French Fairy Tales: A Jungian Approach

Chapter 3. Mme d’Aulnoy’s The Bluebird—Metamorphosis, an Unconscious Readjustment

CHAPTER 3 Mme d’Aulnoy’s The Bluebird Metamorphosis, An Unconscious Readjustment FAR FROM UNEVENTFUL, the daily existence of Mme d’Aulnoy (l650[1]–1705) was interwoven with drama and mystery. Her pulsating psyche led her to penetrate both the light and shadow sides of human nature. So sensitive was her understanding of a person’s capacity for suffering, loving, and hating, and so perceptive was she of hidden jealousies, rancors, and unrealized cruelties, and their opposites, kindnesses and consideration for others, that her fairy tales, The Bluebird in particular, live on as human documents of the soul. ECTYPAL ANALYSIS Of noble birth, the beautiful, curly-haired, blonde Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, was a native of Normandy. Following the death of her father, her mother, Judith-Angélique, remarried a Marquis Gudane, about whom no information has thus far become available. In 1666, in cahoots with her lover, Courboyer, Mme Gudane married off her fifteen- or sixteen year-old daughter to the ostensibly rich François de la Motte, baron d’Aulnoy. From the outset, this man had two strikes against him: forty-six years of age, he was three times older than his wife, and as for his character, he was unpleasant , debauched, and impetuous. Despite her dislike for her husband, Mme 107 d’Aulnoy gave birth to six children; the first two of which died shortly after birth ( the last two, it was presumed, had not been fathered by her husband). The ostensibly wealthy baron d’Aulnoy, who had either lost all of his money or had never had any to begin with, was faced with mounting debts. Cloakand -dagger episodes soon followed. Accused of the crime of lèse majesté whether by his wife, his mother-in-law, and/or “two friends” remains unknown , he was imprisoned. Thanks to his connections, he easily worked his way out of what he and his lawyers proved to be trumped-up charges. Following his release, the “two friends,” were sent to the Bastille. Under torture , they confessed that Mme Gudane, who had grown to despise the baron, had hatched the plot, and the two were executed in l669 (Barchilon, Le conte merveilleux français 1690–1790 37–51). Facts concerning Mme d’Aulnoy’s implication in this scandalous affair are sparse, and whether she had participated in the conspiracy against him is unclear. We know only that she was separated from her husband in 1670. Whether she felt any guilt for the deaths of the two culprits who were executed is questionable. Nor are we certain as to whether she had been arrested for complicity in the lèse majesté accusation. If so, her important connections must have been used to effect her release without trial. By contrast, so great was Mme Gudane’s fear of imprisonment that she, apparently left for Spain never to return. Did her daughter join her mother in Madrid? Did she then venture to England, as some critics have suggested? We know only that, upon Mme d’Aulnoy’s return to Paris in 1690, she took up residence in a convent, her only possibility for obtaining permission to live in the capital. The remaining years of her life were spent writing and enjoying the company of literary friends. After 1692, she became a regular member of Mme de Lambert’s literary salon which included Mlle de La Force, l’abbé de Choisy, and Fénelon. The many topics broached during their Wednesday meetings, encouraged oral presentations of fairy tales (Barchilon). That Mme d’Aulnoy was drawn to the fairy tale genre is evident in her first work, Hippolytus Earl of Douglas (1690), well known for its provocative theme of incest. Her following literary ventures touched on Spain, a very fashionable country at the time: Memoirs of the Court of Spain (1690) and Travels into Spain (1691). In keeping with the heavily religious tenor and supplicant mood of the times—one of the consequences of Louis XIV’s marriage to the ultra-“devout” Mme de Maintenon—our author also dipped into devotional literature, as attested to in Sentiments of a Penitent Soul (1691) and A Soul’s Return to God (1692). Another vein was struck with the publication of her Memoirs of the Court of England (1695). But it was her Tales of the Fairies in Three Parts (1697–1698) and her New Tales or Fairies in Fashion (1698) that earned her lasting acclaim and admiration. 108 FRENCH FAIRY TALES [3.145.60.166...