The Company of Wolves

Angela Carter’s feminist revisions of classic fairy tales often seem to bear no relation to their original counterparts. However, a closer look reveals the often over-looked connections and parallels between the two. Her revisions are not so much feminist revisions as some would suggest, but more of an update on the stories in question, done to accommodate the views and thinking of today’s society on matters such as female behaviour and gender-roles. In comparing and contrasting Grimm’s “Little Red Riding Hood” and Angela Carter’s “The Company of Wolves”, we shall see just how her updated version affects gender roles, why it affects gender roles and the effect that the reversal of gender roles has on the story itself. We will also delve into the meanings and significance of the story, as well as the author’s intentions in rewriting this classic tale.

In the Grimm’s version, Little Red Riding Hood is portrayed as a “sweet little maid” (Grimm 149), an innocent young girl oblivious to the dangers of the world around her. The first thing we note in Angela Carter’s version is how the gender roles have changed. In this tale, Little Red Riding Hood is portra

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In this version, it is the wolf which is ultimately punished. In Carter’s version, Little Red Riding Hood possesses all the traits commonly associated with masculinity; she is cunning, predatorial and sexual. When Little Red Riding Hood disobeys her mother and strays from the path, it results in not only her ‘death’, but also the death of her grandmother. Through the use of the wolf, such male characteristics are made to seem inherent in men. Carter’s version is yet another step in the ever-changing view of society, a view that seems to suggest perhaps Little Red Riding Hood’s actions are not wrong at all. It is possible that he is punished not for eating Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother, but rather for being lazy and falling asleep in the grandmother’s bed instead of somewhere else. The reason for this switch has much to do with Carter’s own female empowerment views as it does with the changing social views of the time. Later on when she is trapped in the house with the young man, instead of being afraid, she displays a confidence and boldness in her actions, going so far as to undress herself and the young man, suggesting an almost animal, or predatorial instinct. Equally then, as femininity is idolized in beauty, stupidity and passivity, the masculine is highlighted as predatorial, cunning and sexual. In Grimm’s version, she is portrayed as the typical female object because she fulfills the three main characteristics; beauty, stupidity and passivity. Angela Carter is trying to reverse the trend of brainwashing kids into gender-role biases by using the fairy tale formula as a back-drop for her stories. The not too subtle message of this story is one which says that the elders know best, and that if any trouble arose, you could always depend on the elders to come up with a solution. His stomach is filled with stones and the hunter removes his skin. She is given a second chance at life after her first mistake, and learning from that mistake, takes the chance to use the advice of her grandmother in plotting the death of the second wolf. She is “much beloved by everyone”(Grimm 149) for her beauty, she is stupidly trusting of the wolf, going so far as to tell him where her grandmother lived, and her passiveness is displayed in the fact that she does not do anything to escape the clutches of the wolf.

Common topics in this essay:
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Approximate Word count = 1622
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

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