In preparation for running a short course on fairy tales, I have become interested by the difference in ending between Perrault’s Little Red Riding Hood and the Grimm Brothers’ Little Red Cap. In Perrault’s, the story ends with the wolf devouring Little Red with the attributive moral that ‘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.’ The Grimms’ tale, on the other hand, introduces the huntsman who rescues Little Red and her grandmother, Little Red’s killing of the wolf, her subsequent meeting with a second wolf who tries the same trick, and the final death of the wolf at the hands of the grandmother and Little Red. But what are we to make of these differences?
Red Riding Hood – Perrault vs Grimm
The Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company’s residency of The Garrick Theatre is drawing to a close. Early on, I was exceptionally fortunate to see their production of A Winter’s Tale; though not a favourite play of mine, I thought the production was excellent and the acting – especially of Sir Branagh himself – enthralling.
Jonny English 