"The Company of Wolves" by Angela Carter

Commentary

“The Company of Wolves” by Angela Carter is a moralistic fairytale that retells the story of “Little Red Riding Hood”. It uses the wolves as a metaphor for men who would try to take a girl’s virginity. The denouement of the story is the girl finally giving in to the pressure of the wolves, but she feels empowered and in control of her actions. The structure of the story firstly shows how a woman is a victim of the wolves, then shows how Red Riding Hood could be a victim of the wolves, and finally ends up that she is in control and has the power in the relationship. This demonstrates the view that women should not accept the ways of men but should dictate how they behave themselves. During the first two parts of the story where women are victims the wolves are described as “beasts”, but in the final part of the story where the woman is in control the wolf is described as “tender” as if the female being more dominant has tamed the wild “beast”.

“A Boy Who Cried to a Wolf” is also a moralistic fairytale and uses ideas from “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” to tell the story of how a family do not trust and do not listen to their son so he gets revenge on them by striking up a friendship with a wolf. The structure of the story is that the boy goes from mild mannered and polite to deranged and overwhelmed with revenge on his family.

The figurative language used in “The Company of Wolves” to describe the wolves or their incarnations as human men is often ...

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The figurative language used in “The Company of Wolves” to describe the wolves or their incarnations as human men is often evil or menacing, “forest assassins” and “Carnivore incarnate,” this is saying the wolf lives solely to eat meat and is particularly vicious. Other figurative language is used to describe Red Riding Hood succumbing and losing her innocence, “The thin muslin went flaring up the chimney like a magic bird.” The muslin is a pure and natural material and its disappearing up the chimney could symbolize her abandoning her innocence. Figurative language in “The Boy Who Cried to a Wolf” is less common but when William is in his “cherished place” the adjectives used are more pleasant “hazy sunshine”.

The conventions of fairytales are that there is a happy ending, the strong male figure usually saves the day and the villain is killed or sent far away from the Heroes, this is true in “Little Red Riding Hood” where the woodcutter kills the wolf and saves Red Riding Hood. In “The Company of Wolves” the conventions have been subverted and the heroin ends up losing her innocence but has power and control over her actions. “The Boy Who Cried to a Wolf” is similarly subverted from the conventions of fairy tales where the main protagonist, William Hallwater befriends the wolf and they plot to kill William’s parents.

In “The Company of Wolves” Angela Carter uses more complex sentence types as the story is full of vivid descriptions and it portrays emotions and feelings. This is complemented well by the complex use of lexis. “The Boy Who Cried to a Wolf” also uses complex sentence types. The very nature of the story means that there are strong independent main clauses as well as subordinate clauses. The lexical choice in “The Boy Who Cried to a Wolf” is simpler than that of “The Company of Wolves” but it sticks closer to the lexical conventions of a fairytale.

“The Company of Wolves” uses the symbolism of wolves as men who hunt girls and try to take their innocence in a cunning crafty way like a wolf. Red Riding Hood taking control and having the power is a symbol of changing in women’s roles in society and shows a change from timid and obedient to dominant and equal. “The Boy Who Cried to a Wolf” uses William’s parents to symbolize everything that stops you getting on in life and arrogance. The wolf symbolizes free spirit and free will, which is what William requires.

The audience for “The Company of Wolves” would probably be older than the audience for “The Boy Who Cried to a Wolf” because although both a fairly easy to read it may be harder to pick up on some of the connotations in “The Company of Wolves”.

I originally wrote the story in first person but I found that this limited the story so I wrote it again in third person intrusive as then I could write with a less biased view of my characters behaviour. I was also going to stick closer to the original fairytale but the ending already had a sharp twist and it would have meant changing the direction of the story half way through to reach a original and moralistic denouement.