Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood is a fairy tale or children's story common to many European cultures in various forms. While probably an ancient tale of the oral tradition, the earliest known written form is contained in Charles Perrault's 1697 work, Contes de ma mère l'Oye (Tales of Mother Goose, 1729). His version is much simpler than the version later popularized by the Brothers Grimm: A young woman in red encounters a wolf, tells him her destination, and then is eaten by him when he lies in wait for her farther down the path. A postscript explains it as a cautionary tale, an example of what can happen when a young woman talks to a strange man. The name of the story derives from the red hood and cape that the young girl wears, a detail believed to have been original to Perrault's version.
The Brothers Grimm included the tale in their Kinder- und Hausmärchen (1812–1815; Children's and household tales; known in English as Grimm's Fairy Tales). The story tells of a young village girl who travels into the woods to visit her grandmother. Along the way, she encounters a wolf who wishes to eat her, but does not because there are woodcutters nearby who would defend her. Instead, the wolf engages her in conversation and learns her destination. He gets there before her, eats the grandmother, and disguises himself in her clothing to lure the girl into the house. He then eats Red Riding Hood, but is soon attacked by a woodcutter who has followed them. The woodcutter cuts the wolf's belly open with his ax, freeing the grandmother and girl who are inside, whole and unharmed. The wolf's belly is then filled with heavy rocks that hold him in place until he dies. No specific moral is indicated in this version, although its similarity to Perrault's is unmistakable. There are important differences, though: In the Brothers Grimm version, two women are victimized through the carelessness of one, and rather than being killed by the wolf, the women are rescued by a man. The danger in the later version is doubled, and it is made clear that male intercession is needed to protect the women. Critics have claimed that the Brothers Grimm version portrays women as essentially vulnerable and in need of help from men. The Perrault version, while a worse ending for Red Riding Hood, did allow her to succeed or fail on her own merits.
Many critics have analyzed the tale, both as a work of literature and as a cultural document. The American child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim used the story as a basis for his discussion of fairy tales as models for child psychological development in The Uses of Enchantment (1976). Many twentieth-century retellings of the story have been based on Bettelheim's understanding, including the 1987 Broadway musical Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. In this adaptation, Red Riding Hood consciously uses her experience as a means of constructing whom she will be as an adult, having left childhood behind in the belly of the wolf. This understanding of the story as one of growth and transition to maturity is also common. Many critics have seen the conversation between the wolf and Red Riding Hood as a seduction, a distinctly sexualized interaction. The meeting, therefore, is likened to a first sexual experience. The red color and flowing nature of the hood and cape are likewise linked to menstruation. Some critics have interpreted Red Riding Hood's willingness to put herself in danger as a desire for sexual experience, and others have linked her actions to prostitution.
see also Big Bad Wolf; Fairy Tales.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bacchilega, Cristina. 1997. Postmodern Fairy Tales: Gender and Narrative Strategies. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Bettelheim, Bruno. 1976. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Knopf.
Orenstein, Catherine. 2002. Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality, and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale. New York: Basic.
Zipes, Jack, ed. 1993. The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood. 2nd edition. New York: Routledge.
Brian D. Holcomb