Little Red Riding Hood is an old fairy tale told from generation to generation. This tale is about a little girl whose mother sends her to see her grandmother. On her way, she encounters a wolf who decides to have a little chat with Little Red Riding Hood. This chat gives the wolf the whereabouts of Little Red Riding Hood’s ill grandmother, and the story varies from there. The Charles Perrault version shows acts of sexual desire; Jack Zipes explains how he believes sexual desire is Perrault’s doing to warn little girls about their actions.

First, we can see sexual desires in Charles Perrault’s version of Little Red Riding Hood when she talks to the wolf for the first time. The wolf took an interest in her because she was innocent and did not know much, so he could easily prey on her, so “He asked her where she was going. The poor child, who did not know that it is dangerous to stay and listen to a wolf, told him: ‘I am going to see my grandmother, and I’m taking her a bun and a little pot of butter that my mother is sending me with’” (Perrault 99). This quote is a clear first example of sexual desire because the reader could sense the wolf’s intentions with Little Red Riding Hood, which leads her into taking a longer path while he takes a shorter one to kill the grandmother. Later on in this tale, Little Red Riding Hood gets fooled by the wolf and gets eaten. Jack Zipes wrote about this in his text titled “Once Upon a Time: Changing the World through Storytelling” and he stated, “My perspective is that Little Red Riding Hood in the course of the story comes to signify a young woman who is naive, disobedient, stupid, and perhaps even willing to set up an assignation with the wolf. She is murdered or raped in Charles Perrault’s 1697 tale” (Zipes 43). Zipes demonstrates that he blames Little Red Riding Hood for all the sexual desire that the wolf presented. If she had not talked to the wolf, everything would have been fine.

Another example of sexual desire in this tale would be when Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother get eaten by the wolf. In his version of the tale, Perrault does not let Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother walk away alive; he just ends the tale with the wolf eating both of them. He first writes, “The kind grandmother, who was in bed because she was not feeling very well, called out: ‘Draw the peg back, and the bar will fall.’* The Wolf drew the peg back and the door opened. He flung himself on the old lady, and ate her all up in less than a moment”( Perrault 101), then at the end, Perrault writes, “‘Oh grandmama, what great big teeth you have!’ ‘And they are all the better to eat you with!’* And as he said these words, the wicked Wolf flung himself on Little Red Riding-Hood, and ate her up.”(Perrault 103). These two quotes show how Perrault believes that sex is a sin. Jack Zipes backs up this in his writing when he states, “Fifth, she is swallowed or raped like her grandmother. Sixth, there is no salvation, simply an ironic moral in verse which warns little girls to beware of strangers; otherwise, they will deservedly suffer the consequences. Sex is obviously sinful. Playful intercourse outside of marriage is likened to rape, which is primarily the result of the little girl’s irresponsible acts.” (Zipes 80). According to Zipes, he believes that Perrault did this to his tale so he can show little girls from his time that doing inappropriate things like Little Red Riding Hood, which can jeopardize their well being.

To conclude, sexual desires in Little Red Riding Hood is throughout the tale from many perspectives. We can agree that Little Red Riding Hood herself is to blame for all of the destruction brought upon her, from the beginning when she talked to the wolf and when she undressed and got eaten by the wolf. We can also say this is Charles Perrault’s way of warning little girls of his time that their actions have consequences. To prove this, Perrault ends his tale with a moral of the story, in which he further explains what not to do when a child is alone and encounters a stranger.