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‘Little Red Riding Hood’ is a worldwide famous fairy tale about a little girl in a red cloak. This fairy tale has numerous adaptations by different writers of the world, the adaptations tell the same story but they all bare some particular ideas and deliver different messages to the reader. There is a great number of novels, short stories, poems, and theatre plays depicting the same story in various authors’ interpretations. Comparing the adaptations of this old story the reader can clearly see how the values changed in the society over the past four centuries.
Charles Perrault gave the starting point for the variety of retellings and adaptations. He took the idea for his story from the French folklore and presented his adaptation in 1697 within the collection of tales ‘Tales and stories of the Past with Morals. Tales of Mother Goose’. In his tale a pretty well-bred little girl whose mother asked her to carry a basket with cakes and butter to her sick grandmother who lived deep in the forest. On her way, she met a wolf who had an intention to eat the grandmother and the girl. Red Riding Hood had no fear of the wolf and told him how to find the grandmother’s house. The wolf deceived the little naive girl to come there first. He gobbled the old lady and her grand-daughter but they were saved by woodcutters who worked nearby in the forest.
The famous Brothers Grimm also had their version of the story, which was somewhat different from the story presented by Charles Perrault. In their adaptation ‘Little Red Cap’, a little girl in the red cap also traveled through the forest to visit her sick grandmother, she was also deceived by a wicked wolf, who ate her and her grandmother. The Brothers Grimm modified the ending of the story, in their version the girl and her grandmother were saved by a hunter who came to the house when he heard the wolf snoring. When the Red Riding Hood came to visit her grandmother again, another wolf tried to eat her however, the girl was not so naive that time and together with her grandmother managed to trap and kill the villain.
‘Wolfland’ by a British writer Tanth Lee is one of the most recent (1980) and, perhaps, the most feministic version of the story about a girl in a characteristic red cloak. This story is strikingly different from all other readings and interpretations of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ as it presents different values and inverts the initial version of the tale.
In ‘Wolfland’ the author narrates about a young sixteen year old girl who lived in the city with her father and once was summoned by her grandmother to her estate located deep in the forest. Instead of a sick old lady, who lived in a small hut in the forest the author presented a very rich and powerful woman, Anna Matriarch, who possessed a magnificent mansion. In this story, unlike the others, the girl in the red cloak has the name. At first, Lisel refuses to go to the estate, which belonged to her grandmother whom she had never seen in her life but as soon as the trip began, she grew more interested in the visit to her extraordinary relative. During her trip, Lisel heard wolves howling in the winter forest but she had no fear of them. Half way to the mansion, her carriage stopped and a servant sent by Anna Matriarch asked Lisel to send away her father’s servants to continue her way in another carriage. After a while, Lisel saw wolves pursuing the carriage but she became rather aggressive than scared, she was ready to attack the wolves when the carriage reached its destination. The girl found her grandmother a strange woman as she lived amid forest full of wild wolves. At night, a strange feeling lead Lisel out of her room to the hall where she saw a wolf entering the house and lost consciousness. In the morning, she demanded Anna to explain what she had seen at night. Then Lisel’s grandmother told her story: Anna’s husband was a cruel man who believed that it was his right and pleasure to beat his wife. On the wedding night, he brought her peaches with a whip under them. Once, Anna heard a legend about the Wolf-Goddess, who could bless a woman and turn her into a werewolf. Anna came to know that if she swallowed a yellow flower growing in the forest, and then called the Goddess she could receive her blessing. Anna Matriarch did so and under the full moon she turned into a wolf. Then Anna found her husband in the forest and took the revenge over him for all the years of suffering. Anna explained that the blessing had its price and she was doomed to live as a human in daylight and a wolf at night until the ‘curse’ would be passed to someone else. Lisel understood that the reason for her coming here was to take her grandmother’s curse on herself. She refused to do so but eventually her grandmother persuaded Lisel to ask for the blessing.
Every of the stories overviewed above tell about a girl in trouble and over time the story became increasingly feministic. In the tale by Charles Perrault, women (Red Riding Hood and her grandmother) were depicted as weak and naive. The girl believed a wild beast and her grandmother could not distinguish between the voices of her granddaughter and a wolf pretending to be a little girl, and they could do nothing until rescued by strong and brave woodcutters. In the adaptation by the Brothers Grimm, we see the feministic aspect: Red Riding Hood and her grandmother had learned a lesson from the first attack of a wolf and when another villain tried to abuse them, they found a way to punish him themselves. The third story is the most feministic. In the story by Tanith Lee, women were showed powerful and strong-willed while all men but one were weak and helpless. The name Anna Matriarch tells for itself, this woman ruled in her family and over the servants in her house, wolves and other animals around her mansion. Red Riding Hood is also quite different from her counterparts in other interpretations of the tale. Here the main character acquired name, Lisel, she was older, stronger, and more mature. On the way to Anna’s house Lisel saw wolves running beside her carriage but she was not afraid of them, as she became aggressive, grinned at wolves and scratched the door of the carriage being ready to attack. Anna Monarch told her granddaughter that many years before she had become a werewolf to take the revenge over her husband and this power could be passed only to the female heirs. He was the only strong man in the story but then appeared to be the main villain, as he liked to beat his wife without any reason. Although Anna’s character is not evil as she was, actually, the victim and the Wolf-Goddess showed the process of turning into a wolf and helped her to find the natural power within herself. In the story there was only one positive character –Anna’s servant who was loyal, beautiful, and obedient.
The numerous adaptations and interpretations of the old story about Little Red Riding Hood show the changing of values and attitudes towards gender and society over time and in different nations. The older versions showed the dominance and strength of men. Red Riding Hood was a little innocent girl, naive and powerless. The society changed and the values of feminism were introduced to the literature. Female characters acquired sexuality they became stronger, more mature and capable to protect themselves. Women are no longer poor helpless creatures waiting for a hero to save them and strength is not always associated with men. The adaptations of old stories help the modern reader to understand them better as stories become closer in time they acquire the features of the contemporary society, absorb their values and customs. The story ‘Wolfland ’ and other versions of the ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ make a good example of the changes in the society and their influence on literature.
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