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An Analysis of The Blue Bird(L'Oiseau Bleu) play, Maurice Maeterlinck, 1908

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DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.24620.62086

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 Università della Calabria
DAMS. Cinema, fotografia e performance

"In Search of Happiness"

An analysis of Blue Bird (L'Oiseau bleu) play, Maurice Maeterlinck, 1908

By: Hana Javadi Nejad

Supervisor:

Felice Cimatti

2020

Introduction

1
The Blue Bird (L'Oiseau bleu) is a play by Belgian poet and playwright Maurice Maeterlinck (29
August 1862 - 6 May 1949) [1], first performed at the Moscow Art Theater on 30th September
1908. Maurice Maeterlinck has followed the style of symbolism 1 in his writing style, and in all of
his books. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, mainly because of his dramatic
Literature works, with the combination of imagination, poetic fancy, which reveals, in a mysterious
way, a profound inspiration to his readers [2].

The Blue Bird Drama

Blue Bird Drama is one of the most prominent examples of symbolic stories. The story is a tale
about life that is delicately arranged like real life from the past to the future, and this storyline
makes it easy to get a sense of it [3].

Although the character of the symbolic stories is that for each reader, the concept is based on their
level of perception, which means everyone might understand differently. However, the main
purpose of the play is to answer a question. What are happiness and luck? And there is no absolute
happiness. What makes this play worthwhile is an in-depth look with a simple expression that with
the help of symbols, can express such a profound meaning in a simple language.

The story happened in the sleep of two kids and begins beautifully with two regrets. The regret of
a sick and miserable girl for having a bird since she sees Tyltyl and Mittel are very happy beside
their bird in the neighboring house and continue with regret of Tyltyl and Mittel by watching a
party at another adjacent home, and show the audience the most straightforward kind of regrets,
health, food and happiness. In both cases, the play shows selfishness and neglect that exist in
humans to the audience, since in the first case, Tyltyl and Mittel refused to give the bird to their
sick neighbor and in the second, the wealthy neighbor declined to share the celebration.

It creates one question in our minds at the start. Is happiness exist in the neighbor house, which is
celebrating and dancing? In addition, the children who think their wealthy neighbor is happy by a
simple look, are without happiness? Only a few moments later, the fairy in the story answers these
questions. And the answer is:

“It is exactly the same, only you can’t see,”

The goal might be to show that you cannot see the whole truth with your own eyes always, and
sometimes you must look into the world beyond ordinary sight and by the third eye so that you
can see and understand correctly.

1
Symbolism meaning in Cambridge dictionary: “a type of art and literature developed in the late 19th century that
tries to express ideas or states of mind rather than represent the real world, using the power of words and images” or
“the use of symbols to represent ideas or the meaning of something as a symbol” [4].

2
The hypothesis of the story supported by the fairy tale in the form of an ugly and old lady, telling
them I am a beautiful and young angel but you cannot see my reality with your own eyes, and you
see the whole world wrongly as you see me in this ugly shape.

The fairy tale asks them to pursue the blue bird for the neighbor girl that feels happiness with
having that bird. In this regard, to search for blue bird (happiness), the fairy tale gives the kids a
hat with a diamond on the top to illustrate that it could provide the child the ability to see the truth
and spirit of the world. Maeterlinck is well aware of choosing the device that empowers children
that the hat is a symbol of head safety and its content (pointing to the mind) and diamonds are the
most valuable jewel and hardest material in our world and a symbol of wealth and invincibility.
Therefore, kids are equipped with a combination of the power to see the truth while being safe
from the spirit of the world. Because in the rest of the story, we see that all facts are not beautiful,
like the fairy-tale spirit, but some might be ugly and horrible. Thus, finding the truth not only
requires courage but also the ability to face it and need to be strong.

Just after achieving the ability to see the truth and spirit of the world (opening of the third eyes of
kids) using the magic diamond on the hat, her beautiful spirit and truth appear and prove the
hypothesis to the child. How we look around us can change our definition of happiness, and this
is the modern view of ethics expressed in the form of relativism, showing that the meaning of this
story represents beyond a classical linear narrative.

One of the interesting points in this story is to see the spirit of animals, objects and all that are
involved in human life, such as the spirit of fear, the spirit of darkness, etc. However, the one spirit
that played a leading role in the journey of these children is the spirit of light, a symbol of
consciousness and guidance. Nevertheless, even in parts of the journey, we see that light only plays
an advisory role and leaves children alone during the new travel experiences. On the one hand, it
shows the central role of man in choosing and dealing with life issues, and on the other hand, it
shows the existence of light sprit sometimes might be more harmful than useful. For example,
when those kids are going to search the blue bird for happiness, the dialogue of light is
contemplative:

“I can not go into the joy like this: most of them endure me. But I have here the
thick veil with which I cover myself when I visit happy people. Not a ray of my you!
Must startle them for there are meny Happinesses that are afraid and are not
happy.”

A journey from past to future to find the happiness

The first step (Land of past and memories): The start of the journey begins in the past with their
memories of grandparents. Somewhere that comes to the reality in our minds, as when children

3
remind their grandparents and even their previous bird, all are present in their minds. However,
without the magic diamond on the hat seeing the exact view was not possible and the truth that
they are still alive with the same shape at the moment of the die and with all their weaknesses and
pains in our minds. The critical thing that exists in the land of memory is time that stopped and
therefore nothing changes, even any new illness or death. In fact, their grandparents were stopped
in the past time with all their abilities, without a sense of joy and unhappiness. It shows the view
of Maeterlinck about past and memories, which means happiness cannot be achieved by remaining
in the past memories, and staying in the past will stop the life of alive people since living meaning
by time. The same mistake that the kids did and were looking for a blue bird from the past, and the
blue bird from the past changed to black in the current time. Perhaps the writer wants to say, if you
do not leave the past behind and continue with the past memories, it will lose its color and in results
the meaning.

The second step (land of darkness and fear): The new part of the journey is searching for
happiness in the land of darkness. Darkness at the heart of the Dark Palace is a symbol of our fears
and disabilities that expressed in an infinitely beautiful allegory2 without any complexity. Finding
many birds that in the light of the moonlight, each of them seems to a blue bird it might be an
allegory of little knowledge and closed view (happiness under the moonlight), but all of those birds
die under the sunlight (more in-depth knowledge and perspective). Although the full meaning of
the play in this part can be understood by an analysis of the lifestyle, contemporary events, etc.,
but shows some traces of falsifiability theory. In addition, the darkness continues in a dark forest
where trees and animals there are against humans since their generation is in danger by the
destruction of humans. Therefore the child needs to fight with trees in order to survive and achieve
happiness, an allegory of life and the efforts during a lifetime for happiness.

The third step (land of wealth and luxuries): a journey to the land of wealth, where all kinds of
luxuries exist there and explained as below:

“luxury of doing nothing, luxury of sleeping more than necessary, luxury of knowing nothing,
luxury of understanding and many other Luxuries.”

They see the luxury people are tired of all of the surplus things. However, in the land of wealth,
there is another luxury, the joy of maternal love and it appears in the form of their mother, telling
them with the love and kiss of children she will be more beautiful, younger and brighter. It shows,
the motherly love (mother) is one of our wealth but usually, we forget about that and just looking
for other luxuries, but even the meaning of happiness is more since they did not find the blue bird
in the land of wealth.

2
Allegory Meaning in Cambridge dictionary: “a story, play, poem, picture, or other work in which the characters and
events represent particular qualities or ideas that relate to morals, religion, or politics,” [5].

4
The fourth step (land of death): The new part of the journey happens in the cemetery. The child
enters the cemetery to find the blue bird and rotate the magic diamond of the hat. However, instead
of facing death people, the cemetery environment changes to paradise. In this regard, the reason
which the author chose the cemetery as a place to look for a blue bird appears since the fears of
death changed to paradise. However, they did not find the bird of happiness for the current world
even there. Maybe the purpose of the writer is that life after death is in another world, and therefore,
the blue bird from there cannot bring happiness for the current time and current life.

The fifth step (The land of the future): The land of the future is the most ideal part of the story
to find happiness, where everything is blue and the blue kids are waiting to be born and might be
to build a better world. The reason why even the future born children are blue might be the chosen
color for happiness that is blue and in the form of blue bird.

“Tyltyl: why do they call us the little live children?

Light: because they themselves are not alive yet…
Tyltyl: what are they doing then?
Light: what are awaiting the hour of their birth?”

However, it shows that all souls of the future human being must have a reason to be born, and the
positive and negative of that is not important. It might be because both good and bad, health and
sickness, death and misery created by the human that future babies will also be part of that.

“Time: nothing at all, empty handed? Then you can not go through .. prepare something, a great
crime, if you like or a fine sickness, I don’t care , but you must have something for go to world.”

It seems that this part is an allegory to the deterministic destiny of humans which means all of us
are condemned to be born and live regardless of our will and do the things that may not want just
by the force of time.

“Time: that is not the question… when the hour comes, it comes. you can not choose…
The child: we cant pick and choose the time for go to world.”

In results, even in the future, they cannot find the blue bird of happiness.

The final step (current time): the journey of the kids finished and they are upset sine returned to
their house by empty-handed and without a blue bid. However, when they wake up in the morning
with the light of their mother's voice and glance around, their view to life is changed and they see
everything as they find out in their dream. They can see now the truth of the things through
watching their soul, and that makes them happy. At this moment, they find happiness in their house
at the current time (not even the past and neither future). In addition, they find out their own bird
is also a blue bird, and they give that to the neighbor sick little girl.

5
Results and discussion:
As the analysis of the play shows, it is full of symbolic views and allegories and tried to explain
the whole process during life to find maybe the meaning of life in the back of happiness. As it is
evident throughout the play, the author's view to happiness is a philosophical one. That we as
humans always try and work to achieve happiness and in an ordinary way. We walk into our
memories that not exist anymore, we face to fears and illnesses with its darkness and sorrows, we
look for wealth and luxury, we fight to the nature, sometimes even destroy it, and sometimes to
the world of the death, we also search the happiness in the future by our wishes and dreams the
place that not born yet. Finally, by directing the light, which is a metaphor and symbol of superior
consciousness, we find that happiness is not those, and happiness might exist in the current time if
we look for it with another view. Treatment of the little girl in the neighborhood house with the
blue bird of those kids indicates that the happiness of others might be by the things we already
have and not counting as happiness.

One of the critical philosophical points other than the meaning of happiness in this play might be
the difference between humans and animals. The writer put the human and animal together in one
scenario and accompany them on this journey by purpose to simply demonstrate the difference
between human and animal existence. A journey that in the eyes of readers, is a philosophical
journey to gain an awareness of happiness that is only understandable and desirable to humans and
is essentially incomprehensible to animals, and therefore the animals are going to this journey
against their willingness. The proof of this could be the end of the journey for animals that is death
and destruction, and that there is no other purpose for them at the end.

“The cat: what is going to happen in the end of journey? Is there any
danger?”
“The fairy: well, I am bound to tell you the truth; all those who accompany
the two children will die at the journey.”

After this, the cat tries to refuse from the journey but the dog says:

“I wait to go with little God!”

This aspect of the play shows that animals are only alive and immanent, and that means they are
not transcendent like humans whose lives are with inherent transcendence.

It seems that Maeterlinck wanted to tell his readers that our happiness depends on our views and
our desires. An example of the symbols expressing this hypothesis is well evident in the last
dialogues of water and fire, where water said, I love the mankind and I am the spirit of life and
liveness, while fire counted water as a cause of flood and destruction, and vice versa, the fire
introduced itself Human-friendly that warming their hands and their stove, but the water tells fires
that you burn the life and I must turn you off. These show that both can be useful from one

6
 dimension and destructive from another aspect can be contemplated, depending on when they took
advantage of it and received their sense of love.

At the end, and after returning from journey and describing several steps (from past to future),
gifting a blue bird (their own bird) to the neighbor's girl means the gift of happiness to others, a
symbol of love and humanity, and in order to keep alive love and humanity in the world, the
peoples must share their happiness.

The arrival of a neighbor girl with a bird in her hand while walking on her feet is a sign of love
and humanity. Finally, the writer gives the hope to the audience rather than defining happiness.
When at the end the bird leaves from the hand of the girl, she tells the audience:

“If any of you should find him, would you be so very kind as to very kind as
to give him back to us? We need him for our happiness, later on…”

It means, we have to take care of our happiness like a blue bird in a cage, and even if it jumps out
from the cage, we can have hope to get it back and to be sure that the happiness is always with us
if we change our view to see the truth and spirit of the world. All of us can have many blue birds
of happiness, a blue bird that is now also a symbol of love and humanity instead of simple
meanings of happiness.

References:
[1] https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/maeterlinck
[2] https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1911/summary/
[3] https://www.gutenberg.org/files/8606/8606-h/8606-h.htm
[4] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/it/dizionario/inglese/symbolism
[5] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/it/dizionario/inglese/allegory?q=Allegory+

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