page_title: Little Red Riding Hood
section_title: Meanings
hierarchical_section_title: Little Red Riding Hood / Meanings
caption_attribution_description: English: Illustration published in 1868 Dutch edition of Little Red Riding Hood. Engraving by English printer Kronheim &amp; Co.
context_page_description: "Little Red Riding Hood" is a French fairy tale for young children about a young girl and a wolf. The story comes from a folktale which means that it was a spoken story for a long time before it was a written story. It was first written down in the late 1600s, by Charles Perrault. The best-known version is Rotkäppchen by the Brothers Grimm and dates from the 19th century.
context_section_description: As with many fairy tales, hidden messages can be found in Little Red Riding Hood. People have very different interpretations (ways of understanding the hidden meanings).  There are two well-known ways that the story of Little Red Riding Hood can be interpreted.
  The first type of interpretation is about morality. It is about what is right and what is wrong. 
  The easiest message for children to understand is that it can be dangerous to trust strangers.
  A more adult interpretation is about sexuality. Some people think that the story of the girl being "eaten" is really a symbol for rape. Susan Brownmiller wrote a book about it, called Against Our Will. Some of the other versions of the story seem to be more about rape than the way that the Brothers Grimm wrote it, which was for children.
  Charles Perrault makes his meaning quite clear. At the end of the story he writes:
  "From this story one learns that children, especially young lasses, pretty, courteous and well-bred, do very wrong to listen to strangers.... all wolves are not of the same sort.... there is one kind [that is not] noisy, nor hateful, nor angry, but tame, obliging and gentle, following the young maids in the streets, even into their homes. Alas! .... these gentle wolves are ... the most dangerous!"
  Some scholars say Perrault was not talking about rape but about sexual morality.  At the time, there was an expression in French that is "seen the wolf" in English.  If a girl had sex and was no longer a virgin, people would say she had "seen the wolf."
  Erich Fromm based his ideas only on the story the Brothers Grimm wrote. He sees the red cap of Little Red Riding Hood as a symbol for menstruation.
  In old French and Italian versions of the story, the girl is independent and clever. She tricks the wolf and escapes without any help.
  The second way of seeing the stories has nothing to do with peoples' behaviour or feelings. These interpretations have to do with the cycle of the sun and the seasons, and with the cycle of life, with people dying and being born.
  One interpretation is about night and day. In this interpretation, Red Riding Hood's bright red cap is be a symbol for the sun. The sun is swallowed by the terrible night (the wolf). When she is cut out again, it represent the dawn. This bears a resemblance to the Norse Legend of the wolf Skoll (or Fenrir) who swallows the sun at Ragnarök.
  Another interpretation is that the tale is about the season of spring, or the month of May, escaping the winter. The story could be seen as a description of the May Queen ritual that represents the coming of Spring, with the crown of flowers replaced by the red hood.
caption: In this picture the wolf is having very bad thoughts about the little girl.
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