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Bluebeard Gothic
Jane Eyre and Its Progeny
Heta Pyrhönen (Author)
9781442641242
Hardback, published 20 March 2010
304 pages
23.6 x 15.7 x 2.5 cm, 0.56 kg
‘Pyrhönen provides the most detailed exploration of Jane Eyre as a ‘Bluebeard’ tale to date. It is particularly stimulating that she works simultaneously in multiple directions: we learn as much about Jane Eyre’s impact on our understanding of ‘Bluebeard’ as we do about the reverse, and as much about adaptations’ influence on our understanding of Jane Eyre and Bluebeard Gothic as the reverse.’ - Terri Doughty, Brontë Studies, vol36:02:2011
'Bluebeard,' the tale of a sadistic husband who murders his wives and locks away their bodies, has inspired hundreds of adaptations since it first appeared in 1697. In Bluebeard Gothic, Heta Pyrhönen argues that Charlotte Brontë's 1847 classic Jane Eyre can be seen as one such adaptation, and that although critics have been slow to realize the connection, authors rewriting Brontë's novel have either intuitively or intentionally seized on it. Pyrhönen begins by establishing that the story of Jane Eyre is intermingled with the 'Bluebeard' tale, as young Jane moves between households, each dominated by its own Bluebeard figure. She then considers rewritings of Jane Eyre, such as Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) and Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale (2006), to examine how novelists have interpreted the status and meaning of 'Bluebeard' in Brontë's novel. Using psychoanalysis as the primary model of textual analysis, Bluebeard Gothic focuses on the conjunction of religion, sacrifice, and scapegoating to provide an original interpretation of a canonical and frequently-studied text.