Not so little- Little Redcap
Carol Ann Duffy is a Scottish, feminist writer. Her collection of poems “The World’s Wife” was first published in 1999, which also included “Little Redcap.” Duffy is popular for her feminist take on folktales, stories, and fairytales as most of the literature even now are immensely patriarchal. She has made an effort to rectify that by writing classical literature from the perspective of the women, presenting them as the protagonists. Little Redcap is the best example of this and beautifully depicts Duffy’s playful, satirical, feminist, and ironic style of writing.
We are all familiar with the classic fairytale “Little Red Riding Hood” by the Grimm Brothers. The little girl, so innocent, goes into the woods on her mother’s instructions, to deliver food to her sick Grandmother. On the way, she encounters the Wolf, who follows her to the Grandmother’s house, gets there first, and swallows the Grandmother whole. When the Little Red Riding Hood gets there and gets into trouble, the Huntsman intervenes, saves her and they fill up Wolf’s stomach with stones after rescuing the Grandmother. The ideal happily ever after right?
Duffy’s re-visioning of the fairytale is far more complex, practical, and a tad bit autobiographical. At the beginning of the poem, we find a girl of sixteen, at the brink of teenage with raging hormones and unrestrained curiosity. She leaves the comfort of her friendly neighborhood, which metaphorically stands for childhood, to venture into the woods, which signifies adulthood.
The sweet Babe encounters the sinfully mysterious Wolf just at the edge of the woods. He is everything that a woman ever desires in a man. Especially a woman, who doesn’t know men so to speak but loves the idea of them, the power of them, the charm of them. Clearly, the naiveness outweighing her logical reasoning. He is incredibly intelligent, intense, macho, sexy, and immensely attractive with this husky drawl. She finds his bearded jaw stained with red wine and him reading out poetry. The Babe is charmed, enchanted and captivated then and there. She lets the Wolf buy her a drink after catching his attention with her wide-eyed simplicity. However, she tells herself she is doing this for one sole reason- Poetry.
So here we see the famous poet, Adrian Henri, being the inspiration behind the Wolf. But the Wolf in Little Redcap also often is a representation of sexual predators in our society who prey on young, unknowing women. Duffy and Henri were in a courtship for quite a long time. He was her senior of eleven years. As the poem progresses, we come across the girl losing her virginity and innocence to the Wolf as they venture deeper into the woods. She also loses her shoes, stockings, and her coat rip to shreds as they make their way to Wolf’s lair. This clearly signifies the Babe losing herself in the fascination and presence of the Wolf.
The apprenticeship/relationship with Henri helped shape Duffy as a poet as she had the access to the treasury of books, all crimson and gold. The girl in the poem, however, feels overshadowed by the Wolf. When her “white dove” symbolism for her own individual creation is swallowed by the Wolf in one bite, she decides to set out on an adventure and explore the world on her own. And so she does.
Towards the end of the poem, the virgin bones of the Grandmother refer to the oppression of the female writers in the literary world. (The best example of it- William Wordsworth and Dorothy Wordsworth. But that’s a discussion for another time.) But Duffy tried to rebel against it as she came out of the forest, singing alone, after gaining her independence from the Wolf. Unlike the traditional storyline, she did not need a knight in shining armor to come and save her as she was no damsel in distress. She was capable enough to save herself and she does.
Little Redcap stayed inside my mind palace for a long time after the first time I read it. And thought-provoking literature like this is so, so rare. This poem is the perfect example of how women should not be afraid to be different, to be bold, to be “manly”, to live alone and do things alone. And as a modern woman myself, I would love nothing more than to encourage the Babes around me to escape the Wolfs of their lives and make a mark on this world.
