Bruno Bettelheim's Little Red Riding Hood

Bruno Bettelheim and Jill P. May view the illustrations of “Little Red Riding Hood” differently due to their different ways of looking at things. Bettelheim looks at the illustration through a psychoanalytic view while May observes through a critical theorist viewpoint. Since Bettelheim approaches “Little Red Riding Hood” in a psychoanalytic way, he believes the key moment is when Little Red Riding Hood is in bed with the wolf. Bettelheim looks at the fairy tale through a psychoanalytic view which is why he perceives the key moment as a “little girl’s oedipal longings for her father” (176). This is shown in how Little Red Riding Hood willingly got into the bed with the wolf and the “combination of feelings her face and body suggest fascination” (Bettelheim 176). If …show more content…
The illustration being in black and white plays an important role in the meaning of the image. First, it is in black and white reveals what time period it was created in. Dore’s illustration was created in 1862. This is significant since back in the eighteenth century everything was black and white (Zipes 233). The difference in color plays a key part in how the illustration appears. Colors can influence how someone feels when they look at an image. The black and white give Dore’s illustration an intense appearance. The dark colors combined with white emphasize Little Red Riding Hood’s ambivalent feelings through the widening and blackness of Little Red Riding Hood’s eyes. Hyman’s illustration is entirely different from Dore in that it is in color. The color gives off a softer look to the scene where Little Red Riding Hood meets the wolf for the first time. Bright coloring of Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf against the dark colors of the background make the viewer focus on the two characters. The focus on Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf emphasize the appearance that the wolf is protective of her (May