Is Little Red Riding Hood A Tale Of Sexuality?

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

At first glance, this is just a cautionary tale. But is it? If you think about the images in it - why the cap is red, the wolf swallowed Grandma, and the woodcutters ripped open his belly, then another meaning emerges. And to think about it, you need to walk through the plot of the story.

I take Charles Perot's version as a basis, because I like it more. Although the fairy tale itself is more than 600 years old and it has gone through completely different interpretations. In one of which, for example, the wolf ate Granny, fed Little Red Riding Hood with slices, and then ate her herself. I think it was a long time ago and probably the cultural as well as the social context were different. In variants close to us, the girl and her grandmother survive.

The story begins with the fact that the grandmother loved her granddaughter very much and once gave her a red cap. The girl liked it so much that she began to wear it all the time. And the neighbors began to call her - Little Red Riding Hood.

What other sense can one think of from the beginning of history. Let's take the first image - Little Red Riding Hood herself. This is a story about her, about a girl who, for one of her birthdays, had a little red riding hood as a gift. And red, I think not by chance. Different sources interpret this image in different ways, and I agree with the opinion of Erich Fromm that this is a symbol of the beginning of a woman's childbearing period. Or in other words, a menstrual image.

Indeed, in history it is said that the girl began to wear a hat all the time and people called her that Little Red Riding Hood. In other words, both the girl herself and the people around her recognized her as a maturing girl. Grandmother gave her a hat as a female symbol, as knowledge about female nature and approved it. Something like the rite of the first communion in the Catholic faith, in my opinion.

Further, in a fairy tale, we see how the mother sends the girl to visit her grandmother, with a pie and a pot of butter. And he gives parting words that walking through the forest, she needs to be careful and not turn anywhere in order to avoid danger and not meet a wolf.

It seems to me that my mother tells her, in other words, to go and get acquainted with adult life, in which there are dangers (wolves and the forest itself) and tries to warn about them. But she does it with a good message, giving her delicious food prepared by her on the way. That is, giving something nutritious and kind with you, for example, the ability to take care of yourself or something like that.

Another interesting moment here, why does she send her to her grandmother? I think because the grandmother is the image of the female wisdom of their kind. After all, before it was grandparents who were engaged in raising children, since they were no longer so active as to work a lot. And in a fairy tale, a mother sends her daughter to her grandmother, to learn something about herself as a woman. Giving a present with you, as if placating Grandmother and approving this process.

Further, we can see how the girl very successfully overcomes her way through the forest, meeting there with a wolf and talking with him, picking flowers along the way. As if enjoying your journey through life. Interestingly, she tells the wolf where she is going and where her grandmother lives. Maybe it's about the fact that when faced with danger, she is not afraid to address it to a stronger woman from the family, for example. Or he is simply not afraid to come into contact with something dangerous, because he knows how to take care of himself.

And now the most interesting thing unfolds in Grandmother's house.

The wolf had by this time swallowed the grandmother and took her place in the bed. From the very beginning, the girl suspects that something is wrong, hearing Grandmother's rough voice, but nevertheless enters the house and speaks to her, finding out why she has such big eyes, ears and nose. She agrees to lie down next to her and is swallowed by the Wolf. But lumberjacks with axes come to the rescue, ripping open the Wolf's belly and releasing Granny and Little Red Riding Hood completely unharmed.

Let's deal with this part. All events take place not just in Grandmother's house, but in her bed. And you can think, for example, that this is an image indicating the sexual nature of the conflict or having a connection with sexuality. In which both female heroines are involved, as well as the Wolf and the Lumberjacks.

In my opinion, Grandmother here personifies a woman as such, embodying feminine energy, sexuality and wisdom. Yes, she is elderly in a fairy tale, but this is what suggests that by fading, she passes on her knowledge to the younger generation - her granddaughter.

The wolf - as it seems to me, too, has a feminine energy, representing in this story such strong feelings as passion, desire to possess, anger, etc. If we imagine that the Wolf does not eat Granny, in the literal sense, but absorbs her, for example, then they become one whole. And the wolfish nature gives this woman certain features - it enlarges her teeth, eyes and nose, makes her voice rough or hoarse. Which, for example, can resemble an excited or angry woman. And according to the script, Little Red Riding Hood sees it, but cannot say for sure who is in front of her - the Wolf or the Grandmother. As if a person is faced with someone who has strong feelings and because of this does not look like himself, but remains himself at the same time. And the girl is not afraid of these feelings, she decides to join them, try them on herself. In the plot, we see how she decides to go to bed with Granny / Wolf and he swallows her. Those. these feelings consume her too.

How does the story end? And the fact that passing by the house of the Grandmother, the woodcutters hear the noise from the snoring of the Wolf and decide to go in. Seeing the Wolf, they rip open his stomach, from where Granny and Little Red Riding Hood appear completely unharmed.

Lumberjacks are a masculine image and their actions are aggressive, but I think of this episode as a demonstration of masculine / phallic energy, which penetrates into / into the stomach, discharging the heat of passion, excitement or other strong feelings. After that, the woman remains safe and sound.

Summing up, I want to say that I do not think that there is a direct sexual connotation in the fairy tale, but rather it is about strong feelings, in the image of the Wolf, and how you can get to know and handle them. That they can modify a person, but not destroy him.

I think this is a story about the transmission of female wisdom from generation to generation. By female wisdom, I mean knowledge about my feelings, and different ones - about love, attraction, interest, as well as anger and aggressiveness. Also about understanding your physiology and your body, about what happens to it in different periods.

The tale is very interesting, especially if you fantasize about its meanings and images. I wonder what images and associations do you have?

Elena Nesterenko, 2018.