Little Red Riding Hood's Grandmother by Gary Hainsworth

June 2016

Little Red Riding Hood is a veritable classic fairy tale. In particular, the versions created by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm are, if not the definitive versions of the story, the ones that should be definitive (assuming they aren't already, which seems unlikely). However, for all these works' merit, one question is overlooked or possibly never considered in the first place, and it ought to be. So here's the question: How ugly was Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother if the wolf could credibly pose as her as long as he did? One could understand how it happened the other way round, and it did, with Red Riding Hood's grandma mistaking Red for the Wolf since old age and infirmity might have compromised her eyesight enough to notice that Red was hairier than usual, but it is scarcely comprehensible how the wolf's roose of masquerading as the grandpa to win the confidence of the granddaughter much the way he pretended to be the granddaughter to gain the confidence of the grandmother, lasted more than two seconds. I guess the lighting in grandma's house was bad. At least not good enough for the wolf to be readily identified for the wild and dangerous animal he is.