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Jean Hyung Choi

Dr. Haas
Writing 39B
22 February 2016

Rhetorical Analysis on Little Red Riding Hood:

From Charles Perrault to Brothers Grimm
A literature genre that is perceived as simple, childish, and onedimensional: the authoritative dictionary Merriam-Webster defines the genre
fairy tale as following, a story (as for children) involving fantastic forces
and beings (as fairies, wizards, and goblins) called also fairy story [or] a
story in which improbable events lead to a happy ending. As seen in
likewise official descriptions, fairy tale is a genre that is often overlooked for
its typical happy endings and overly simplified and censored story plot.
Nonetheless, such stereotypical characteristics of fairy tale were nonexistent once the history of genre is traced back to its roots. For centuries,
the fairy tale genre has gone through the pens of countless authors and
editors, getting criticized and readjusted in order to fulfill the changing
perspective and taste of the audience of different regions and time periods.
In that process of development, each version of fairy tales from different
backgrounds has come to incorporate a major aspect of literary works, the
rhetorical situation. The rhetorical situation is generalized as the
circumstances under which the rhetor writes or speaks, (pwr.la.psu.edu).

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Accordingly, it includes variety of elements of the setting in which a literary
work has been created, such as the audience, the authors purpose, and
general societal context. Therefore, when several versions of one fairy tale
story show largely differing elements and settings that connect to their
historical context, it can be said that the differences originate from the
rhetorical situation of each stories.
The beloved fairy tale of all time, Little Red Riding Hood is one of the
examples that exceptionally prove such point. The origin of Little Red Riding
Hood is the work by Charles Perrault a French author from the Salon Era
during 17th century titled Le Petit Chaperon Rouge. A brief summary of
Perraults version of Little Red Riding Hood would be the following: a young
and beloved girl named Little Red Riding Hood goes on an errand to deliver
her sick grandmother some food, and carelessly gets herself and her
grandmother eaten by a wolf. Unlike the prevailing stereotypes on fairy tale
genre, Perraults version of Little Red Riding Hood contains neither a magical
creature, nor a happy ending. Such crudity and cruelty of Perraults version
of the story becomes reasonable when the historical context is brought into
the picture. In 17th century, France, the main audience for fairy tales was
aristocratic men and women, who would gather around in Salons to
exchange knowledge through sophisticated discussions. Accordingly, the
fairy tales written in that time period contained morals for young men and
women, without much censorship for the explicit elements. Thus, not
surprisingly, Perraults version contains many references to sexuality, and

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sexism. As time progressed to 19th century, however, the primary source of
audience expanded to include young children as well. Therefore, under the
influence of the change in audience, Brothers Grimm the German fairy tale
collectors in the 1800's during the German Romanticism movement
resolved to remove the crudity and cruelty of earlier versions of fairy tales in
their publication of the revised collection in 1857. Grimms version of Little
Red Riding Hood includes a far more cunning Big Bad character of a wolf,
and a hero who rescues the Little Red and her grandmother from the danger,
along with inevitable happy ending. In contrast to Perraults version, a short
summary of Grimms version of the story would be as follows: a young and
beloved girl named Little Red Riding Hood goes on an errand to deliver her
sick grandmother some food, and almost carelessly gets herself and her
grandmother eaten by a wolf, but a huntsman comes to save the day, and
they all lived happily ever after. As seen in such differences between
Perraults version and Grimms version of the story, its clear that the
development of trickery and hero character in Little Red Riding Hood resulted
from incorporation of rhetorical situations, specifically the change in time
period and societal conventions from 17th century to 19th century, along with
the change of the audience.
As the fairy tale genre developed over time, so did the lists of generally
accepted conventions and motifs that help identify the genre. One of such
fairy tale conventions that prominently reflect the change in rhetorical
situation between the two previously mentioned versions of Little Red Riding

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Hood is the fairy tale function defined by a Soviet folklorist named Vladimir
Propp, the trickery, done by an archetypal character, the villain. In both
versions of the story, wolf tricks the innocent Little Red to tell him the
location of her grandmothers house, then arrives at the house before Little
Red, patiently waiting for his time to prey on the poor young lady. However,
in Perraults version of the story, the villain, wolf is portrayed as a very
passive character with subtle tricks to hide his identity to others except for
Little Red. Such passiveness of the wolf is seen in the story when Perrault
wrote, a wolf, who had a very great mind to eat her up, but he dared not,
because of some woodcutters working nearby in the forest. (Perrault). Such
passiveness and devious manner of the wolf derives from the Perraults
audience, the aristocratic young women, and his purpose of warning them
about the negative consequences of falling for temptation from the subtle
wolfs of the society. Catherine Orenstein, a journalist and the author of the
fairy tale genre analysis book titled Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex,
Morality, and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale, mentions in her book the old
French saying, Elle avoit v le loup, which was used as a phrase describing
the loss of virginity in 17th century France. Interestingly, that certain French
saying directly translates to she has seen the wolf in English. In 17th
century France, aristocratic women were gaining more independence and
liberty as they participated in the intellectual gatherings of Salon Era, and
pursued compatibility between sexes, and freedom from arranged marriages,
so called marriage de raison (Windling), which was described as an affair

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orchestrated by parents for social and economic advancement by Orenstein.
Such modernization movements from the women were deemed as a threat
to family life and social values, as it was loosening the stance of the
aristocratic families in the society that was maintained through the arranged
marriages between families (Orentein 143). Therefore, conservative and
patriarchal writers such as Charles Perrault himself included subtle satire and
implications into their works to warn the young women of the society about
the consequences of rebelling against the accepted social roles of woman.
Specifically, in Little Red Riding Hood, its clear to see that Perraults purpose
is to warn young women against promiscuity, which was one of the factors
that could interfere with successfully completing their arranged marriages
(Buchinger 5). Perraults obvious use of the symbolism of wolf, and the act
of the Little Red getting into the bed with the wolf after taking off her clothes
to be eaten plainly shows the elements of sexuality and connection to
promiscuity inside the story. Due to such Perraults purpose behind the
composition of the story, the wolf in the story is deemed as a sneaky, subtle,
and perhaps charming character that easily lures Little Red into the bed, for
he is the representation of the young men of society that lured young
aristocratic women to seeking sexual freedom, losing their virginity,
therefore threatening the societys conventional structure. Conclusively,
Perraults comment at the end of the story specifically mentions his intended
meanings behind the wolf character: "I say "wolf," but there are various kinds
of wolves. There are also those who are charming, quiet, polite, unassuming,

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complacent, and sweet, who pursue young women at home and in the
streets (Perrault). However, the wolf shows completely different
characteristics in Grimms version of the story. In Grimms version, the wolf
shows maximum effort to tempt and trick Little Red into drifting off from her
original path in order to get his chance to prey on the grandmother and the
Little Red. Such effort is seen in his line, Listen, Little Red Cap, havent you
seen the beautiful flowers growing in the forest? Why dont you look around?
I believe you havent even noticed how lovely the birds are singing
(Grimm). The wolf is no longer afraid to be seen by the men in the woods,
and appears obviously evil that it causes the Little Red to be cautious and
doubtful in treating him. Also, he seems to have no intention of getting the
Little Red out of her clothes and into the bed. Such change in wolfs trickery
and personality is the result of the changed audience from young adults to
little children, following the change of time period from 17th century to 19th
century. The main audience of Brothers Grimms works was Protestant
parents and their young children of 1800s Germany. In his introduction to
Brothers Grimms works recollection, Zipes states the reason for Grimms
edits that they have made to numerous different fairy tales: Some thought
that the stories were too crude, were not shaped enough to appeal to
children, and were weighed down by the scholarly notes As said, for the
new audience of young children, the original version of the Little Red Riding
Hood was a little too cruel, and a little too sexual. Since the targeted
audience of the story has become the young children, the purpose of the

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story also changed from warning young women about promiscuity, to
warning young children about the possible harms and dangers in outside
world. In order to emphasize the danger of the seemingly friendly offenders,
the wolf has come to have a more cunning, and persuasive personality
compared to the naturally-appealing characteristic of Perraults version of
young-men wolf.
Another convention that reflects the changes that derive from such
changes in rhetorical situation is the Propps function, the rescue, done by an
archetypal character, the hero. As previously stated, the purpose of
Perraults version of the story was to warn the young women about possible
tragic consequences of falling into temptations of promiscuity, thus the story
ended with a simple, and resolute conclusion, saying these words, this
wicked wolf fell upon Little Red Riding Hood, and ate her all up, (Perrault).
However, the situation was different for Brothers Grimm. The audience for
Brothers Grimm was young children and their parents; hence the original
version was too crude, [was] not shaped enough to appeal to children
(Zipes 10). Therefore, instead of letting the story end with two peoples
death, they renovated the story plot to give it a happy ending, through the
use of a hero character, the huntsman, and his rescue of the poor Little Red.
The rhetorical situation that has influenced their decision of adding a
huntsman was the Germanys family structure in 1800s. By 19th century, the
German family structure was greatly altered into a form of a strong nuclear
family which contrasts distinctively with Frances large, formal and

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aristocratic family structure of 17th century. The familys value was accepted
to be very high with patriarchal structure, with its general form described in
the following excerpt: the family was the center of society, no matter
what economic level it lived at the father is the center and leads the wife
and children. Youth was supposed to be obedient to the elders and the
father's word was law, (Strawser). Based on such social situation, the
Brothers Grimm obtained their idea for a hero character that resembles a
father of the family, thus a huntsman. As fathers were the authoritative
member of a family who are responsible for the familys safety outside of the
house, the huntsman keeps an eye out for dangers around the female
characters in the story, and rescues them from such dangers: He had been
searching for the wolf a long time and thought that the beast had certainly
eaten the grandmother, (Grimm). Additionally, for Brothers Grimm gave the
hero a father role, they also altered Little Red to fit the role of an obedient
and bright child, thus the story ends with her learning the lesson on her own,
as seen in the line and Little Red Cap thought to herself: "Never again will
you stray from the path by yourself and go into the forest when your mother
has forbidden it." (Grimm).
Just as growing childrens personality development reflects their
background and environment, developments of literary works such as fairy
tales reflect the environment in which they have been created and refined.
The two versions of the popular tale Little Red Riding Hood by Charles
Perrault and Brothers Grimm are especially exceptional mirror to such life-

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like trait of literary works. From the differences in the manifestation of
conventions villain, hero, trickery and rescue in the two versions of
Little Red Riding Hood, it is seen that analyzing rhetorical situation not only
allows the readers to understand the rhetors intended audience, but also the
purpose behind the creation of their certain literary work; in this case,
Perraults conservative moral for adult audience versus Grimms familyoriented moral for children audience. Analysis of rhetorical situation is
evidently a highly effective communication device between a rhetor and his
or her audience, which specifically speaks for the rhetors intention behind
creation.

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Works Cited
Perrault, Charles. Histoires Ou Contes Du Temps Pass, Avec Des Moralits:
Contes De Ma
Mre L'Oye. Paris: 1697. Print.
Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. The Complete Folk and Fairy Tales of
Brothers Grimm.
Ed. Jack Zipes. Oxfordshire: Princeton UP, 2014. Print.
Buchinger, Michael. Desexualizing Little Red Riding Hood: A Comparison of
Charles Perrault's
and the Brothers Grimm's Versions of the Popular Fairy Tale.
Diss.Academia, 15 Oct. 2003.
Orenstein, Catherine. Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality and
the Evolution of a

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Fairy Tale. New York: Basic Books, 2002
Windling, Terri. "Les Contes Des Fes: The Literary Fairy Tales of France." Les
Contes Des
Fes: The Literary Fairy Tales of France. Web Archive,
WaybackMachine, 28 Mar. 2014. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.
Zipes, Jack. "Introduction: Rediscovering the Original Tales of the Brothers
Grimm." The
Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. Jack Zipes, trans.
Princeton, NJ. Princeton UP: 2014, 1-26.
Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.
Strawser, Dick. ""Mendelssohn's World"" : Being German in the Early 1800s.
Web. 16
Feb. 2016.