Headstrong heroines, degraded males, dysfunctional relationships, twisted manipulations – these are all distinct aspects of romantic relationships Carol Ann Duffy explores in ‘Little Red Cap’ and ‘Mrs. Beast’. In both poems, Duffy’s female characters are more romantically and sexually sovereign and potent which stands in opposition to the traditional domineering males in relationships. She illustrates this through allusion and an uncompromising tone of narration. The poem, ‘Little Red cap’, which is drawn from the story of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ , explores the relationship of a teenage girl and an older man, who takes his form in the symbol of a wolf. However, in opposition to the original story, the girl kills the wolf all by herself, …show more content…
This is epitomized by her use of colloquial language. In ‘Little Red-Cap’, the speaker is bold and resolute in her seduction of the wolf. From the line, ‘I made quite sure he spotted me’, it can be seen that the speaker is autonomous in her pursue of the wolf, which is different from the conventional male courtship figure, displaying that the speaker is more confident and audacious in her romantic relationship. Duffy may also use the colloquial language to juxtapose with different imageries to express the transition in the female speaker. From the line, ‘my stockings ripper to shreds…I lost both shoes’, internal rhyme is used to link up colloquial items like ‘murder clues’ with ‘shreds’, ‘red’ and ‘clues’, ‘shoes’, this develops a childlike imagery, as childish items are being shed along her journey into the woods, which may illustrate the speaker’s sacrifice of innocence for sexual maturity and experiences. It may also link with how in the original French version of the story, there is often a long account of how Red Cap discards her clothings before climbing into bed with the wolf, which has clear associations with seduction and rape. Nursery rhyme is immediately used in the next line, ‘but got there…better beware’, to intensify the sense of warning and danger, as in real life, adults uses …show more content…
Beast’, Duffy uses a bold and intransigent narration to characterize the masculine and independent feature of the female speaker. In the line, ‘They’re bastards when they’re Prince/What you want to do is find yourself a prince’, it illustrate the speaker’s distrust in the princes-heroic males figures, and her desire to exercise control in her relationship, which may foreshadow on how she is the dominant figure in her romantic and sexual relationship with the beast. The pronouns‘I’ and ‘my’ are repeatedly used in her narration to place emphasizes on her autonomy in both her romantic and sexual relationship. This is exhibited in descriptions like , ‘Myself, I came to the House of the Beast/No longer a girl , knowing my own mind’, the pronouns ‘I’ and ‘my’ magnifies the her autonomy and superiority as she emphasize on her individual presence in pursue of the beast. As the eponymous title would suggest that, the narrator is the real ‘Beast’ who wishes only to accumulate her ‘own gold’, ‘better sex’ and husband to ‘kiss my glove’, all of these diction shows that the speaker is financially, sexually and domestically independent, which shows that in her relationship with the beast, she is more romantically and sexually superior. In the narrator’s description of her sexual intimacy with the beast, mostly short sentences are used to express her instruction for the beast, further illustrating her sexual superiority. ‘Do this.Harder’ is one of her list of
The second example of red is found in the quote, “For a long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy of rain.” Hurst contrasts Doodle to the scarlet ibis. Covered in brilliant red blood, Doodle had bled to death. The narrator transforms Doodle into the scarlet ibis in an effort to hide from the horrific truth that Doodle is dead. The image of Doodle is so gruesome, so Hurst tries to lighten the scene by making it sound more beautiful, by using words such as brilliant red. The narrator does not realize how alike Doodle and the scarlet ibis are until he holds Doodle in his arms, and he can feel his slender frame and sees the bright red blood on his body, which looks like the scarlet ibis’s
When you think of the color red, you may automatically think of the ideas of death, emotion, or love. James Hurst uses the symbolic color of red help us visualize the story and bring it to life. For example, the narrator describes Doodle during the storm saying, “He had been bleeding from the mouth, and his neck and the front of his shirt were stained a brilliant red.” Hurst using the words bleeding and red give us a better visual to what is happening in the story. He as well does this when the narrator says, “ I began to weep, and the tear blurred vision in red before me looked very familiar.” This line shows Brother’s emotions, how angry he was and remorseful. Other instances where the author uses red is with Doodle’s mahogany casket, the bleeding tree, and the Ibis’
The author says “The man cradled the wolf in his arms and lowered her to the ground” (lines 5 and 6). Using the word “cradled” implies how emotionally attached the man was to the wolf. The word used represents a feeling of sympathy towards the wolf as well. The author also expresses a mournful moment by using the word “lowered” to imply that the man set the wolf on the ground, rather than using words such as; setting, putting, or dropping. Using descriptive words is setting the tone and mood of the passage from the very beginning, letting us know the passage is sad and mournful. When the main character squats over the wolf and places his hand on her bloody forehead, he closes his eyes, then views her life before death and after. McCarthy says ¨He sees her running through the mountains and through the starlight¨ (lines 44 through 46). By implying this description, McCarthy gives a prime example of how the main character views her life. The author also says ¨When the wolf ran, the cries of the coyotes clapped shut as if a door had closed upon them¨ (lines 52 and 53). I believe this is the coyotes way of showing respect for the passing of the wolf and shutting down as if humans would do at a funeral for a loved
Red takes action, goes against the social fairy tale norms. There are no huntsmen in the movie, rather instead, she takes in protection and attacks the wolf herself, starting off with mace. The little girl is portrayed to be aggressive than passive, sassy, has an attitude, and is a brat. Other than being passive, Red is considered to be smart. She is aware of the conflicts surrounding her and not to trust strangers, especially the big bad wolf that is following her. Alike being her grandmother, Red too is an adventurous female. For Red seeks for an adventure in her life, wanting to live outside of the woods and explore the world away from the safe path. During Hoodwink, Red shows a daring unlike what Grimm and other fairy tales have shown. Red goes on adventure before entering into Granny’s house by taking various activities a like skydiving. Hence, throughout history to modern day, contemporary tales of Little Red Cap has adapted from its traditional to anti-traditional role in women. Modern fairy tales involves female characters to take a hold of action instead of waiting for a male
Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages. She wore a cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers.’ The quote suggests that she wears the colour red in her outfit and wears heavy make-up which suggests she is the wife of a wealthy family. The colour red has connotations of love, danger and passion which foreshadows that she is a danger to herself and everybody on the ranch and that she is a flirt.
The poem begins with the speaker reminiscing about her childhood. The speaker describes how she and her sister would play with “Meema’s Indian Blanket” (ln 2) and sleep with Daddy’s “army green”
"Riding The Red"at first glance is a simple narrative with a grandmother telling a story about a wolf, but with further analyzation the two themes of first love and innocent become very clear. The author’s repetition of certain words like blood and dance directs your attention to a deeper meaning hinting and connections to the "Little Red Riding Hood" which reflects back to the underlining message of what happens when a girl grows up.
Little red riding hood is about a girl on a trip to her sick grandmother’s house but she had met a wolf on her way there. There are many different versions of this story, the Perrault version and Grimm version. There was also a parody of Little Red Riding Hood called Hoodwinked!. In all of the stories they all start with a mother giving something to give to her daughter. For her daughter to travel into the forest to give her grandmother what her mother had made.
Little Red Riding Hood is a fairytale known worldwide about an innocent little girl and a big bad wolf, or so it seems. Deeper investigation into the hidden meanings of this age-old ever changing fairy tale reveals many different tales all together; where the character’s true intentions and character traits might surprise you. Little Red Riding Hood can be traced back to the 10th century. One of the oldest documented versions originated from Italy by Italio Calvino, called The False Grandma.
The stories ?Little Red Riding Hood,? by Charles Perrault, and ?Little Red Cap,? by the Brothers Grimm, are similar and different. Moreover, both stories differ from the American version. The stories have a similar moral at the end, each with a slight twist. This story, in each of its translations, is representative of a girl?s loss of innocence, her move from childhood or adolescence into adulthood. The way women are treated within each story is different. Little Red in the French version was eaten; whereas in the German version, she is rescued by the woodsman, and this further emphasizes the cultural differences.
Mrs Beast is the penultimate poem of the collection. It helps to sum up Duffy’s aim of The World’s Wife: to highlight the female voice by looking at human history. The entire poem is a retelling of the fable of ‘The Beauty and the Beast’ by Jean-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont. Beauty sees past the Beast's outward appearance, bringing the feminist rejection of objectification to the fore. However, Beaumont's portrayal of Beauty as a submissive, obedient daughter to her father and servant to the Beast is anything but feminist. Duffy re-works the tale to explore her thoughts about feminism and feminist
TOPIC: To what extent does Carol Ann Duffy present a feminist perspective in the poem ‘Little Red Cap’.
This is no lapse in consistency by Carter; the carnivorous wolf may be a man that has even worse intentions for the flesh. The narrator warns, "If you spy a naked man among the pines, you must run as if the Devil were after you" (2234). Since the man is naked, his true nature, which is more frightening than a wolf, is revealed. Carter metaphorically emphasizes the danger of women being deceived by the false appearance men present in action and personality. Red Riding Hood is deceived by the friendly, handsome hunter: letting her guard down, she allows him to accompany her through the woods while "laughing and joking like old friends" (2235).
In Carol Ann Duffy’s “Little Red Cap,” taken from her collection The Worlds Wife, Duffy incorporates her feminist views on life to help develop Red-Cap’s character into an independent woman. In her work, Duffy intends to illuminate for the audience that woman are more powerful than they are perceived by society. In the poem, she writes about a young girl at the peak of her childhood, who is about to enter into the next phase of her life. The young, inexperienced girl describes the beginning of her transformation into adulthood after losing her innocence to “The Wolf.” The loss of her innocence contributes to the realization that she no longer needs an old, no good wolf. She gains the courage and reflects on how her life changes dramatically after her departure from the wolf. The poem “Little Red-Cap," written in The World’s Wife, closely relates to certain aspects of the original fairy tales written by The Grimm Brother and Charles Perrault. Duffy’s version of “Little Red Cap” is a rewrite of the original fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood.” Duffy incorporates her strong feminist views by allowing Red-Cap to initiate her encounter with the wolf and to use him for gaining knowledge for her career and sexual desires. These aspects contribute to the development of Red-Cap’s character into a more independent woman to contradict the oppression of women in the past and present generations, and allowing her to offer suggestions for women in the future.
The folk tale of “Little Red Riding Hood” has numerous variations and interpretations depending on what recorded version is being read or analyzed. “Little Red Cap,” by the Grimm Brothers, and “The Grandmother,” as collected by Achille Millien, are different in numerous ways: the depth of the narrative structure, characters involved, length – yet, the moral lesson is largely unchanged between the two versions. One of the more glaring differences between the two versions is the way that the narrator and the actions of the characters are used to describe the young girl, female, and the wolf, male. Being either female or male are matters of biological makeup. The characteristics of femininity and masculinity that are associated with being