Blue Beard written by Charles Perrault is one of my favourite tales, because it makes you think about relationships between people. One can say that it’s not a fairy tale for children but for adults.

So, what was Bluebeard's secret? Why did he kill his wives? How did it all begin and why did it finish that way? After all, the tale ends with a not quite traditional «and they lived happily ever after». The main character is killed, his surviving wife becomes a rich widow and remarries (in her new home she must forget all the horrors of her past family life). So, what was hidden in the locked room? What secrets were kept there? There are many theories and opinions on this subject. There is also the theme of psychic trauma, deeply buried, hidden from human eyes and locked. The theme of hiding one's powerlessness. There are associations with the Greek myth of Pandora. Biblical themes of Adam and Eve. Really, there's a lot of stuff, for all tastes.

But what if there is no secret? That's right, the secret is that there is no secret, and never was. Bluebeard believes he has supremacy and power over the woman. There is something mysterious, incomprehensible, known only to him and locked in a room. It is a secret, the possession of which gives him power over others (especially his wife). To assert his power, he tests the woman for obedience, but makes a mistake. His miscalculation is monstrous. Finally, the first wife opens the room and finds it empty, completely empty. There is nothing, no secret. Domination is only a mirage, an illusion; the emptiness of the room proves it. A profound realization arrives that all grounds for a sense of superiority are wrong. Bluebeard cannot come to terms with this. The emptiness of the room becomes a trigger and a call to action. The action happens. The room fills with death and with murder. The door slams shut with a noise. A change takes place, but in essence everything remains as it was. Bluebeard has no power to control, to dominate, no real grounds for superiority...another wife turns the key in the keyhole... At the end, the hero dies because he miscalculated his powers. Times are changing, and attitudes toward women must change. What is the tale about? What a mysterious code is hidden in it?

We can summarize that «Bluebeard» is a story about a man's thirst for power and an unreasonable sense of superiority, a story about a man's anxieties, the fear of losing his dominant position...and the inevitable changes, about a change of perspective on the role of women in family, male life and society or the theme of male vulnerability, helplessness...He defended as best he could, but did not survive...

Anastasia Shinkevich