Sister Anne

Sœur Anne is the name of a character of the tale the blue Beard of Charles Perrault, published with the Contes of my mother Oye in 1697.

Presentation

Anne is the first name of the sister of the young wife of the blue Beard. She intervenes at one important moment of the dramatic screen: the blue Beard is on the point of slicing the neck of his wife who disobeyed to him and asks him to go down. The latter requests with an upper floor to save time, while his/her Anne sister, perched in top of a tower, watches for the arrival of their brothers, who are long in coming to prevent the execution of the unhappy one.

The young éplorée wife lance with her sister celebrates it:

“Anne, my sister Anne, don't you see anything coming? ”

It what initially she answers:

“I do not see only the sun which poudroie, and bleaches on grass it which becomes green”.

The rhyme between poudroie and becomes green sounds like echoes in the vacuum, all the more distressing that the young woman has a need for desperate assistance. She reformulates her request thereafter twice, reinforcing the intensity of the moment.

Explanation

Poudroyer means to rise in dust. Here, dust appears in the rays of the sun.

Verdoyer , which means to become green, was not already any more of use at the time of Perrault, as notes it Jean of the Heather in the Characters ( Of some uses, 1692): “Verd does not make any more become green”.

Origin

To name his character, the author takes as a starting point Anna Perenna, sister of Didon, queen of Carthage and given up by Enée (with song IV of Énéide of Virgile). Both, or Didon only, observe top of the citadel the preparations and the departure of Enée, with the despair of in love one.

Generally, the heroes of the Tales of my mother Oye draw their name from a physical characteristic: (the Tom Thumb), of a clothing (the Little Red Riding Hood), or of their activity (Cinderella). Many are the supporting characters who remain in a certain anonymity, confined with their social and narrative function: the king, the queen… or their animal quality: the wolf

Perrault however sometimes yielded to the sound magic (Marquis de Carabas), and this manner of naming a character with a real first name is sufficiently rare to be underlined. The other sister of the tales of my mother Oye named by the author is Javotte, sister (or more exactly oldest daughter of the Marâtre) of Cinderella.

Among all the sisters of the receuil of Perrault (let us note the second sister of Cinderella and that of the girl junior in the Fairies), Sœur Anne is the only one who is not hostile with the heroin and which assists it in its tests.

Source

Charles Perrault, Tales (introduction, notes and notes of Catherine Magnien), Editions the Book of Normal ladle

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