18 July 2025

By Mario Ogrzall 

‘Little Red Riding Hood’ is probably one of the most famous written fairy tales and is beloved by many fans all around the world, but it can also be further analyzed in terms of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis and the construction/formation of subjectivity. The Freudian self is basically one psychic apparatus that can be subdivided into three smaller parts, which, by working together, ideally form a well-balanced whole^[1]:

1. The id (unconscious instincts and drives)

2. The ego (conscious rational mind)

3. The superego (social conscience)

Each of these entities can be applied to the fairy tale’s characters and places. The hero of our story, Little Red Riding Hood, embodies the ego, whose main goal is to construct a self-contained ‘Self’; and who is constantly balancing between the superego’s demands and the temptations of the unconscious id. The two mother figures—Little Red Riding Hood’s actual mother and her grandmother—function as the superego. They articulate the two commandments that are later on ignored by the ego: “Don’t dawdle in the forest, and don’t talk to strangers.”^[2] The forest itself, alongside with the wolf, represents the unconscious—an obscure place far off the shores of society and its social demands.

The infamous bed scene between the wolf and the little girl can, from a Freudian perspective, be interpreted through the lens of the Oedipus complex. Let’s analyze this scene step by step; and pay close attention to Little Red Riding Hood’s behavior towards her antagonist, the wolf, who, as we know, is impersonating her grandmother. She instantly recognizes that something is quite odd and out of the ordinary: ‘This is not my grandmother’s usual voice.’^[3] The girl is somewhat irritated by it, but is also not fearful towards the unknown. As a matter of fact, quite the opposite is the case. She is fascinated by it, far away from panicking; and is not thinking of leaving at all. She’s the one edging closer to the bed, initiating the teasing flirt; and, although seemingly conscious about the incest taboo, playfully advocating the idea of it. 

Of course, the inevitable must happen. Before the actual climax/coitus, an interruption occurs. The woodsman, who appears to be the only male character in the story, puts himself between the wolf and the little girl. He can be interpreted as the third and last representative of the girl’s superego. It is no coincidence that a male character is chosen; he reflects the father figure who upholds the laws and the, let’s say, dos and don’ts within the family. You don’t sleep with your mother—the taboo must be upheld. 

What can we make of that? Freud argues that every individual is, in the early stages of its life, of a bisexual disposition. A sexual fixation towards a respective gender is established for the first time through the Oedipus complex. By overcoming it, the ego is able to create a so-called ‘ego ideal’ or super-ego.^[4] The bed scene with the wolf can be interpreted as the initiation of a (simple) negative Oedipus complex. The girl engages an object-cathexis towards her mother. This configuration of the Oedipus complex is forcibly reoriented into a positive one by the intervention of the woodsman — one might equally say it is rendered heteronormative. Through the subsequent reunion with the mother, the Oedipal complex acquires its general dual structure and is by that completed. The girl is not only encouraged to acknowledge the father — that is, the man — as her love-object, but is likewise expected to identify with the mother and to recognize her as her own role model of same-sex identification.

Little Red Riding Hood’s endeavors towards self-containment ultimately succeed. If we interpret the little girl’s journey—and the decisions she makes along the way—as a process of subject formation, we can conclude that the Freudian Self has successfully progressed towards its balanced constitution. Even though the child gets distracted along the way, the worst case is always prevented from happening. She never gets completely lost in the forest, nor does she cross the line of the incest taboo. Her actions subtly suggest that a certain amount of licentiousness is necessary for an individual to function within an environment governed by social rules and norms. It’s only because of the ego’s attraction to the unconscious that it is able to understand the superego’s demands as important. Through Freud, we know that the girl’s separation from the mother is never fully completed. Her already close relationship with her actual mother, at the beginning, is of an even closer bond to her grandmother at the end. She learns her lesson; and ultimately fully obeys the authority figures of both. By overcoming the Oedipus complex, Little Red Riding Hood is creating a superego for herself, which is far more self-sufficient and influential than her former authority figures could ever be.

Freud concludes:

"The super-ego retains the character of the father [or in our case the character of the mother, M. O.], while the more powerful the Oedipus complex was and the more rapidly it succumbed to repression (…), the stricter will be the domination of the super-ego over the ego later on—in the form of conscience or perhaps of an unconscious sense of guilt."^[5]