Beauty and the beast approach
A Comparison of Applied Reading Practices
Little Red Riding Hood
Feminist
Marxist
Psychoanalytical
Dominant
There are 3 female figures: Mother is a carer; LRRH is a dutiful daughter; Grandma is a helpless victim.
The male figures are: the wolf – a predator who stalks the female child; the woodcutter – who is the typical male hero, rescuing the damsel.
LRRH is implicitly criticized for disobeying her mother, when she was simply exercising childish curiosity.
Women, especially the young, are seen as prizes, who can be taken by force.
LRRH, Grandma and Mother own property. The wolf is homeless and hungry.
Because of the women’s unwillingness to share, the wolf attempts to satisfy his need by appropriating property and takes revenge upon the capitalist figures.
The wolf is brutally murdered by a member of the proletariat (the woodcutter) who has been deceived into thinking that his interests coincide with those of the property owner (capitalist).
Parental authority is reinforced as a way of instilling attitudes of submission to authority to help to preserve the relations of production.
LRRH wears red, symbolizing the suppressed pedophiliac desires of male readers.
She enters a dark forest and gathers flowers, a subconscious expression of sexual desire – deflowering.
The wolf attacking LRRH from the bed is clearly suggestive of rape fantasies.
The woodcutter is a strong male father-figure representing a sublimated electra complex (note that the real father is absent from the tale.)
The violent death of the wolf reinforces this as the father-figure symbolically emasculates his competitor for the child’s affections.
Children should obey their parents.
Disobedience is dangerous.
It is dangerous to talk to strangers.
Females are vulnerable but can rely on men to protect them.
Males are rescuers.
Males are stronger than females and better able to protect themselves and others.
Beauty and the Beast
Women as prizes.
The woman is
Little Red Riding Hood
Feminist
Marxist
Psychoanalytical
Dominant
There are 3 female figures: Mother is a carer; LRRH is a dutiful daughter; Grandma is a helpless victim.
The male figures are: the wolf – a predator who stalks the female child; the woodcutter – who is the typical male hero, rescuing the damsel.
LRRH is implicitly criticized for disobeying her mother, when she was simply exercising childish curiosity.
Women, especially the young, are seen as prizes, who can be taken by force.
LRRH, Grandma and Mother own property. The wolf is homeless and hungry.
Because of the women’s unwillingness to share, the wolf attempts to satisfy his need by appropriating property and takes revenge upon the capitalist figures.
The wolf is brutally murdered by a member of the proletariat (the woodcutter) who has been deceived into thinking that his interests coincide with those of the property owner (capitalist).
Parental authority is reinforced as a way of instilling attitudes of submission to authority to help to preserve the relations of production.
LRRH wears red, symbolizing the suppressed pedophiliac desires of male readers.
She enters a dark forest and gathers flowers, a subconscious expression of sexual desire – deflowering.
The wolf attacking LRRH from the bed is clearly suggestive of rape fantasies.
The woodcutter is a strong male father-figure representing a sublimated electra complex (note that the real father is absent from the tale.)
The violent death of the wolf reinforces this as the father-figure symbolically emasculates his competitor for the child’s affections.
Children should obey their parents.
Disobedience is dangerous.
It is dangerous to talk to strangers.
Females are vulnerable but can rely on men to protect them.
Males are rescuers.
Males are stronger than females and better able to protect themselves and others.
Beauty and the Beast
Women as prizes.
The woman is