Page 115 - Cultural Theory and Popular Culture an Introduction

CULT_C05.qxd 10/25/08 16:31 Page 99

Freudian psychoanalysis 99

hour from the village. And as Little Redcape entered the forest the wolf met her.
But Little Redcape didn’t know what a wicked beast he was, and wasn’t afraid of
him. ‘Good morning, Little Redcape,’ he said. ‘Thank you, wolf.’ ‘Where are you
going so early, Little Redcape?’ ‘To my grandmother’s.’ ‘What are you carrying
under your apron?’ ‘Cake and wine – we were baking yesterday, and my grand-
mother’s ill and weak, so she’s to have something nice to help her get strong
again.’ ‘Little Redcape, where does your grandmother live?’ ‘A good quarter of an
hour’s walk further on in the forest, under the three big oak trees, that’s where her
house is; there are hazel hedges by it, I’m sure you know the place,’ said Little
Redcape. The wolf thought to itself: This delicate young thing, she’ll make a
plump morsel, she’ll taste even better than the old woman. But I must go about
it cunningly and I’ll catch them both. So he walked for a while beside Little
Redcape and then said: ‘Little Redcape, just look at those lovely flowers growing
all round us, why don’t you look about you? I think you don’t even notice how
sweetly the birds are singing. You’re walking straight ahead as if you were going
to school, and yet it’s such fun out here in the wood.
Little Redcape looked up, and when she saw the sunbeams dancing to and fro
between the trees and all the lovely flowers growing everywhere, she thought: If I
take Grandmama a bunch of fresh flowers, that’ll please her too; it’s so early that
I’ll still get there soon enough. And she ran off the path and into the forest to look
for flowers. And every time she picked one she seemed to see a prettier one grow-
ing further on, and she ran to pick it and got deeper and deeper into the forest.
But the wolf went straight to her grandmother’s house and knocked at the door.
‘Who’s there?’ ‘Little Redcape, bringing you some cake and wine; open the door.’
‘Just push down the latch,’ said the grandmother, ‘I’m too weak to get out of bed.’
The wolf pushed down the latch, and without a word he went straight to the old
woman’s bed and gobbled her up. Then he put on her clothes and her nightcap
and lay down in her bed and closed the curtains.
But Little Redcape had been running about picking flowers, and when she had
collected so many that she couldn’t carry any more she remembered her grand-
mother and set out again towards her house. She was surprised to find the door
open, and when she went into the room everything seemed so strange that she
thought: Oh my goodness, how nervous I feel today, and yet I always enjoy
visiting Grandmama! She called out: ‘Good morning,’ but got no answer. Then
she went to the bed and drew back the curtains – and there lay her grandmother
with her bonnet pulled down low over her face and looking so peculiar.
‘Why, Grandmama, what big ears you have!’ ‘The better to hear you with,’
‘Why Grandmama, what big eyes you have!’ ‘The better to see you with.’ ‘Why,
Grandmama, what big hands you have!’ ‘The better to grab you with.’ ‘But,
Grandmama, what terrible big jaws you have!’ ‘The better to eat you with.’ And
no sooner had the wolf said that than it made one bound out of the bed and
gobbled up poor Little Redcape.
Having satisfied its appetite, the wolf lay down on the bed again, went to sleep
and began to snore very loudly. The huntsman was just passing the house at that