Question 2

Once again I am going to concentrate on the Grimm tales (I just found them more interesting than the other tales) However I will be making a slight detour and also looking at Thackeray's version of the Bluebeard story. Also as an aside, does anyone else find it interesting that the author of "Vanity Fair" wrote a fairy tale? I guess it makes sense though - they are both commentaries on culture and society.
Anyhow... back to the point at hand - the heroines of the Bluebeard tales. I believe in the Grimm's versions of the tale - the women are just that. Heroines. In "Fitcher's Bird" the third sister cannot be outwitted by the sorcerer. She has her suspicions about him - why on earth for instance would he want her to carry an egg as she explored her soon to be home? So she leaves the egg behind and then begins he exploration. As soon as she sees her sisters' mutilated bodies, she does not panic but begins to collect together their body parts and put them in order. She then carefully orchestrates an escape for both her and resurrected sisters. However the Grimms do make a note of differentiating between the third sister and her two older sisters. The third is described as "clever and crafty" whereas the other two were simply led astray by their curiosity... and as we all know 'curiosity killed the cat' (or in this case the sisters.)
Even in "The Robber Bridegroom," women are depicted as strong and crafty. Even though the old woman has been in the cellar for a long time, she plans to save both herself and our heroine, and carefully manipulates the robbers into doing her bidding. When the finger flies behind the hogshead she convinces them to not search there, where they would undoubtedly find the girl, saying: "Leave off looking til the morning, the finger won't run away from you." Using common sense, she saves the life of both her and the girl. The girl herself is also crafty and brave. She tells the story of the gory death of the other girl at the hands of her bridegroom, pretending all the time that she "only dreamt this." She then whips out the severed finger (which must have been disgusting to keep) to prove the truth of her tale. She saves herself from certain death.
Thackeray's version of the tale though is rather different. Fatima Bluebeard is rather foolish in my opinion, completely blinded by her love of her husband. She cannot see that he has done anything wrong - she believes that he wouldn't hurt a fly, even when her sister Anna pulls out the Bible to show her all the deaths of his previous wives.
So from these tales, it is clear that women should be crafty and clever - willing to be brave - and should not always rely on others for help. For in the Bluebeard stories, it is these women that live to tell the tale and become our heroines.