Little Red Cap Sparknotes

Textual Transformation and the Role of Autonomy “Little Red Cap”, written by the Brothers Grimm, is a commonly known fairytale, often told to children as a cautionary tale of disobedience. The story is renowned for its clear moral, and drastic transformation from its pretext, “The Story of Grandmother.” “Little Red Cap” eliminates sexual content, and grotesque actions of female characters, in addition to a multitude of other modifications, to provide a publishable literary work designed with pedagogical intentions to instill manners and obedience in young girls. The content of the edification frequently leads to assumptions of the moral being drawn from a fear that women will disobey societal gender roles that allow inferiority to be placed …show more content…
The pretext allows its character autonomy through her decision making, exemplified in her ability to choose between “‘the path of needles or the path of pins,’” and the independent decision and action she makes to escape the wolf (Delarue 10). The Grimms eliminate LRRH’s ability to independently escape, remove the opportunity for a choice of path, and create dialogue where the wolf coerces Little Red Cap into the woods by commenting on how “‘heavenly’” the woods are, and saying, “‘Why don’t you look around for awhile?” (Grimm 14). To emphasize the moral the Grimms alter the pretext through the addition of the mother’s lecture, specifically her command for Little Red Cap to “‘walk properly and don’t stray from the path,’” as a form of prohibition that outlines the moral and dictates Little Red Cap’s further actions (Grimm 14). The Grimms eliminate the autonomy of LRRH through the elimination and addition of instructional dialogue that reflects the desired edification, which is intended to apply to young girls thereby transitively intending to limit their