Gustave Dore and Charles Perrault

This image has been a source of debate for many years now, however it is often overlooked, as Little Red Riding Hood is now so familiar as an innocent nursery rhyme. In 1976, Freudian analyst Bruno Bettelheim used the image for the front cover of his new book, ‘The Uses of Enchantment’. However Bettelheim did not use the original image. He retouched the original drawing by placing a circular shape on the girl’s cheek, almost as if she is blushing. Therefore Red Riding Hood is no longer a sweet, innocent, frightened girl but a young woman filled with sexual curiosity. I haven’t yet decided how I feel about this opinion.