This painting by Francois Fleury-Richard shows a scene from the children’s fairy-tale “Little Red Riding Hood.” The illustration dates to about 1820, which is centuries after the original story developed. However, some features of this piece render the original spirit of the tale better than later versions. We see the smallness of the girl, who must squint along with us to make out the features of the dim room. And, athough we know there is a beast disguised as the child’s grandmother, we also know that poor Red Riding Hood is ignorant. The scene expresses a reality about this story, which is that it originally was both sinister and horrifying.
Most versions of the tale feature the little girl with a red cape being duped by a bad wolf — the animal gets the trust of Little Red, and then goes to the girl’s grandmother’s house, where he eats grandma, puts the old woman’s clothes on, and tries to eat the girl before a kind hunter comes along and saves both women. In Medieval renditions, however, such as “La finta nonna” (“The False Grandmother”), the details are a lot more hideous.
For one, after eating the grandmother, the wolf sets aside a pitcher of her blood and a chunk of her flesh. When Little Red Riding Hood comes inside, the disguised wolf turns the young girl into a cannibal by feeding her the grandma’s carcass and having her drink the blood. In other early versions, the wolf has Riding Hood strip off her clothes and throw them into the fire. The end of the story sometimes is that the wolf has Riding Hood get into bed with him, and then he eats her. The End.
Nighty-night.
Source(s): _National Geographic_, “What Wide Origins You Have, Little Red Riding Hood_, Rachael Hartigan Shea, Nov 30, 2013. Robert Darnton, 1985, _The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History_. Addenda: New York: Vintage Books. Wikipedia.
