“In the company of Wolves” is one of the famous short stories by Angela Carter. The story is a development and twisting of Little Red Riding Hood that illustrates the gender construction of the society in the seventy onward. Twisting Little Red Riding Hood beats the expectation of the reader as well as challenges the societal expectations about maintaining the existing gender construction culture. Carter begins by describing the jeopardy of having wolves in the nearby forest vividly. The danger becomes worse, especially during winter, because the wolves lack food to eat and sneak into human homes to feed on humans. Carter reminds the reader that humans are aware and always carry knives around for protection. She also includes short tales of how werewolves came to exist; the story of a witch who turns wedding guests into wolves and the story of a husband who turned into a wolf, then the wife remarried only for him to show up and bite the wide’s, first son. The husband kills the wolf, and human skin is seen beneath the wolf’s skin to illustrate how humans and beasts are metaphorically connected. Notable, it used to be the norm to metaphorically represent a man as a wolf and a wan as the prey of the wolf. However, as Carter’s story goes on, she turns the roles around and gives a woman more power in Little Red Riding Hood, where the wolves meet an intelligent power from a female child that tames him. In this case, the girl is going to visit her grandmother in the far end of the forest. A handsome man approaches her and volunteers to carry her basket, which has the protection knife. They plan to compete and see who gets to grandmother’s house first. If the handsome man gets there first, then the girl kisses him. The virgin girl wants the man to get there first because she is in for the kiss. As expected, the man gets there first but he is a solve who feeds on the grandmother and struggles to clear the scene of crime before the girl gets there. When she arrives, it takes her a second of keen observation to realize that she was in danger before strategizing to come out safe. She uses deduction and sex to tame the wolf that was supposedly going to feast on her together with his brothers who were outside of the house. Carter strategically shifts into the girl’s story while changing the mood, tone, tenses, and perspective to help the reader understand that the young girl has acknowledged the powerful beast inside her and can use it to protect herself from the wolf. In essence, Carter’s “In the Company of Wolves” uses intended moods, tones, tenses and changed perspective in the inner story to emphasize the transformation that a society can go through as they walk to feminism, a representation of gender equality.
The perspective of the story changes to an agency perspective to make the reader understand the power of gender equality. The story begins when the girl does not know that the handsome man is a werewolf. They in fact wage on a kiss because seemingly she is attracted to the man. Carter uses the girl’s nativity to show how women have been trained by the patriarchal society to trust men and not themselves. Men come looking all handsome and good protectors, providers and love prophesers, yet deep down they are wolves, flawed as much as a human being should be flawed. Yet the society gives men too much privilege that favours them to pursue all they want. For instance, the werewolf is privileged with speed and still bets on a kiss with the girl who is barely fast enough to win the race. However, Carter shifts this perspective and have the girl willing to lose in order to get the kiss because she knows what she wants. Furthermore, when the girl arrives at her grandmother’s house, she does not succumb to the fear of being around werewolves. Carter changes the perspective and makes the girl brave enough courageous because; “she knew she was nobody’s meat” (Carter). Carter is able to describe the girl and make her invincible because she knows that being afraid will not save her from being the wolf’s meet. She knows she has to use her feminine power to get to a level where she is equal to the wolves. She strives to seduce the wolve even though she is a virgin. Having sex with the wolves takes the wolves and she gains control. Carter “urges its acceptance…does so on the ground that it will do good.” (Aristotle). In this sense, Carter reminds the reader of how the patriarchal society initially influences men to perceive women. Men are raised up to think that they are the better and more powerful gender–echoed when the werewolf is sure it will feed on the girl. However with the wave of feminism women who are surrounded by the dangerous patriarchal society perceive their situation differently. They are aware of the power inside them, their feminine power that they can use to get gender equality in the society. Carter’s feminist perspective is echoed when the girl laughs at the danger knowing she has a plan to save herself and even become equal. Eventually, she executes her plan and manages to get equality because the story ends when they are in bed. Additionally, Carter changes the perspective of the reader towards both the girl and the werewolf as the story ends. The girl sleeps ” sweet and sound…between the tender paws of the wolf.” She sends a message that when gender equality is achieved, there will be serenity between the two genders. Therefore, the shift in perspectives is meant to show how gender equality will ultimately lead to togetherness.
The tone and the mood shift from fear to confidence, then settle on confidence and pitty to illustrate how feminism starts with fear then confidence and lastly feminists would pitty the society that is yet to embrace gender equality. The tone and mood of the story as it gets to the climax are necessary to emphasize how the discovery of the agency in the girl tamed the wolf and made sure the girl is safe. When the girl realizes she is in danger, she fears a little but realizes that fear is not helpful. In a patriarchal society, it is imprudent for women to fear because in the first place, they are viewed as weak and vulnerable. Fearing will only emphasize their vulnerability and powerlessness. Therefore Carter quickly shifts the mood and tone to confidence and making the reader understand that the girl believes she can be safe with her strategy. At some point, Carter portrays the mood of the girl as more confident than the werewolf’s confidence when she in dresses and throws both their clothes in the fire. The mood at this place should be tensed, but Carter describes it with confidence because the girl is also aware that throwing the wolf’s clothes in the fire will make the wolf remain a wolf forever. This is symbolic in that it shows how feminism can strip beliefs and norms in from the society and then go a head to take it into a society that embraces gender equality.Also, when they finally have sex and the wolf is tamed the girl’s mood and tone are pitiful; “It is very cold, poor things…no wonder they would houl so…” (Carter). The change of mood shows how people in societies that have embraced feminism would wish that other societies would embrace feminism for them to get out of the cold. Therefore, the change in mood and tone of the story shifts effectively to show how feminists struggle to penetrate in patriarchal societies, to accomplish gender equality goals and still care about the societies that resist change.
Conclusively, Carter’s “In the Company of Wolves” uses intended moods, tones, tenses and changed perspective in the inner story to emphasize the transformation that a society can go through as they walk to feminism, a representation of gender equality.The perspective of the story changes to an agency perspective to make the reader understand the power of gender equality. Also, the shift in perspectives is meant to show how gender equality will ultimately lead to togetherness. Lastly, the change in mood and tone of the story shifts effectively to show how feminists struggle to penetrate in patriarchal societies, to accomplish gender equality goals and still care about the societies that resist change.
Works Cited
Aristotle. “The Internet Classics Archive: Rhetoric by Aristotle.” The Internet Classics Archive | Rhetoric by Aristotle, http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/rhetoric.html.
Carter, Angela. “The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories.” Goodreads, Goodreads, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49011.The_Bloody_Chamber_and_Other_Stories.
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