Little Red Riding Hood
If Jack-and-the-Beanstalk relates, possibly, to an ancient English ritual of male initiation, Little Red Riding Hood by the same token probably relates to a female counterpart – a first menstruation rite.
This tale, which has a long French tradition, was told from the late Middle Ages up to the present. Its prominence between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries was connected with the great superstitious belief in werewolves current in the period. In the course of numerous werewolf trials, men and women were persecuted and killed on the charge of being secret wolves. Werewolves, as is well-known, are apparent humans who undergo a metamorphosis and reveal themselves temporarily to be wolves, this process being in some way connected with the moon.
Menstruation is associated with the idea of temporary death – death followed by rebirth. It may also be viewed as a change of ‘masks’, ‘skins’ or roles (the ‘change of complexion’ in Jack-and-the-Beanstalk is a male version of this). In retreating into seclusion together, women lose their former identities and become incorporated (as if ‘swallowed) into a larger identity of both human and animal ‘blood’. When they emerge once more, they regain their separate identities as if being regurgitated and restored to new life.
The focus of dramatic interest in Little Red Riding Hood is the extraordinarily changed appearance of what the heroine takes to be her grandmother. The old woman has suddenly grown enormous eyes, ears and teeth, as well as a ravenous cannibalistic appetite. In the early French oral versions from which Perrault derived his familiar literary tale, the werewolf invites the young girl to join in the cannibalistic feast. The wolf
‘ … arrives at the grandmother’s house, eats her, and puts part of her flesh in a bin and her blood in a bottle. Then the little girl arrives. The werewolf disguised as the grandmother gives her the flesh to eat and the blood to drink.’
The little girl unknowingly eats her grandmother’s flesh and drinks her blood.
Like Jack’s nosebleed, this detail once again shows the power of the lunarchist theoretical model. It expresses the basic structural fact underlying all these tales – namely, that in order to travel to the world beyond (in order to be initiated) what’s needed is blood – in this case, menstrual blood. The maiden’s ‘red riding hood’ is, of course, delicately suggestive of this.
Zipes points out that the blood-drinking episode ‘acts out an initiation ritual...’ ‘In facing the werewolf and temporarily abandoning herself to him’, he continues,
‘the little girl sees the animal side of her self. She crosses the border between civilisation and wilderness, goes beyond the dividing line to face death in order to live.’
Seeing ‘the animal side of herself’ is explicable in theoretical terms: to menstruate is to bleed ‘as if’ bitten by a carnivore or ‘as if’ pierced by a spear. It is to adopt an identity symbolised by blood and shared by women and wild animals alike. ‘Facing death in order to live’ refers us once again to menstruation as a ‘temporary death’ anticipating rebirth.
In the familiar version, the cannibalism motif is less explicit, but both the girl and her grandmother are conjoined in ‘excessive’ maternal intimacy (reminiscent of Jack’s incest) in the monster’s belly. They emerge as separate individuals only after the wolf is cut open and they are rescued. From this point on, the girl enters a new life. As Bettelheim comments:
‘Little Red Cap and her grandmother do not really die, but they are certainly reborn. If there is a central theme to the wide variety of fairy tales, it is that of rebirth to a higher plane.’
This tale, which has a long French tradition, was told from the late Middle Ages up to the present. Its prominence between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries was connected with the great superstitious belief in werewolves current in the period. In the course of numerous werewolf trials, men and women were persecuted and killed on the charge of being secret wolves. Werewolves, as is well-known, are apparent humans who undergo a metamorphosis and reveal themselves temporarily to be wolves, this process being in some way connected with the moon.
Menstruation is associated with the idea of temporary death – death followed by rebirth. It may also be viewed as a change of ‘masks’, ‘skins’ or roles (the ‘change of complexion’ in Jack-and-the-Beanstalk is a male version of this). In retreating into seclusion together, women lose their former identities and become incorporated (as if ‘swallowed) into a larger identity of both human and animal ‘blood’. When they emerge once more, they regain their separate identities as if being regurgitated and restored to new life.
The focus of dramatic interest in Little Red Riding Hood is the extraordinarily changed appearance of what the heroine takes to be her grandmother. The old woman has suddenly grown enormous eyes, ears and teeth, as well as a ravenous cannibalistic appetite. In the early French oral versions from which Perrault derived his familiar literary tale, the werewolf invites the young girl to join in the cannibalistic feast. The wolf
‘ … arrives at the grandmother’s house, eats her, and puts part of her flesh in a bin and her blood in a bottle. Then the little girl arrives. The werewolf disguised as the grandmother gives her the flesh to eat and the blood to drink.’
The little girl unknowingly eats her grandmother’s flesh and drinks her blood.
Like Jack’s nosebleed, this detail once again shows the power of the lunarchist theoretical model. It expresses the basic structural fact underlying all these tales – namely, that in order to travel to the world beyond (in order to be initiated) what’s needed is blood – in this case, menstrual blood. The maiden’s ‘red riding hood’ is, of course, delicately suggestive of this.
Zipes points out that the blood-drinking episode ‘acts out an initiation ritual...’ ‘In facing the werewolf and temporarily abandoning herself to him’, he continues,
‘the little girl sees the animal side of her self. She crosses the border between civilisation and wilderness, goes beyond the dividing line to face death in order to live.’
Seeing ‘the animal side of herself’ is explicable in theoretical terms: to menstruate is to bleed ‘as if’ bitten by a carnivore or ‘as if’ pierced by a spear. It is to adopt an identity symbolised by blood and shared by women and wild animals alike. ‘Facing death in order to live’ refers us once again to menstruation as a ‘temporary death’ anticipating rebirth.
In the familiar version, the cannibalism motif is less explicit, but both the girl and her grandmother are conjoined in ‘excessive’ maternal intimacy (reminiscent of Jack’s incest) in the monster’s belly. They emerge as separate individuals only after the wolf is cut open and they are rescued. From this point on, the girl enters a new life. As Bettelheim comments:
‘Little Red Cap and her grandmother do not really die, but they are certainly reborn. If there is a central theme to the wide variety of fairy tales, it is that of rebirth to a higher plane.’