Some of the More Graphic Fairy Tales

Because we usually think of fairy tales as stories for children, we are usually shocked when we discover that some fairy tales, especially old ones, can be especially graphic in their depictions of violence. This week, I read the tales "The Juniper Tree" and "Bluebeard." Although these were popular at the time that they were first told, they are not well-known fairy tales today, and are no widely-adopted. I will first summarize these texts and then explain why I think they are not widely adopted in today's society. 

Summary of Bluebeard: 

Bluebeard is rich and powerful but has a blue beard that makes him look ugly. However, he is rich and powerful, and so has had several wives, though they all disappeared for some reason. In any case, he marries a new wife and gives her keys to all his rooms while he goes out on a business trip. He tells his wife that she can do anything except open one specific door. She, of course, opens the door. To her horror, she finds the bodies of all of Bluebeard's other wives. In this horror, she drops the key onto the floor into a pool of blood; she tries to clean the key but fails to do so since it's enchanted. When Bluebeard returns, he notices that she disobeyed him, and tells her that she is going to die. The wife cleverly begs for some time and delays her death; just as Bluebeard is about to kill her, the wife's brothers rush in and cuts down Bluebeard. 

Summary of The Juniper Tree: 

A wealthy couple is pious and prays to God every day. One day, the wife cuts her finger under a Juniper Tree while peeling an apple, and this leads them to conceive of a boy who is very pretty; the mother, expectedly, dies in childbirth and the boy, expectedly, gets an abusive step-mother. The evil step-mother, unexpectedly, manages to actually kill the boy in an efficient manner, by depreciating him while he reaches inside a chest for an apple. She sets up the body of the boy and puts a scarf around her neck. Her daughter tries to talk to the boy; since he is irresponsive, she slaps him and his head falls - she is traumatized. The step-mother cooks up the boy in a blood pudding and serves it to the father who eats all of it. The daughter takes the bones leftover and buries it under the Juniper Tree. The bird, with his beautiful voice, convinces a goldsmith to give him a gold chain and a shoesmith to give him a pair of red shoes which the bird then gives to his father and step-sister respectively. The step-mother walks out of the house, and the Bird drops a millstone on her head - killing her. The bird transforms into the son, and reunites with his family.  

Why haven't these stories been taken up by movie/TV adaptations? 

A common element between the two stories that may have prevented their adaptation into our modern culture is how bloody and graphic they are. While many of today's fairy tales such as Cinderella and Snow White have graphic and bloody elements, these elements are easily removed since they are usually not integral to the story. This is not the case for Bluebeard and for the Juniper Tree, where death and cruelty are central to the tales.

In the more specific case of Bluebeard, we also see that the institution of marriage is framed in a much more different light than it is framed in the stories that are popularized today. In particular, marriage is framed as an institution where the wife is unequal to the husband and is constantly threatened physically and psychologically. Although this contradicts the ideal of marriage, it may not necessarily be an inaccurate depiction of marriage for some families in a time where the rule of law was not well-established, and where gender roles are much more rigid.

In the case of the Juniper Tree, even more social taboos are broken: filicide, cannibalism, and child abuse are very risky ideas to explore, and most parents probably will not find these themes fitting for children. However, we can also turn this idea on its head, and argue that the repetition of non-child-friendly themes is in fact evidence that fairy tales are not necessarily only for children. 

In this sense, I think it's fair to argue that these fairy tales are not popular today not because they are somehow bad, but simply because our society is not structured for them to spread. Using the analogy of evolution by natural selection, one can say that the two aforementioned fairy tales are not a good fit for the environment of our society, though they may have been a few centuries ago.