Gender in Little Red Riding Hood of Charles Perrault

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Folktales are a way to represent situations analyzing different prospects about gender, through the stories that contribute with the reality of the culture in which they develop while these provide ideas about the behavior and roles of a specific sex building a culture of womanhood, manhood and childhood. This is what the stories of Little Red Riding Hood of Charles Perrault (1697) and Little Red-Cap of the Grimm Brothers (1812) show. This essay will describe some ideas about gender in different ways. First, the use of symbolic characters allows getting general ideas about the environment in the society rather than individuals. Second, it is possible to identify ideas about gender from the plot from the applied vocabulary providing a better understanding of the actions. Finally, the narrative perspective of the tales analyzes deeply the status of the characters referring to the thoughts among the society. First of all, through the use of symbolic characters, it gives ideas about gender in a general concept into the society rather than individuals. The main character Little Red Riding Hood in Perrault’s version is a female represented as “a little girl” the meaning of innocence and virginity which gives the hint of sexual attraction. She is portrayed as “the prettiest girl in the village” regarding her physically attractive while wearing a “red hood” which emphasizes the purity and the power of call attention because of the red color. All this aspects give a concept of the girls in the culture about taking especial care of their appearance, hence they are not given the opportunity to learn about the world which leads into ignorance and lack of experience. The next female character is the grandmother, an older and sick woman that is... ... middle of paper ... ...e end with the purpose of teach the young girls to analyze the society and do not trust in anyone, especially paying attention about men. On the other hand, Grimm's version in its alternative ending, explains how Little Red-Cap meets another wolf but in this occasion the women are able to defend and survive themselves only after being rescued by the man which concludes that women only can think and act after have learnt from men. In conclusion, the development of the folktales leads to the obtaining of ideas about gender. In many ways our society supports the idea that women seem underestimated as well as physically and mentally weak in comparison with the men who is portrayed as intelligent and superior. This can be shown in many ways in the different versions of this folktale through the concepts of symbolic characters, plot and narrative perspective.

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