Source - Pinterest
“I took an axe to the wolf as he slept, one chop, scrotum to throat, and saw the glistening, virgin white of my grandmother’s bones.”
Introduction
Poem’s Name - Little Red Cap
Book’s Name - The World’s Wife
Author’s Name - Carol Ann Duffy
Genre - Poetry
Language - English
The Poem
The poem ‘Little Red Cap’ is based on the original story by the Brothers Grimm and takes on the story of Little Red Riding Hood to a whole new level where the teenage girl is seduced by a “wolf”.
Duffy’s fresh perspective to this poem allows readers to indulge in them as they contain a great sense of humor (dark humor) and wit. She formed the poem into a dominant female character that could also be read as an autobiography of an important period in her lifetime.
In the original story where the girl, Little Red Cap is obscured behind the wolf, these roles are reversed in Duffy’s poetic version of the same. Hence, it does not follow the pattern which is in the original story.
Author’s Take On the Tale
Duffy found that the original Little Red Cap fairy tale was an example of feminism in both folklore and English literature to which she then found a personal connection that made her form a dominant female character in her writing.
About the Author
Source - The Guardian
Carol Ann Duffy is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is Professor of Contemporary Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Britain's Poet Laureate in May 2009.
The first female, Scottish Poet Laureate in the role's 400 year history, Carol Ann Duffy's combination of tenderness and toughness, humour and lyricism, unconventional attitudes and conventional forms, has won her a very wide audience of readers and listeners.
Her poems are said to often speak the voices of the urban disaffected , people on the margins of society who harbour resentments and grudges against the world. Her poetry have always had a strong feminist edge.
About the Book - The World’s Wife
Source - Amazon
Duffy’s next original collection of poems, the book, ‘The World’s Wife’ from the Poet Laureate is filled with her wit and is a feminist Picador classic that has a modern take on age-old mythology.
The poems are reshaped in terms of modern day culture and received high acclaim from critics. Reviewers have called her book a masterpiece of subversions of myth and history.
The collection of poems in this book specially arise and are told from the perspective of women, both real and fictional, including wives and lovers. The poems also contain some conflicting emotions but are richly rewarding.
The Opening Line and Plot
The poem starts with the line “At childhood’s end”, informing the readers the character’s transition out of childhood. Little Red Cap is 16 years old and as the poem is being narrated we are introduced to the wolf’s occurrence for the first time.
The wolf comes up to the edge of the woods outside the playing fields as her childhood ends. This teenage girl is shown examining the wolf’s large ears, eyes and teeth. She is so excited that she makes sure the wolf has spotted her.
“He stood in a clearing, reading his verse out loud in his wolfy drawl, a paperback in his hairy paw, red wine staining his bearded jaw.”
She then pursues the old wolf who has now become a part of her transition to ‘adulthood’. The wolf in the poem is portrayed as an older character referred to by the use of alcohol used in his description who buys Little Red Cap a drink.
And this drink is the girl’s first drink celebrating and welcoming her transition into adulthood. The reason is poetry; the wolf’s love and interest in reading and literature.
“Lesson one that night, breath of the wolf in my ear, was the love poem. I clung till dawn to his thrashing fur, for what little girl doesn’t dearly love a wolf?”
After being lured by the wolf into the woods, Little Red Cap prepared herself to leave home which started the beginning of a love relationship between them. They ultimately grew close as their relationship blossomed.
We are then taken to 10 years ahead where Little Red Cap is wandering in the woods with the plan of leaving the wolf and ending their relationship. But what makes her end their relationship that she started when she was a child and leave the woods as an adult?
Metaphorical Aspect
The poem captures the theme of sexual awakening and coming of age which is portrayed by her transition from childhood to adulthood as well as her first sexual relationship with the wolf.
The poem alludes to the tale of a young teenage girl and is often understood as a metaphor for loss of sexual innocence who is astrayed by an old wolf. Duffy in this poem has provided the female character with a space to sense both sexual curiosity and personal agency allowing her to find independence.
The edge of the woods represents the apex between childhood and adulthood and the sexual encounter between the wolf and the girl is described as “Lesson one….the love poem”.
Symbolism
“Then I slid from between his heavy matted paws and went in search of a living bird – white dove – which flew, straight, from my hands to his hope mouth. One bite, dead.”
The use of dashes to highlight the ‘white dove’ symbolizes search for ‘purity and innocence’. The dove on being aggressively consumed by the wolf represents the girl’s innocence that is lost in the same way.
“......red wine staining his bearded jaw… my stockings ripped to shreds, scraps of red from my blazer snagged on twig and branch, murder clues.”
Sex and sin in the poem are both symbolised by the color ‘red’. The ripped stockings, blazer, wine that are rather torn symbolise fear, aggression as well as an act of passion.
“As soon as he slept, I crept to the back of the lair, where a whole wall was crimson, gold, aglow with books. Words, words were truly alive on the tongue, in the head, warm, beating, frantic, winged; music and blood.”
Then the crimson wall and music and blood emphasize sinful nature while portraying a violent symbology of sex and not an act of love but rather an act of sexual intercourse ultimately portraying the loss of young chastity.
The Bottom Line
The way in which Duffy has categorized and symbolised everything in the poem suggests her belief that modern day society has created an era of human beings selling themselves as well as material goods.
“I filled his old belly with stones. I stitched him up. Out of the forest I come with my flowers, singing, all alone.”
The poem is a must read providing a fresh perspective of modernity and maturity to the readers in this children’s most famous tale of all time. It does a fantastic job of representing an act of women empowerment by providing an unexpected ending where the girl avenges her grandmother’s death caused by the wolf.
My ratings for the poem - 4 on 5
Get your copy of the book from Amazon - The World’s Wife
Written By - Umme-Aiman
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