LRRH

Throughout our culture animals have been used metaphorically to represent the sexual desires of humans, due to an animals freedom to act impulsively, more faithfully to their nature, whereas as Freudian theory suggests “society has a negative aura on sexual compulsion. Hence, most repress sexual desires.” (Wells. 2013). Of course it is easier to view an animal when referencing a sexual predator, than it is a human, as the human is familiar yet the animal can be distanced. As is the case with the Grimm fairy tales “Big Bad Wolf” from the novel Little Red Riding Hood. In which the wolf embodies the role of a sexual predator or stalker; symbolising a man of controversial desires. Freud believed that our internal conflicts are controlled by three primary states of mind, which govern our consciousness from birth to death; ID, primal desires and basic nature. EGO, Reason and self-control. Superego, The quest for perfection (Wells. 2013). Due to the wolf’s loss of control and the devouring of LRRH and her grandmother as a result, the wolf displays an ID process; He impulsively takes what he wants from the women without caring for the welfare of others, only his own satisfaction. This impulse to act upon his own primal desire and basic nature is what makes the wolf metaphor such a comfortable fit, yet its clear relevance to human sexual predators is unsettling, for it is clear that a strain of this primal monstrosity is present within our own species. Perhaps this is partly the fuel for our species’ objectification and fear of non-humans, we sub consciously resent these creatures that our honest to their primal desires, because we too have compulsions which we repress due to societies shunning of such desires.

• Wells. C. (2013) Psychoanalytic Approach to Little Red Riding Hood, Available from: https://prezi.com/f9i7iqjr2uc4/psychoanalytic-approach-to-little-red-riding-hood/ [Accessed last- 01/02/2017].