The red does not represent virginity.
The symbols, of course, change with the individual telling, but there are consistencies. The earliest tales usually feature a fur cape rather than a red cloak. This caters to one of the most common symbollic meanings in this tale: the onset of puberty (the cloak is, of course, pubic hair). I believe it was Charles Perrault, writing for the French court, that created the red cloak. This maintained the original symbollic meaning, the onset of puberty, by exchanging pubic hair with menses, but added a second meaning: nobility.
The cape is something that a peasant girl shouldn't have--a scarlet cloak is something for a lady of the upper class (in the time period and place of Charles Perrault, at least). The point of this is that, by wearing the fur cape or the red cloak, Little Red Riding Hood is representing herself as two things she is not: upper class and sexually mature.
Her claimed sexual maturity, then, brings her to ruin when she meets the wolf, who devours her (as well as her grandmother, as the girl's promiscuity brings ruin upon her family). Tacked-on happy endings notwithstanding, the story is about the dangers of sex. Even when there is a happy ending, it's usually brought about by a strapping young lumberjack, who cuts open the wolf and rescues Red and her granny from the belly of the beast--a symbollic rebirth, restoring her purity.
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Burning_Dawn
12 years ago
I didn't say that the color red was for virginity. I said Red as the virgin, as in the girl Red riding hood.
Anyhow to really read into the symbolism it's best to disregard the Little Red Riding Hood story that most of us know of as really that's more of a cautionary tale that's had too many contributors to the narrative and focus on the original, A Grandmother's Tale.
In it there is no red hood or red cap to focus on, just the girl going to her grandmother's house as per her mother's orders and being warned of which path to travel, meeting the bzou/werewolf/wolf who asks if she's going to take the path of pins or path of needle. This can be symbolic as the pin which has no opening can be the path of the virgin while the needle which thread goes through it's hole can be maturity, sexual promiscuity, or the girl trying to grow up too soon.
Despite which road the girl takes the wolf beats her to her grandmother's home and kills her leaving only a bit of blood and flesh which he gets the girl to eat and drink later on. As gruesome as this act may be it's not really new; some ancients/cultures believed in consuming part of the deceased to obtain their knowledge, strength, and power. This could be her symbolically consuming maturity.
Then the wolf dressed as the grandmother orders for the girl to disrobe and throw all of her childish clothing into the fire before coming to bed with him. She does strip but instead of getting into bed literally and figuratively she realizes that she's dealing with the dangerous wolf and runs away before he can consume her and escape by running over a lake with the help of some laundresses who later let the wolf drown.
Now in this version the girl is seduced and in her grandmother's house is reborn a little more mature but escapes being fully consumed unlike the other story. In a way it's as if the Grandmother's tale is a coming of age tale only it is more through the other women that she comes to maturity as she runs away from the wolf/sex.
If that makes any sense. I feel like I'm talking in circles trying to wrap that last bit up.
I wish that I could say that all of that was originally me but I got some insight from Lara Smith who breaks down and gives amazing insights to a number of fairy tale stories. And the essay written by Terri Windling.
@barscotch even though you gave an interesting interpretation I think the story of Red Riding Hood predates that. I might be wrong.
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I'd kill to see a Oz related thread where no one suggest I see Wicked.
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