GENTLE WOLVES Re-contextualizing Fairy Tale Illustration A thesis presented to The Honors Tutorial College, Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation from the Honors Tutorial College with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art–Graphic Design by Madeleine Valley, April 2013 This thesis has been approved by THE HONORS TUTORIAL COLLEGE and THE COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS SHERRY BLANKENSHIP Professor, Graphic Design Thesis Adviser VINCENT CARANCHINI DOS, Honors Tutorial College Studio Art JEREMY WEBSTER Dean, Honors Tutorial College 1 The history of fairy tales is tangled and complex. From Grimm and Anderson to Walt Disney, what we know as fairy tales have been filtered through so many film studios, illustrators, writers, and TV shows that they are almost unrecognizable from the versions first published in print—which are in turn unrecognizable from the stories that inspired them. Part of the appeal of researching and interpreting fairy tales is that each iteration of them so far is indicative of the culture that created it—and more to the point, how women were viewed by the culture of the time. In the 1830’s, Hans Christian Andersen filled his with an overabundance of stepmothers to reflect the high birth mortality rate for mothers; in 1900 Arthur Rackham illustrated the stories of the Brothers Grimm with waif-like, scantily-clad heroines, a fantasy escape from the tightly-corseted women of his own time; In the mid-20th century Walt Disney gave his princesses heroes and happy endings so that they might live their post-World War II domestic dreams; in 1979 Angela Carter made her heroines first-wave feminist icons. Each re-interpretation has offered a new vision of the women it contains, but one thing remains constant: the focus is on the women. What first attracted me to the idea of researching fairy tales was actually a reading of Angela Carter’s “Company of Wolves1.” She had been explained to me as a “feminist” author, but what struck me most about the story was the fact that Little Red wasn’t the hero—what made her a dynamic character was the fact that she was ambiguous. It’s not clear in the story what her intentions are, because the reader is removed from the action, as well as from any internal thoughts the characters are having. Part of the disconnect between characters and the reader has to do with the fact that Carter uses language similar to that of the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian 1 Carter, Angela. Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales. London: Virago Press, 2005. 2 Andersen23. Their original language is also strangely detached—sentences are simple, since the stories were meant to be understood by children, but there’s a restrained horror underlying many of their stories once the reader begins to understand what is happening to the characters. This comes from the subject matter of the story contrasted with the simplified, detached tone. Much like harsh lighting in a horror film, the dry, honest language the original writers used, and that Carter used also, highlights the creepier elements of the stories. I hadn’t read older versions of fairy tales when I read Carter’s re-interpretation of “Little Red Riding Hood”, but her tone gripped my imagination, so I went back to the original texts by Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and other translations to see what I would find. What I discovered was that Carter wasn’t so removed from older versions of the story. In Perrault’s version of “Little Red,” the girl and her grandmother die violent deaths at the hand of the wolf; in the Grimm version, the huntsman cuts open the wolf’s belly while he’s still alive before the girl and her grandmother drown him; early French and Italian versions of the story have the wolf tricking the girl into eating parts of her grandmother for dinner, and are probably where Carter got the idea of Little Red burning her clothes before getting into bed with the wolf. In contemporary times, the most often told version is probably Grimm’s. In a contemporary context, the fact that the young girl (who is the hero of the story) commits these violent acts in order to prosper at the end of her story, presents a certain moral ambiguity. In “The Werewolf,” author Angela Carter re-imagines the classic Grimm fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood,” or, “Little Red Cap,” to great effect. 2 Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. Anonymous translation. Grimm’s Fairy Tales. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2012. 3 Andersen, H. C. Fairy Tale. New York: Orion, 1958. Print. 3 Carter’s audience is likely familiar with “Little Red Cap” and its didactic theme of good triumphing over evil (good symbolized by the young girl, and evil symbolized by the wolf who terrorizes her). However, by re-contextualizing the story and staying true to the original tone, Carter lends the tale fresh depth and meaning. She adds humanity to a classic villain, and thus adds complexity to the question of right and wrong. This suits an adult audience that has outgrown Grimm’s stories for children. In her short story, Carter very clearly pulls inspiration from the original. In the original Grimm tale, there is no specific setting described for the story further than “once upon a time4”. Carter elaborates much further, setting up a “cold,” “harsh,” superstitious town as a backdrop for her characters5. Though this may seem like a divergence from her source material, the vaguely historical setting Carter creates is not so different from what many people imagine upon hearing “once upon a time.” For children, this phrase conjures up images of castles and princesses, but for adults who are more familiar with history and the hardships of life, “once upon a time” might very well be a time and place like the one Carter describes. She also makes references to witchcraft, again reinforcing the vague history of her setting, and describes the fate of a suspected witch with harsh frankness: once villagers find a witch’s third nipple, “they stone her to death.” Though this is jarring in contrast to more popular versions of fairy tales, it echoes the language the Brothers Grimm use in their original stories. For example, in “Little Red Cap,” when the wolf finds Little Red Cap’s grandmother, “he went straight to the grandmother’s bed without saying a word and gobbled her up. Next he put on her clothes and her 4 Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. Anonymous translation. Grimm’s Fairy Tales. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2012. 5 Carter, Angela. Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales. London: Virago Press, 2005. 4 nightcap, lay down in her bed, and drew the curtains6”. Though the image of a wolf in human clothing is lighthearted, it follows the image of a wild animal eating the protagonist’s grandmother. The Brothers Grimm downplay what would be, in real life, a traumatizing event, much as Angela Carter downplays the violence and injustice of stoning a witch. Furthermore, in both the Grimm and the Carter versions of the story, Little Red Cap kills the wolf or assists in killing it (in “Little Red Cap,” the huntsman kills the first wolf but Little Red Cap kills the second), and thus triumphs over evil. She suffers no guilt or adverse consequences in either story. In Carter’s version, “the child lived in her grandmother’s house; she prospered.7” In Grimm’s, “Little Red Cap went merrily on her way home, and no one harmed her.8” In the Brothers Grimm version of the story, this ending is not so disturbing, since the wolf is very clearly meant to represent evil and Little Red was acting in self-defense. In Carter’s version, she combines the characters of the wolf and the grandmother, so that putting the same ending on the story garners an entirely different reaction from her reader. Carter’s Little Red Cap comes off as callous and evil, even though the story justifies her actions. Her grandmother is a witch, and is punished according to the law of the town. Additionally, Carter’s Little Red Cap plays only a minimal part in her grandmother’s death, whereas the Grimm version has Little Red Cap murder the second wolf almost on her own. Carter challenges the reader to ask why one girl is innocent while the other is guilty, when their crimes are so similar. The reason Carter’s retelling of “Little Red Cap” is so effective is that she is pulling from such an established story. The Brothers Grimm are known for their fairy 6 Grimm 148 7 Carter 141 8 Grimm 148 5 tales, which have been retold time and time again. In almost every popular retelling, there are changes made, and yet the essential lessons are usually kept intact. Because of this long history, the story of Little Red Cap and the lesson it teaches are one and the same: good triumphs over evil. In children’s stories, evil characters are usually dehumanized (in “Little Red Cap,” the villain is literally not a human) to avoid the sticky questions that come with killing or hurting another person. By bringing the humanity back to her villain, Angela Carter asks older readers to take another look at the meaning of “good vs. evil” and to ask themselves who really deserves to win. Instead of crafting the innocent and exemplary little girl of the Grimms’ story, Carter creates an antihero who is not only more dynamic, but infinitely more interesting and engaging than the original.