Perrault vs. Grimm: Comparing Little Red Riding Hood Tales

Shared Plot and Characters

Charles Perrault's Little Red Riding Hood and the Grimm Brothers' Little Red Cap are essentially the same story, yet a closer look reveals many meaningful differences. Starting with the similarities, both stories feature a little girl who is deeply loved by her mother and grandmother, and both girls are known for wearing a bright red piece of clothing — a hood in Perrault's version and a cap in Grimm's. In both tales, the girl is traveling through the woods to bring sustenance to her ailing grandmother when she encounters a talking wolf.

In both stories, the girls stop to speak with the wolf without any fear. They each tell him where they are headed and where their grandmother lives, and they both wander off the direct path, allowing the wolf to arrive at the house ahead of them. Also present in both tales is the wolf's ability to disguise his voice and fool the grandmother into opening the door, believing it is her granddaughter. After devouring the grandmother, he then dresses in her clothes in an attempt to deceive the girl as well. Finally, both girls engage in the familiar dialogue with the wolf about how large his body parts are — and when they reach the mouth, he eats them.

Differences in the Girls' Journeys

Clearly, the plot, characters, and setting in both tales are almost identical. However, there are many details that differ significantly between Perrault's and Grimm's versions.

Culpability and the Wolf's Deception

In Perrault's version, not only is the girl carrying different items to her grandmother — custard and butter, rather than the cake and wine in Grimm's — but she travels without any foreshadowing of danger. Little Red Riding Hood is never warned by her mother to stay on the path, as Little Red Cap is. This absence of a prior warning reduces the sense that a moral lesson is about to be delivered, giving Perrault's tale a more straightforwardly narrative quality from the outset. The differences between these two classic versions of the story illuminate how each author shaped the same folk material to suit a distinct purpose.

The Contrasting Endings

This leads to another major difference: when Little Red Riding Hood dallies on her journey, it is entirely her own doing. Little Red Cap, by contrast, is actively tricked by the wolf, who persuades her to stop and pick flowers for her grandmother. On one hand, Little Red Riding Hood seems somewhat less culpable because she has not directly defied a mother's warning. On the other hand, while Little Red Cap did defy such a warning, she can hardly be blamed for being deceived by a more cunning and devious creature. Ultimately, both girls bear some responsibility for their troubles — but for different reasons, and within very different moral frameworks.

The most striking difference between the two tales is the ending. Perrault's version ends swiftly and gruesomely, with no chance of redemption, no moral lesson, and no purpose beyond delivering a frightening and entertaining story. The moment the wolf devours Little Red Riding Hood, the tale is over.

In the Grimm version, however, the story continues long after the wolf swallows the girl. A hunter arrives, cuts the wolf's stomach open, and frees both the grandmother and the little girl — alive. He then kills the wolf by filling his stomach with stones. This outcome is far less brutal for the human characters, though considerably more so for the wolf. The violence does not stop there: a second wolf soon begins lurking around the grandmother's house, hoping to repeat the first wolf's success. This wolf is also undone by a cunning plot — but this time, it is Little Red Cap and her grandmother who devise the trap, without the help of a male hunter.