Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you
sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.
The first published version of Little Red Riding Hood
was known as Le Petit Chaperon Rouge
and was written down by Charles Perrault in his Histoires et Contes Du Temps
Passé, Avec Des Moralités (Tales and Stories of the Past with morals) in 1697.
This version is much more sinister with heavier
emphasis on the morality than any other version. In this story she wears a
chaperon (a type of fashionable hat) in a very sexual red colour. Other versions may have her rescued by a friendly woodcutter, but in this first
version an “attractive, well-bred young lady” gets into bed with the wolf and
gets eaten. There is no happy ending for a virtuous girl who allows herself to
be “consumed.”
And just in case you didn’t understand that this was a tale about sexual immorality, he includes a moral that reads:
Children, especially attractive, well-bred
young ladies, should never talk to strangers, for if they should do so, they
may well provide dinner for a wolf. I say "wolf," but there are
various kinds of wolves. There are also those who are charming, quiet, polite,
unassuming, complacent, and sweet, who pursue young women at home and in the
streets. And unfortunately, it is these gentle wolves who are the most
dangerous ones of all.
Angela Carter (whom we will explore later) in her
brilliant story The Company of Wolves from The Bloody Chamber says Some men are hairy on the inside.
According to MYTHS WE LIVE BY:
There
is also some argument about why this particular tale was chosen by Perrault to
be written in a literary fashion. He was serving at the time in the court of
King Louis XIV, a king who had a cross dressing bisexual brother. At the time
the brother enjoyed dressing up as a woman and going into the women’s only
salons where he would lay in one of the beds and urge other young ladies to
climb in with him. He would then proceed to and sometimes successfully seduce
them, sometimes without anyone else in the salon being any the wiser as he hid
his actions underneath his vast skirts or the blankets of the bed he was lying
in. This was doubly sinister for the young, naive girls of the court as their
virginity was often their only bargaining chip and without it they had nothing.
If they reported a rape, they were punished severely. In France, at the time,
rape was considered a woman’s fault and got her either banished or killed if
she came forward with the crime. Perrault’s version may be the cruelest version
of Little Red Riding Hood, but it also accurately reflected the cruelness of
the world that surrounded it and young girls of his era were wise if they
listened to the lesson it had to give.
 |
Gustave Doré
|
Le
Petit Chaperon Rouge
Once upon a time there lived in a certain village a
little country girl, the prettiest creature who was ever seen. Her mother was
excessively fond of her; and her grandmother doted on her still more. This good
woman had a little red riding hood made for her. It suited the girl so
extremely well that everybody called her Little Red Riding Hood.
One day her mother, having made some cakes, said to her, "Go, my dear, and
see how your grandmother is doing, for I hear she has been very ill. Take her a
cake, and this little pot of butter."
Little Red Riding Hood set out immediately to go to
her grandmother, who lived in another village.
As she was going through the wood, she met with a
wolf, who had a very great mind to eat her up, but he dared not, because of
some woodcutters working nearby in the forest. He asked her where she was
going. The poor child, who did not know that it was dangerous to stay and talk
to a wolf, said to him, "I am going to see my grandmother and carry her a
cake and a little pot of butter from my mother."
"Does she live far off?" said the wolf
"Oh I say," answered Little Red Riding Hood;
"it is beyond that mill you see there, at the first house in the
village."
"Well," said the wolf, "and I'll go and
see her too. I'll go this way and go you that, and we shall see who will be
there first."
The wolf ran as fast as he could, taking the shortest
path, and the little girl took a roundabout way, entertaining herself by
gathering nuts, running after butterflies, and gathering bouquets of little
flowers. It was not long before the wolf arrived at the old woman's house. He
knocked at the door: tap, tap.
"Who's there?"
"Your grandchild, Little Red Riding Hood,"
replied the wolf, counterfeiting her voice; "who has brought you a cake
and a little pot of butter sent you by mother."
The good grandmother, who was in bed, because she was
somewhat ill, cried out, "Pull the bobbin, and the latch will go up."
The wolf pulled the bobbin, and the door opened, and
then he immediately fell upon the good woman and ate her up in a moment, for it
been more than three days since he had eaten. He then shut the door and got
into the grandmother's bed, expecting Little Red Riding Hood, who came some
time afterwards and knocked at the door: tap, tap.
"Who's there?"
Little Red Riding Hood, hearing the big voice of the
wolf, was at first afraid; but believing her grandmother had a cold and was
hoarse, answered, "It is your grandchild Little Red Riding Hood, who has
brought you a cake and a little pot of butter mother sends you."
The wolf cried out to her, softening his voice as much
as he could, "Pull the bobbin, and the latch will go up."
Little Red Riding Hood pulled the bobbin, and the door
opened.
The wolf, seeing her come in, said to her, hiding
himself under the bedclothes, "Put the cake and the little pot of butter
upon the stool, and come get into bed with me."
Little Red Riding Hood took off her clothes and got
into bed. She was greatly amazed to see how her grandmother looked in her
nightclothes, and said to her, "Grandmother, what big arms you have!"
"All the better to hug you with, my dear."
"Grandmother, what big legs you have!"
"All the better to run with, my child."
"Grandmother, what big ears you have!"
"All the better to hear with, my child."
"Grandmother, what big eyes you have!"
"All the better to see with, my child."
"Grandmother, what big teeth you have got!"
"All the better to eat you up with."
And, saying these words, this wicked wolf fell upon
Little Red Riding Hood, and ate her all
up.
Moral: Children, especially attractive, well-bred
young ladies, should never talk to strangers, for if they should do so, they
may well provide dinner for a wolf. I say "wolf," but there are
various kinds of wolves. There are also those who are charming, quiet, polite,
unassuming, complacent, and sweet, who pursue young women at home and in the
streets. And unfortunately, it is these gentle wolves who are the most
dangerous ones of all.
And if you want to read it in French then go HERE.
Stay tuned next week for the version of Little Red
Riding Hood by the Brothers Grimm.
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