A victim, a heroine, a tramp, a seductress, a traitor, a bystander, an innocent? A girl innocent and naive or simply dumb, a growing woman who is cunning and courageous, or a charming mystery? Is her cloak to protect her or hide her? Is it magical or simply practical? Is it helpful or hindering?
Like many fairytale characters Red Riding Hood has come a long way over the years, in the early fairytales she quickly went from a cannibal who saved herself with wit and the aid of other women, to a naive girl devoured by a wolf, and then to still a naive girl who was this time rescued from the wolf's belly by a Huntsman. Since then in fiction and film she has become a growing woman, her red cloak and her relationship with the wolf considered to be something sexual, a sign of aging and her promiscuity for better or worse. She has also been a huntress, a werewolf herself, bait, a seductress and more.
Charles Dickens said of her "Little Red Riding Hood was my first love. I felt that if I could have married Little Red Riding Hood, I should have known perfect bliss." Luciano Pavarotti remarked, "I identified with Little Red Riding Hood, I had the same fears as she, I didn’t want to die. I dreaded her death — or what we think death is. I waited anxiously for the hunter to come." Should we too view Little Red Riding Hood as a young girl facing a violent and premature death, which sometimes she is saved from, sometimes saves herself from and alas, sometimes suffers?
Is Red's story about sex, death, adulthood, trust, naivety, or a cold lesson on life? Is the wolf a real wolf, a man in disguise, or a werewolf? Does he plan to seduce or kill? Is he taunting or teaching Red? What of Red's grandmother? Is she one who knew the lesson but forgot it in her old age to a fatal end? Was she narrow minded or wise? Had she tangled with wolves before and shut them all out as villains? Thus winding up alone in the house, safe but without love? In the Company of Wolves Rosaleen's grandmother strikes me as being like this, she has taken the lesson that all men are wolves and all wolves are bad too close to heart and as such she is alone and incapable of opening herself up to pleasant experiences. Much like Virgina in the 10th Kingdom who holds herself back from everyone and everything to avoid getting hurt until the wolf himself tells her that she might not get hurt that way but she won't get loved either.
Sam The Sham and the Pharaohs suggest that the wolf is not in sheep's clothing to trap Red but to put her fears of him at ease until she realises he is no threat, "I'm gonna keep my sheep suit on until I'm sure that you've been shown that I can be trusted walking with you alone." After all, this wolf doesn't want to eat Red, he wants to protect and probably seduce her because she's "everything a big bad wolf could want" and "even bad wolves can be good". This wolf wants to earn Red's trust before seducing her.
In The Company of Wolves the huntsman, who was also the wolf in a dual nature, was more playful about seducing her, he wagered against her and when he won, he won her too. Though Rosaleen was smart enough to realise he was a bad wolf, and bold enough to shoot him, in the end she still wanted to be with him.
In Once Upon A Time and Trick R Treat, Red is the wolf, there is no one to seduce her, though in Trick R Treat there is a vampiric serial killer who attempts and fails to hunt her, for she is too crafty for him and chooses to hunt him instead, and in Once Upon A Time Red is both huntress and the hunted, the victim and the killer. We see her using her wolf skills to hunt and yet at the same time we seeing her subduing this wolf nature with her cloak because it is dangerous. In the Red Riding Hood film, the wolf is Red's father and later her lover as the curse is passed on, she is the only one who can hear the wolf initially, but she is not his victim, she is his enemy until his nature changes and passes to her love Peter, then she is his protector and willing to abandon civilisation to be with him.
What of the huntsman? A late addition, he is the masculine presence, a reminder to women that they need men to save them. Is he the gruff father figure? The safer lover? The scornful reminder of a woman's fragile nature? Is he a teacher? He saves not just Red but her grandmother too, thus cementing the idea that the males don't just protect little girls but all women too, and even women who are wise with age are still members of the weaker gender.
In the Red Riding Hood film he is a thinly veiled villain, a religious man, mad with desire to kill the wolf and all tainted by it, he meets a justified fate when he becomes bitten and is killed by his own men before he can turn.
Often this character does not appear much in film or fiction, in The Company of Wolves he is also the wolf, an interesting and deceptive contrast, he saves Red not from the wolves but from a life as a narrow minded, judgemental and ultimately lonely woman like her grandmother, and he releases granny from her bitter life. He rescues Red from youth and carries her into adulthood but he is not the dominant sex here, for Rosaleen can stand up to him, even wound him and rescue him, not from wolves but from other men. It is a role reversal, Red is the deliverer from death not the huntsman.
In Sisters Red he is the rescuer and later the wolf to be, he is also a lover, he is Silas, close companion to Scarlett and Rosie, he is desired by both, but ultimately drawn to Rosie, Scarlett sees him as a hunting ally but Rosie regards him as something much more alluring. Alas, this huntsman is more caught up with the wolves than any of them want but it is something Rosie feels she can ultimately deal with.
So who is the wolf? Who is the huntsman? And who is Red? Is she all three? Deadly, domineering, seductive and no longer the little girl of legend. In Legends: The Enchanted she is all grown up, a kick ass huntress, and in Fables she is a deceptive, bold escapee, she flees successfully from the Adversary and into Boy Blue's arms, tough enough to survive what others couldn't, she seems to survive capture by the foes again only to return to Boy Blue against the odds in the modern world. Alas, this Red is no friend but a clever foe who uses her sex appeal, wits and excellent acting skills to win over everyone's trust and learn what she can about the fables, everyone except for the Big Bad Wolf who was her earliest foe. As it turns out she is Baba Yaga in disguise and the real Red Riding Hood's, who actually rode in this comic, fate is unknown. Was she always a disguised witch or did Boy Blue meet the real thing? It's implied that he did not but what happened after he left their homeland is unknown. Eventually the truth is revealed, Boy Blue never knew the real Red, it was a sorceress in disguise, the real Red finds herself loathed as people view her as the villain she never was, she finds friendship with Boy Blue and the Frog Prince before eventually becoming the Frog Prince's lover.
In Zenescope's Grimm series she is Britney Waters, at first she has a dream of being Red Riding Hood and it seems to be a metaphor for how her boyfriend who is pressuring her into sex is the wolf in disguise. Later however it becomes clear that Britney really is Red Riding Hood, she turns into a sword wielding huntress who also becomes the wolf as her powers grow. In the Lullaby comic books she is a werewolf too, as is her granny and she goes into a berserk form of fighting.
She is friends with Alice in Lullaby, with Snow White in Once Upon A Time, part of a werewolf clique in Trick R Treat who are dressed as Snow White, Cinderella and Little Bo Peep respectively, Cinderella being portrayed by her sister, the appropriately named Danielle; in Zenescope's Grimm series she seems to know all the fairytale women, and in Fables she is lover to Boy Blue and to the Frog Prince.
Her name is a bit of an enigma, it's usually seen as a nickname, a title because of the red hooded cloak she wears but when does she ever ride? Fables showed Red's bloody entry upon a unicorn, riding literally for her life, and The 10th Kingdom had Queen Riding Hood in a cameo, asking for her riding boots, and Once Upon A Time has shown Red on horseback a couple of times but there is no indication throughout the many versions that riding is a hobby of Red's.
As for the hooded cloak, in the Perrault version it was actually a red cap and in The Grandmother's Tale her costume was never described. Many view red as a purposely chosen colour to be a metaphor for blood, sex or/and violence. It is attention grabbing, and sometimes an indication that Red brought her fate upon herself by drawing the wolf to her. In Sisters Red, the girls purposely wear red because they know the wolves cannot resist it. In Once Upon A Time, Red's cloak is magical, made by granny to subdue her werewolf curse. In The Company of Wolves it is made by her grandmother as she tells Rosaleen several tales, it is a gift. Is it just to keep her warm as she walks in the woods? Might it not be a hindrance snagging on the branches and catching in the leaves? Is to draw danger or to protect? That is up for interpretation.
Whether she a young girl terrorised by a wolf, a young woman being seduced by a wolf, or an axe wielding wolf huntress, we all know her nickname Red Riding Hood. The girl under the cloak however is a mystery, grandmother cautions her against revealing it, the wolf compels her to show it and the huntsman tries to shield it again. If she sheds her cloak does she become a woman, or another victim?
