Little Red Riding-hood (1889) story
A Victorian-era retelling of a classic European cautionary tale about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. It was published in the 1889 Andrew Lang edited collection of fairy tales The Blue Fairy Book. Link to text: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Blue_Fairy_Book/Little_Red_Riding-hood
7 total · 1 choice · 3 major · 3 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| be wary of strangers | choice | Charles Perrault sums up the moral of the story as follows: "From this story one learns that children, especially young lasses, pretty, courteous and well-bred, do very wrong to listen to strangers, And it is not an unheard thing if the Wolf is thereby provided with his dinner". |
| appearances can be deceiving | major | This common aphorism is illustrated by the Wolf dressing up in Little Red Riding-hood's grandmother's clothing in order to lull the poor child into a false sense of security. |
| human childhood | major | Little Red Riding-hood innocently trusted, and engaged in childish diversions such as chasing butterflies. |
| wicked character vs. virtuous character | major | The conniving, deceitful Wolf was juxtaposed with the innocent little country girl Little Red Riding-hood. |
| coping with a loved one being gravely ill | minor | The mother was concerned because the grandmother had recently been "very ill". |
| grandmother and granddaughter | minor | A little girl, whom everybody called Little Red Riding-hood, set out to deliver a custard and some butter to her very ill grandmother. |
| mother and daughter | minor | Little Red Riding-hood happily went on an errand at her dotting mother's bidding. The mother was concerned for her own mother in turn, the grandmother. |