Red Riding Hood

Behind the darkest folk tales lie attempts to interpret fear. Although the tales take place in domestic settings, the events in the stories dramatize fears which are universal. One folk tale which has endured is Red Riding Hood. The fears projected into the tale are: fear of the invasion (natural or supernatural) of the home, fear of becoming subject to the destructive will or power of another, and the fear of deception. That this tale should be an echo of older fears involving natural forces (which have been incorporated into myths) should not be surprising. Fear of the changeability and violence in human nature that appears in folk tales has its counterpart in myth in the fear of natural forces and their changeability and violence. In Red Riding Hood, the evil, mesmerizing darkness of the Wolf echoes the image of the darkness of night and death. The character of Red Riding Hood is the counterpart of day, light, and innocent gaiety. Some folklorists claim that the tale echoes a myth of sunrise and sunset. Henry Bett cites the red cloak as evidence:

The Letts have a story which tells how the daughter of the sun hung her red cloak on an oak tree. At the other end of the world, the Australians of Encounter Bay say that the sun is a woman and has a lover among the dead who has given her a red kangaroo skin in which she appears at her rising.

Bett then explains the wolf as "personification of night." He cites the recurrence of the wolf in Norse mythology as a destroyer of light.¹ In the Index of Fairy Tales Myths, and Legends, there is a similar claim for the myth of Helge, who, to escape his enemies, disguised himself as a wolf and who turned out to be a God of night and darkness.²

Although it seems farfetched to think that so simple a tale as Red Riding Hood should have come from such dynamic legends, the particular vividness and enduring qualities of the red hood and the figure of the wolf do have their roots in traditional symbols which strengthen this supposition. The color red, and its association with blood and passion, would prefigure the violence to come. It is interesting that the substitution of color (for instance, gold) should make a difference. In Little Golden Hood, there are none of the ominous overtones of Red Riding Hood. The golden hood is not only divine, linked to golden flowers and the sun, but it serves as protection for the little girl. Faith in human good sense is exhibited: Grandmother kills the wolf, there is a lesson learned, and a happy ending.³ The red hood incorporates qualities of life, light, and sexual energy.⁴ The use of the hood and its association with death adds to the ominous quality of the tale.⁵

The figure of the wolf arouses terror, not only because of his savage wildness, but because of traditional connotations of darkness and evil. In the Dictionary of Symbols, he is cited as being the "symbol of evil," the "monster" who lived in the depths of the earth and who would "break out of this prison . . . devour the son."⁶ Medieval Christian thinking marks him as a symbol of the devil, the whore, a beast who massacres "anybody who passes by with a fury of greediness." He also has the eyes of the Devil and is capable of mesmerizing his victims, if he chooses.⁷ The combination of evil, sexual aggression, and gluttonous violence, then, is historically connected with the wolf. It is surely his nature in Red Riding Hood. His association with darkness and destruction links him, and by extension the tale, to the ancient myths.

The fear of sexual power characterizes all versions of the tale. It represents an irresistable force, a force in the service of greed and death. In the French tales this sexuality is more explicit: the little girl is lured into the bed. The rhythmic, intimate repetition of questions leading to the moment of climax (or anti-climax) is extremely sexual. The mesmerizing qualities of...