“The Little Red Riding-Hood” Fairy Tale teaches us the Importance of the Dissolution of Innocence

The earliest known version of the classic Fairy Tale “The Little Red Riding Hood” is contained within the Perrault Manuscript dating 1695. Two years later, in 1697, a publication of it occurred in Histories ou Contes du temps passe. Ever since, the tale has gained popularity.

While there have been prettified versions of this classic fairy tale in publication since the earliest 1695 manuscript of it, like the tale recounted in the Brother’s Grimm, for instance, the Perrault Manuscript version of “The Little Red Riding-Hood” maintains the ethic of fairy tale and will thus be discussed in this post.

If you would like to read the Parrault manuscript version of the classic fairy tale, “The Little Red Riding-Hood” in addition to other classic fairy tales, consider the following compilation from Iona and Peter Opie. You may purchase it on Amazon using the button.

A Summary of the Classic “The Little Red Riding-Hood” Fairy Tale

“The Little Red Riding-Hood” fairy tale is a fairy tale following a little country girl named Biddy who was born in a village. She was the prettiest little creature that ever was seen, and while her mother was beyond reason excessively fond of her, her grandmother was much more fond of her, and it is her grandmother who had made for her a little red Riding-Hood, which is why she came to be called, the little red Riding-Hood.

One day, her mother, having heard that her grandmother has been very ill, sends Biddy to her grandmother’s house, which is through the wood in another village with a custard pye and a little pot of butter.

It is on this journey through the wood that Biddy meets Gossop Wolfe who had a “good mind to eat her up, but he did not dare, because of some faggotmakers that were in the forrest.”

Instead, Gossop Wolfe asks Biddy where she is going, and “the poor child, who did not know how dangerous a thing it is to stay and hear a Wolfe talk, said to him, I am going to see my Grandmamma, and carry her a custard pye, and a little pot of butter my mamma sends her. Does she live far off? said the Wolfe. Oh! ay, said the little red Riding-Hood, on the other side of the mill below yonder, at the first house in the village. Well, said the Wolfe, and I’ll go and see her too; I’ll go this way, and go you that and we shall see who will be there soonest.”

The Wolfe arrives at the house before Biddy does. He counterfeits his voice to sound like Biddy when he knocks at the door, and it works. The grandmother tells him how to open the door. Once inside, Gossop Wolfe eats the grandmother “in the tenth part of a moment;”

After this, Gossop Wolfe shuts the door and gets into the bed expecting the Little Red Riding-Hood. Shortly after, Biddy arrives, knocks at the door, and “… hearing the big voice of the Wolfe, was at first afraid; but believing her grandmother had got a cold, and was grown hoarse, said it is your grand-daughter, The little red Riding-Hood, who has brought you a custard pye, and a little pot of butter mamma sends you.”

Gossop Wolfe cries out to her again, softening his voice as much as he could, to pull up the bobbin so that the latch of the door will go up. Biddy follows his directions.

Seeing her come in and hiding himself under the clothes, Gossop Wolfe instructs Biddy to put the custard pye and the little pot of butter on the stool and to come into bed with him. Biddy undresses herself, gets into bed, and “… she was very much astonished to see how her grandmother looked in her night-cloths: …”

Next, come possibly the most well-known lines from “The Little Red Riding-Hood” fairy tale:

“… Grandmamma, what great arms you have got! It is the better to embrace thee my pretty child. Grandmamma, what great legs you have got! it is to run the better my child. Grandmamma, what great ears you have got! It is to hear the better my child. Grandmamma, what great eyes you have got! It is to see the better my child. Grandmamma, what great teeth you have got! It is to eat thee up.”

Then, “… this wicked Wolfe fell upon the little red Riding-Hood, and eat her up.”

The Truth Contained within “The Little Red Riding-Hood” Fairy Tale

While it may at first seem that “The Little Red Riding-Hood” is a fairy tale about an evil and predatory wolf preying on innocence and vulnerability, the truth of the tale is much deeper and more significant than this obvious derivation. Rather than “The Little Red Riding-Hood” being a mere story of the nature of predatory behavior, the fairy tale conveys the truth that the development of intuition comes only at the expense of innocence yet that this dissolution of innocence allows us to respond to the reality of the world in ways that are to our benefit.

This essay-style blog post articulates how “The Little Red Riding-Hood” fairy tale reveals this truth.

Before we get into the substance of this post, we must first establish two operative terms:

i) What is Intuition?

Intuition is the ability to know something immediately without the need to reason through it. Put another way, intuition is the ability to know from instinctive feeling rather than from conscious reasoning.

ii) What is Deception?

Deception is the act of intentionally misleading someone by hiding or distorting the truth. Furthermore, deception is an act of getting someone to accept something false and invalid as if it were true and valid.

The State of Innocence vs. the State of Experience

There are two contrary developmental states which we may inhabit and from which we may respond: i) the state of innocence and ii) the state of experience. The state of innocence, although natural, pure, and something we all inhabit, is a short-lived state which must be dissolved by the state experience if we are to make it with any benefit, safety, and security within the world.

The single differentiator between a state of innocence a the state of experience is an understanding that ill will exists in the world. As a result of this understanding, a state of experience offers one the knowledge of deception, and it is the knowledge of this deception which inhibits the development of intuition.

The State of Experience and the State of Innocence in “The Little Red Riding-Hood” Fairy Tale

Biddy lives in a state of innocence, and we know this early on in the fairy tale when she meets the personification of ill will in Gossop Wolfe. The first mention that Biddy still lives in a state of innocence occurs with her total honesty as she tells Gossop Wolfe the exact house that she is going to visit. To Biddy who lives in a state of innocence, the idea that there is danger, evil, or trouble in the world is beyond her ability to know or comprehend. Hence, the trouble she faces in being completely honest with Gossop Wolfe is outside of her awareness. As a result of her state of innocence, she is able to be completely honest with Gossop Wolfe without even a conception that there is danger and thus without the knowledge that she ought to deceive.

Yet, the tale makes clear the intention of Gossop Wolfe and thus makes it clear that Biddy is in trouble. While some may claim that a Wolfe wanting to eat a child would constitute evil, and in many aspects it does, the more important thing that the tale is communicating is that Gossop Wolfe has an advantage that Biddy lacks. Gossop Wolfe lives in a state of experience. For he knows that if he is caught doing as he pleases, he will be in trouble by the faggotmakers in the wood, and for this reason, he must utilize deception.

Deception is inherently contrary to a state of innocence. While one may make many moral implications pertaining to the ethics of deception, it is worth considering that a state of experience and the utilization of deception in no way necessarily implies a hardened, evil heart intending ill will. If Biddy, like Gossop Wolfe, had the conception of deception that a state of experience provides, she, too, would have the advantage to deceive Gossop Wolfe. Biddy may have done this through lying or through withholding information, or she may have been honest and told Gossop Wolfe that she never tells her whereabouts to strangers. Any of these options would work to establish her benefit instead of her demise. Moreover, Biddy may have done either of the deceptive instances without harboring an evil, hardened heart intending ill will toward Gossop Wolfe.

Hence, we are presented with two contrary states of being in “The Little Red Riding-Hood” fairy tale from the encounter in the wood. There is Biddy, naive, who lives in a state of innocence, and there is ill will personified in Gossop Wolfe who lives in a state of experience and who knows he must deceive.

The Same Fate for Different Reasons

Grandmamma and Biddy both meet the same fate in the classic “The Little Red Riding-Hood” fairy tale. Both Biddy and Grandmamma are eaten alive by Gossop Wolfe, yet each meets her fate for different reasons, and these reasons are important in understanding the truth that the tale conveys as the tale is in now way insinuating that a state of experience necessarily will save one from the reality of ill will present in the world.

While Grandmamma, like Gossop Wolfe, lives in a state of experience and while Biddy, unlike both of them, lives in a state of innocence, the fairy tale uses these contrary states and the demise of each to convey i) the reality of ill will and deception and ii) that a developed intuition at the cost of the dissolution of innocence provides the best chance to respond to the reality of ill-will appropriately when we do encounter it.

Gossop Wolfe implicitly understands that Grandmamma, like him, lives in a state of experience. For this reason, Gossop Wolfe intentionally counterfeits his voice to sound like the voice of little red Riding-Hood when he knocks on Grandmamma’s door. For if Grandmamma hears the voice of a wolf, her state of experience enables her to intuit the reality of ill-will or danger and to thus respond appropriately. Hence, Gossop Wolfe knows that in order to gain access to Grandmamma and her home, he must rely on successful, undetected deception.

However, unlike the counterfeiting that occurs with Grandmamma, the case is otherwise when Biddy knocks on the door. When it is the little red Riding-Hood knocking on the door, Gossop Wolfe never counterfeits his voice to sound like the voice of Grandmamma. Instead, it is said that Biddy hears the big voice of the Wolfe and was at first afraid. Contrary to his act when interacting with a state of experience, when interacting with a state of innocence, Gossop Wolfe knows that little red Riding-Hood will be unable to intuit the danger because her state of innocence prohibits her from having any idea or awareness that it exists. Hence, Gossop Wolfe knows that there is no need to counterfeit his voice, and he is right. Biddy’s undeveloped intuition leads her straight to her demise.

The “Little Red Riding-Hood” fairy tale clearly conveys through the knocking interactions that Biddy and Grandmamma live in different states. While a state of experience in no way guarantees absolute protection from the reality of the ill will present in the world, the state of innocence completely prohibits a developed intuition, which is the one thing that would have saved Biddy if she had it. While Grandmamma is genuinely deceived, and her death works to demonstrate the reality of ill will and the working of deception, Biddy dies to demonstrate both the protection a developed intuition may provides and the danger of having an undeveloped intuition in the face of the reality of ill will.

Developed Intuition and the Dissolution of Innocence

Developed intuition can never exist in a state of innocence as a state of innocence is ignorant of the truth of ill will present in the world.

While some may lament the truth of the necessity of the short-lived and necessarily fleeting innocence of childhood, there is much to be gained in a state of experience. The reason that we understand that Gossop Wolfe deceiving and murdering Grandmamma is wrong even though she lives in a state of experience is that we would not want this to be our fate. We understand that if this happens to her, it can happen to us. However, the reason that we understand that Gossop Wolfe preying on Biddy is wrong is that healthy people naturally work to protect that which is innocent. We naturally recognize the purity of innocence and feel compelled to protect it, yet protecting innocence and prolonging it are two different things. “The Little Red Riding-Hood” fairy tale proves that prolonging a state of innocence is detrimental in the face of the reality of ill will that we all will sooner or later face and that, rather, dissolving innocence with an awareness of the truth of this reality is what allows for the development of intuition, a saving grace in the face of trouble.

Although a state of experience in no way guarantees one will detect deception when it is deployed, a state of experience is responsible for the awareness of the truth of ill will. When it comes to a developed intuition or the ability to know from instinct, having a conception of ill will is necessary, and the way in which Biddy responds to hearing the uncounterfeited voice of Gossop Wolfe clearly demonstrates this truth. If Biddy had a developed intuition, which includes an awareness and conception of ill will, she would have been able to know from this initial, instinctual response that something was wrong and to respond in a way that would save her.

However, as the difference in how Gossop Wolfe responds to Biddy knocking on the door and how he responds to Grandmamma knocking on the door demonstrates, Biddy lives in a state of innocence. Although Biddy does have an initial response of fear to hearing the big voice of the Wolfe, she is unable to respond to her fear as having any legitimacy. As a result, she must resort back to what she does know, and for this reason Biddy detrimentally reasons herself away from her initial, fearful response and concludes that her Grandmamma has a cold and must therefore have a hoarse voice. If Biddy inhabited a state of experience, she would have been able to intuit or know from her instinct that something is, in fact, wrong as she would know that ill will does, in fact, exist. However, her state of innocence prevents her from having any awareness of ill will, and thus, she has no ability to trust her initial, intuitional response as being a legitimate, knowledgable resource.

There is no Happily Ever After

Although prettified or vitriolic versions of the classic fairy tale “The Little Red Riding-Hood” have been published, reprinted, and popularized, there is no happily ever after in the classic “The Little Red Riding-Hood“ fairy tale. Such an ending would defeat the significant truth pertaining to the benefit and the necessity of the dissolution of innocence which the tale provides.

Rather, the classic“The Little Red Riding-Hood” fairy tale makes clear that although a state of innocence is pure and precious and ought to be protected, this in no way means that it ought to be prolonged at the expense of establishing a state of experience. It is necessary to dissolve a state of innocence with awareness and knowledge of the ill will present in the world as it is only through such dissolution that we are able to develop our intuition, which gives us our best chance to respond appropriately to ill will when we encounter it instead of being eaten alive.