THE TRANSFORMATIONS:
THE RED CAP & THE LITTLE GIRL (INTO THE WOODS) |
Folk tales are stories passed down through generations, and they vary according to regions. One of the most famous folk tales is Little Red Cap. The story too is known as Little Red Riding Hood where a little girl in a red cap is given a task to bring some food to her grandmother’s house in the forest. Along the way to reach the grandmother’s house, the little girl meets a hungry and deceitful wolf. Although she has been advised to not stray away from her path, the wolf succeeds to shift her attention. The little girl and her grandmother end up getting eaten by the wolf, however, a hunter saves them.
This summary of The Little Red Cap is based on the well-known Grimms’ Fairy Tales collection. However, the depiction of The Little Red Cap differs in a musical movie, Into The Woods by Rob Marshall. Into The Woods is a combination of several folk tales that are merged into one similar setting, which is the forest. Although the main characters in the movie are The Baker and his wife, The Red Cap also plays a significant role in the development of the story. As much as Little Red Cap is being told to children, the original story goes through myriad transformations as time passes. One of them is through Into The Woods. Firstly, there are changes made in the scene where The Little Girl steals bread from The Baker. |
The Little Girl has the audacity to ask for some bread from The Baker and his wife for her sick grandmother. She also eats the food secretly without feeling guilty. The action of The Little Girl depicts that she is brave and knows well on how to gain sympathy by using her grandmother’s condition as an excuse for her misbehaviour. |
The stealing action does not take place in the original text and The Red Cap is portrayed to be a lovely little girl. |
PHOTO 3 & PHOTO 4 The Little Girl quickly answers how she does not fear anything in the woods when the Baker's wife asks her whether she will be fine to go to grandmother's house alone. While in PHOTO 4, The Little Girl does not hesitate to tell the truth to the Baker when he asks her if he would look fine in the red cap.
|
This is one of the transformations which takes place in the movie where The Little Girl is projected as rebellious, fearless and less polite. According to the original text, the mother has prepared some food for The Red Cap and she obeys her mother very well, however, in the movie, The Little Girl seems as if she is playing around.
The transformation suggests that Into The Woods aims to portray an adolescent version of The Little Girl. Puberty phase is commonly associated with the development of the physical attributes, as well as building personalities. When this crucial phase occurs, teenagers will face natural changes of moods which result in impetuous responses. This is also happening on The Little Girl who is maturing in her life. She has the urge to explore and does things in her own ways. Besides, the multi-perspectives narrative of the movie helps us to understand the inner thoughts of The Little Girl, compared to the limited third-person narrative in the original text. Secondly, a prominent transformation can be discerned when The Little Girl meets Mr. Wolf in the woods. Being a naïve person, both Red Cap and Little Girl greet the wolf normally. In the original text, Little Red Cap is lured unconsciously with flowers after the wolf knows about the whereabouts of her grandmother. On the other hand, in Into The Woods, the wolf needs to lure her with more effort. Initially, the wolf tries to entice her with jewelry in his coat. |
It is common for ladies to love beautiful things, as well as beautify themselves to look better. However, the jewelry in the movie symbolizes men’s view on women as materialistic individuals. The negative connotation of offering jewelry to women gives us the idea of the most preferred method to get a woman is by providing embellishments to her. This is also a way of taking advantage of women’s nature for men’s benefits. In the original text, the attempt of offering jewelry to The Red Cap does not exist, however, in Into The Woods, The Little Girl is allured by those items first. This proves the different portrayal of the age where The Little Girl is viewed as a matured lady in the movie. This additional part also has somehow changed the plot sequence, compared to the original text where it is simpler and the wolf straightaway goes to the grandmother’s house. Regarding Mr. Wolf’s view of The Little Girl where he continuously describes her as ‘delicious’, it is totally different from the original text. The Wolf in the original text simply states that Little Red Cap is a ‘juicy morsel’ which clearly illustrates that he sees her as potential food. However, the way Mr. Wolf gazes at The Little Girl in Into The Woods is quite disturbing. Firstly, Mr. Wolf becomes euphoric while visualizing his prey. The description he makes towards The Little Girl is intemperate to be merely considered her as potential food. Secondly, he also uses the word ‘lush’ which also means sexually attractive. In this matter, despite greeting her, ‘Hello, Little Girl,’ he seems very much attracted to young ladies (underage girls), although he is aware that The Little Girl is child. This could also suggest that Mr. Wolf depicts an individual who is having a pedophilic disorder. |
PHOTO 6 & PHOTO 7 Mr. Wolf is staring attentively but secretly (peeping) at The Little Girl while describing how great to devour her, rather than quickly takes action on his prey. He is enjoying his view.
|
Thirdly, the last transformation that takes place in the movie is the encounter with Jack in the forest. Initially, Little Red Cap should come across other wolves on her way to her grandmother’s house for the second time. However, learning from her previous mistake, she does not get distracted and avoids the wolves. While in the movie, we could see that The Little Girl is having a great time plucking flowers without worrying about her surrounding. This shows a major change in the plot with additional incidents. Jack is one of the characters that is added to connect the whole movie well. However, Jack’s spontaneous action of touching a stranger’s cape has projected the value of independence in The Little Girl. Although the value of independence is absent in the original text as Little Red Cap continuously needs help to keep her safe from the wolves, in the movie, she stands for herself. The Little Girl is no more dependant on anyone, and the grandmother shows supportive behaviour of letting her venture freely in the woods by providing her with a knife. |
The knife symbolizes independence and maturity which later is given to The Little Girl. It is also a foreshadow of the mother’s and grandmother’s death. Therefore, the knife is one of the preparations for The Little Girl to keep herself safe on her own. The action also empowers women to be bold in standing up for themselves; The Little Girl in Into The Woods seems to cater to today’s visualisation of strong women.
In conclusion, the transformations in Into The Woods from the original Little Red Cap are influenced by many factors such as settings (time), changes in narrative styles, target audience and much more. It is truly fascinating to see how the values of the original story are preserved, however more messages and contemporary issues are being intertwined to the folk tale. The transformations do not only make it more recent and meaningful but also they are able to reach a wider audience from various backgrounds. Overall, the transformations of stories create a platform to understand many perspectives in life. |
SKBS3113 WORLDS IN CONTACT Set 1 Session 2 20182019
Lecturer: Prof. Madya Dr. SHANTHINI PILLAI A/P JOSEPH SANDRA
Student: MIZA SYAHIRAH BINTI MOHD FAIZAL (158480)
Lecturer: Prof. Madya Dr. SHANTHINI PILLAI A/P JOSEPH SANDRA
Student: MIZA SYAHIRAH BINTI MOHD FAIZAL (158480)