“The Werewolf”: A Modern Interpretation of an Old Favorite

“The Werewolf”: A Modern Interpretation of an Old Favorite

John Thompson

“The Werewolf” a short story from The Bloody Chamber

By Angela Carter 126 pp. Penguin Books. $14.00

            When modern American readers reach for a work of horror, they generally reach for a novel by Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft, or Richard Matheson; all are writers who are established in the American horror canon, and readers rarely stray. The reason is simple: well-known writers are safe and comfortable and somewhat predictable and allow their readers to shuffle off the difficulties of the day. However, Angela Carter and her short story entitled “The Werewolf” can take readers that are unfamiliar with her work down a dark and intense path (pun intended) that is far from safe, comfortable, or predictable.

            Carter is a British writer that is relatively and unfortunately unknown outside of the United Kingdom. It is unfortunate because her stories are entertaining as they are frightening, but Carter’s stories are also relevant; “The Werewolf” is considered to be by many a work of female empowerment that is a modern interpretation of “Little Red Riding Hood.”  Carter’s interpretation is special because she empowers the girl to fend for herself in the woods where other versions see male characters coming to the rescue.

            “The Werewolf” contains that usual tropes of the path through the woods, the wolf, and the grandmother, but Carter creates a world with those tropes that is saturated in bleak, abject poverty in a setting created with occult imagery that is so dark and frightening that a reader might be given pause to continue before the end of the third paragraph.

            What makes the story so unpredictable are the twists of plot that she creates within a story that can be considered as told once too often. Readers could be forgiven for passing over “The Werewolf” because of the glut of other versions and interpretations that have been produced since Charles Perrault wrote the earliest known printed version in the seventeenth century. Since then, other writers have taken their turn telling the story in print, audio recordings have been produced as well as stage and screen productions, and video games. Is there really anything else worth saying, at this point?

            Angela Carter’s take on the events of “Little Red Riding Hood” is fresh and abandons the typical interpretation of the childhood cautionary tale with one of women’s empowerment intertwined with fear and self-reliance. Some readers might consider the story to be too short, but the length of the story adds to the mystery that surrounds it. Carter could have dragged the events of her story out, but doing so would have ruined what she worked so hard to create. Sometimes a good story is the one told in the fewest words.

Works Cited

Carter, Angela. “The Werewolf.” The Bloody Chamber. New York: Penguin Books,

1979. Print.