- Published: October 26, 2022
- Updated: October 26, 2022
- University / College: Oxford Brookes University
- Language: English
- Downloads: 28
Little Red Riding Hood, like many fairy tales, has a very clear and simple plot structure and it is very easy to use this story to illustrate the differents elements of plot in literature. Exposition Little Red’s mother asks her to bring a basket of cookies to her ill grandmother. There is a bit of foreshadowing and irony, as she tells her daughter explicitly not to go off the paths in the dark forest and to look out for the wolf, while later we will discover that Little Red will get off the path where she meets the wolf. There is no tension or conflict here yet.
Rising action Little Red meets the wolf. Although she is very naive and she trusts the wolf, the reader knows he does not have good intentions and he is on his way to eat Little Red’s grandmother. There is some foreshadowing here as well, because the wolf asks where Grandma lives, so the reader can predict that he will use this information to go and find Grandma. This is where the tension starts to build up, because the reader knows that the grandmother is about to get eaten while Little Red is happily and unknowingly picking flowers in the forest. The climax When Little Red gets eaten by the wolf.
The tension builds up very rapidly by her stating things like “ But grandma, what big ears you have” (n. a., n. d.) and when she is at the point of finding out that her grandma is in fact the wolf, he “ gobbles her up” (n.
a., n. d.). Falling action Little Red and Grandma are stuck in the wolf’s stomach. A huntsman hears a noise from Grandma’s house and he goes inside to check up on her.
The tension is decreasing because the reader knows that the huntsman might be able to save Little Red and her grandmother. ResolutionThe huntsman cuts open the wolf’s stomach and frees Little Red and her grandmother. We know that all conflict is now solved, because the story, like most other fairy tales, ends with “ and they lived happily ever after” (n. a., n. d.)