed by Blue Beard as the ultimate mean of fixing his reputation but he does not think of it as the legal agreement between man and wife, which is associated with various rights and responsibilities, on the part of spouses. He is convinced that his wives need to adore him, in order to become completely submissive. Wifes submission, in its turn, for Blue Beard is something that strengthens his value as individual, this is why he is so committed to achieving it.
Thus, we can say that Blue Beard views people only within the context of their social roles, which portrays him as individual who is susceptible to developing mental disorders. Blue Beard thinks of his wife as commodity that has no soul, which explains why he has no regrets about his intention to kill her. Perraults famous character cannot be described as cruel either he simply exists in the system of ethical coordinates that is different from everybody elses. When we apply Freudian analysis to Perraults story, we will come to conclusion that Blue Beard was possessed by his sensual desires, without being able to admit it to himself. He needed a legitimate reason to kill his wives; this is why he would tell them about secret room, while knowing perfectly well that womens curiosity will eventually cause them to open it: And this is the master key to all my apartments. But as for this little one here, it is the key to the closet at the end of the great hall on the ground floor. Open them all; go into each and every one of them, except that little closet, which I forbid you, and forbid it in such a manner that, if you happen to open it, you may expect my just anger and resentment. Therefore, we can say that Blue Beard is an individual with overdeveloped sense of his own ego.
The Homework on There Is a Monster in My Closet
Once upon time there was a little boy named Matt. He was 8 years old. He was upstairs in his room doing his homework at 10:00 o’clock at night. He heard a knock on the door to his closet. He opened the door and a monster came out. The monster was big, black, green and hairy. The monster tried to eat Matt. Matt got away. Matt ran out of his room closing and locking the door behind him. He ran to ...
This is why he remains unmoved, while listening to his wifes pleas for forgiveness. For Blue Beard, only his own life has a value, which explains his ability to victimize his wives, without having any hard feelings towards them. Married life is unimaginable for Blue Beard, for as long he is not completely sure that his wife is fully subjected to him. Apparently, it is a feeling of power alone that Blue Beard associates with sexual satisfaction. In its turn, this points out to the fact that he is mentally deprived individual, who represents a great danger to society. From the context of Perraults story, we can conclude that Blue Beards act is defined by mostly subconscious factors. In other words, Blue Beard is simply incapable of understanding his own essence, while relying on logic.
For him, his antisocial behavior makes perfectly good sense, because he views it as the appropriate way to address wifes deceitfulness. However, Blue Beard does not realize that subconsciously, he wants to be lied to, as it gives him a legitimate reason to become sexually aroused, while punishing disloyal wife. It might very well be the case that Perraults story describes the first serial killer in modern history. What gives us the right to suggest it is the fact that Blue Beard clearly tries to distance himself from emotional aspects of his crimes. This betrays him as being both cruel and cowardly individual, who is not ready to assume the responsibility for his actions. In his story, author does not make any suggestions to as whether Blue Beard is affected by sexual perversion of any kind.
The Essay on Symbolization in Sonny’s Blues Short Story
Sonny’s Blues is a famous short story written by James Baldwin. The story tells about the brotherhood between 2 black-men siblings – an elder brother and his younger brother named Sonny. Sonny wanted to be a musician but his brother disagreed with him, the conflicts between them and his unableness to reach his dream to become a musician led Sonny to start using heroin. In Sonny’s Blues, there are ...
However, it is not too hard to come to this conclusion, while reading it. In fact, Blue beard can be described as latent sadomasochist, because he takes pleasure in experiencing emotional pain and also in inflicting pain on others. The reason why Perrault mentions Blue Beards abnormal physical appearance numerous times, throughout his story, is to emphasize the mental abnormality of storys main character as well: This man was so unlucky as to have a blue beard, which made him so frightfully ugly that all the women and girls ran away from him. In other words, author clearly associates physical appearance with metaphysical essence, on the part of Blue Beard. This suggests that the key to Blue Beards abnormality lays rather in the field of psychiatry then psychology. It is not by pure accident that Perrault attaches such an importance to the key that opens secret door. This key symbolizes a psychological trigger, which opens a door into dark depths of Blue Beards unconsciousness.
Even though that Blue Beards obsession with protecting the secret of mysterious room might be thought of as something that does not pose immediate danger, it is not quite the case. His mental abnormality has a potential of developing into something frightening. This is exactly why the blood could not be wiped off the key to secret room. Author wanted to show that there could be no happy end in his story, without the involvement of a third party. Even though that it is omitted in the story, we can conclude that Blue Beard suffered from sexual frustration, which intensified, as time went by. Being unable to enjoy conventional pleasures that we associate with sex, Blue Beard developed an unhealthy fixation on killing people, as something that provided him with sensual thrill.
We can say that Blue Beard was trying to compensate for his lack of psychological adequateness with the mean of subjecting people to his whims. In its turn, it also suggests that Blue Beard was probably also suffering from split personality syndrome. This is the reason why he was capable of acting in entirely different manners, under different sets of circumstances. Nowadays, Blue Beard could have a good chance of escaping justice in the court, because he possesses psychological traits that suggest that he is incapable of understanding difference between subjective and objective realities..
The Essay on Examine the Concepts of Normality and Abnormality
Abnormality may be defined as behavior that causes distress, loss of freedom, physical or emotional pain, and increased risk of death or injury to self or something that causes a disability of some sort. Abnormal behaviour is however difficult to diagnose because it is, to a large extent, based on the symptoms people exhibit. Psychiatrists and psychologists use a standardized system called a ...
