Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding hood is a folktale that has changed much in its history. The version that most people today know was Rotkäppchen written by the Brothers Grimm in 1812.Its about a girl who travels through the woods to deliver food to her grandmother. The girl is approached by a wolf on the way, who eventually tricks her, and eats her and her grandmother. A woodcutter however comes to the rescue and cuts the wolf open. Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother emerge unharmed.
The Brothers Grimm based most of the story on Le petit chaperon rouge an earlier version of the story published by Charles Perrault in 1697. This earlier version is more sinister and its moralistic message is more overt. Red Riding Hood just gets eaten by the wolf, there is no happy ending. and there is a 'moral' at the end that leaves no doubt as to the meaning of the story : -
- From this story one learns that children, especially young lasses, pretty, courteous and well-bred, do very wrong to listen to strangers, And it is not an unheard thing if the Wolf is thereby provided with his dinner. I say Wolf, for all wolves are not of the same sort; there is one kind with an amenable disposition - neither noisy, nor hateful, nor angry, but tame, obliging and gentle, following the young maids in the streets, even into their homes. Alas! Who does not know that these gentle wolves are of all such creatures the most dangerous!
Little Red Riding Hood may be a children's story, but it contains within it themes of sex, violence and even cannibalism.
