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Author
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Comment
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jess
Unregistered User
(1/10/03 8:17:57 pm)
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Curiosity tales revisited
I was wondering about curiosity tales with men as the victims of curiosity. I noticed when reading the Arabian Nights that there were a number of stories where the male hero is forbidden from opening the door. Often the stories have the man living in a paradise which disappears upon opening the door. This seems very similar to the Blue Beard tales. Generally, the male seems to resist his curiosity for a period of years before succumbing. Has anyone who as looked at the Blue Beard/Fitcher's Bird tales compared these stories to those? Are they really variants of the same stories? Are there any modern retellings?
Jess
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Yellow
McMaggie
Registered User
(1/11/03 1:55:24 am)
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Curiosity Tales
Ah! I've been working with tales of curiosity and you've just perfectly
touched upon my topic. I've been working with the Bluebeard/Fitcher's
Bride tales and for a while I have dove into the depths of male
curiosity (Melusine, an Arabian Nights tale- the title of which
escapes me, and so on....), in which I have also found the same
similarities/ dissimilarities that you describe. I've been working
with male vs. female curiosity for the past year! Eventually, I'll
be glad to share my findings, once I find out more myself. Now it
is on to more reading and archival work for me to do.....)
Katie
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Jess
Unregistered User
(1/11/03 9:23:33 am)
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OOh
Please share when you are ready! I find it very interesting that curiosity seems to be a virtue/vice that appears to be mostly attributed to women in Western tales, but to men in the Arabic ones. Are there cultural differences afoot or am I just "unaware"? I have always loved these stories from the time I first read about Pandora.
Just curious,
Jess
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Ys
Unregistered User
(1/11/03 11:10:09 am)
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On example of male curiosity in Western tales
As Katie mentionned it, the tale of Melusine is a good example of male curiosity, set in France if I remember well.
To resume it briefly, a young man met a girl in the forest and she helped him and they got married at the condition that he wuold never try to see her on saturdays. He agreed and they lived happily for several years, having children, etc. Finally his curiosity gave way and he opened the door of his wife's room on a saturday and saw her as a half-woman, half-snake. Hurt by his betrayal, she felt by the window and was never to be seen again. I think he spent the rest of his life looking for her, but I'm not sure.
Hope it helps
Ys
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Yellow
McMaggie
Registered User
(1/11/03 2:06:16 pm)
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The Third Calander!!
I've just remembered the Arabian tale that I was trying to think of in my previous post! story of the Third Calendar - story of a kind's son who spends 40 days in a castle with 40 women, and he is not to open the forbidden chamber - the Golden Door. However, when he does open the door, his right eye is knocked out by the tail of a Pegasus. He then goes forth clad in a Calendar's habit (like a monk/ recluse/ repenter?!)
I also just remembered another tale of male curiosity that I have been working with. The myth of Orpheus and Eurodyce. Orpheus descends into to Hades to get his wife, Eurodyce, back, and is told that if he turns around to look at her before he is above ground, he will lose her forever. Which of course happens because he cannot withstand his curiosity.
And then there is the Grimm's tale "Faithful Johannes" about a servant who promises a dying king that he will ensure that the king's son does not see into the Forbidden Chamber (ah, reminds me of Bluebeard!) but of curiosity comes in to play, and he opens the chamber door. Inside however, he finds the portrait of a beautiful princess and he immediately falls ill (love sickness). In the end he wins the princess over and lives happily ever after following a series of trials and tribulations.
These are just some of the tales that I know of at the moment, but I'll try to write more on this topic later.
Katie
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