Perhaps most well known of the Grimm's tales, Little Red Riding Hood is a story containing two of the most powerful metaphors in the history of literature.
Unlike most fairy tales where people can name a definitive version of the fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood is a fairy tale that is known today in dozens of variations. Many variations recollect Charles Perrault’s version while other versions are reminiscent of Grimm’s version. However, many variations (especially those written for adults or for advertising) willingly recall the sexually suggestive oral version told by fireside or at the pub.
The Little Girl Who Maybe Wore Red
The most vivid symbol in Little Red Riding Hood is the famed red cape and hood. Psychoanalytic critics have delighted in analyzing the meaning of the color red because it traditionally symbolizes much that titillates us; from sin and blood to passion and sexuality it seems to implicate the little girl in the story. However, the little girl whose story was first told around the fire or over a drink did not originally wear red. Ironically, the color red was introduced by Perrault, who like the brothers Grimm, tried to convert a sexually loaded tale into a cautionary tale with a clear moral.
While the color that has been so suggestive to those with over-active imaginations may not be original to the story, the sexuality was always there. Those who first heard of the girl’s exploits learned of a crafty young girl who does not need a man’s help to escape from the wolf and who is not afraid of her own sexuality. A French version, from the late 1800’s, tells of a girl who performs a strip tease for the wolf’s benefit and proceeds to interview the wolf with a detailed string of questions about the wolf’s own body parts.
One version, collected by the Grimm’s, reflects the strip tease approach when the girl offers the wolf one rich article of clothing after another in her attempt to buy her freedom. She fails and climbs a tree, calling for help. Her beloved races to her rescue but finds only her arms. The resourceful wolf dug up the tree and ate her.
The Big Bad Wolf
Unlike many fairy tales where the predator is supernatural or at least blatantly evil, the wolf is a real beast fulfilling his natural predatory role. As a result, folklorist suggest that
“Little Red Riding Hood may have originated relatively late (in the Middle Ages) as a cautionary tale warning children about the dangers of the forest” (Tatar 143).
Because they are predators and stalkers, wolves are often symbolic of the male with questionable desires. The kind of men who seduces young, naive, and beautiful children so that they can consume their innocence.
Wolves’ predatory nature and their long conflict with humanity has cast them in the role of satanic beast. The woodsman refers to the wolf as ‘you old sinner,’ which allows the story to be interpreted in a Christian light. The cake and wine can be seen as flesh and blood. Flesh and blood are of course consumed in the story when the wolf swallows both Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother. However, in the Grimm version, the child and her grandmother do not have their blood spilled nor their flesh broken as they are swallowed whole.
However, the woodcutter pierces wolf’s side carefully and then slits him open so that the girl and her grandma can escape their dark grave and burst once more into the light of day where they quickly send the wolf to his grave with a belly full of stones. The popular psychoanalytic interpretation of death and rebirth is clearly seen in these versions of the story.
Cleaned Up and the Recycled
The brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault both tried to recast the story as a cautionary tale warning children to do as they are told, not to talk to strangers, and never to leave the path. However, it is nearly impossible for writers, filmmakers, and advertisers of today not to indulge in the rich and titillating symbolism found in the story and recycle the gory and bawdy details of the earliest versions of the story into suggestive material for today’s society.
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