little red cap

Grimm Brothers, Prest and Stoker are the authors of these three stories rich in literary devices such as allegory and archetypes, belonging to two different kind of narrative. In the case of Little Red Cap which is a fairy tale, the literary devices are used to describe a history to teach people, especially children, about social rules and values. In the other hand, we have Varney the Vampire and Dracula, those are gothic stories in which allegory and archetypes are used to create the atmosphere of darkness and danger while the story is developed to entertain readers. Little Red Cap together with Varney the Vampire and Dracula are three examples of literature which are characterized by the representation of two specific roles, the insiders and the outsiders. The writers give to the outsiders characteristics from animals or something out of this world, undead, that make them different from human beings. In that way, the outsider never will belong to the group of people considered as common or normal. Furthermore the outsider in this kind of stories generally is a male villain who causes certain circumstances to change the normal course of events in the stories in order to get an objective which is satisfying his necessities. This essay will go through who are the outsiders in each history, what are their roles and how it attempts to disturb the natural order of the things along the plot.
The three stories have some similarities, especially in the way how the authors make richer the plot introducing a character described as evil, murk and tricky, making the latter appear in the way of the innocent character to change the course of the story. In one side is Little Red Cap with the introduction of the wolf as the outsider, “[w]hen Little Red Cap entered the woods a wolf came up to her. She did not know what a wicked animal he was, and was not afraid of him.” (Grimm & Grimm, 1812: p.7), acting as a friendly character who worries about her, hiding his malicious