Perrault was the first to write down "Little Red Riding Hood," but the tragic ending of this version has caused some to question whether it has a genuine folk origin.  Shavit argues that it is a satire about "the city gentleman who does not hesitate to take advantage of the poor village girl"; she notes an eroticism in the description of the little girl as a specific element encouraging the satiric reading, and the moral at the end tends to reinforce it.  However, as we will see, there are other, clearly folk versions that contain the bawdiness and the admonitory function of the Perrault story.
        In comparison to the French story, the Grimms' version ("Little Red Cap") is less satiric, more naive, and directed to the child alone - for educational purposes.  This shift in focus more to the child authorizes the restoration of the happy ending; certainly the history of the story's evolution from a bawdy tale told to mixed audiences to an admonitory tale primarily directed against children reflects the development of a clear sense of distinction between child and adult.
        Maria Tatar calls this “possibly the most famous cautionary tale of all times” but notes that there is no clear cause-and-effect relation between violating the mother’s injunction and being eaten by the wolf.  In the Perrault version, there is no prohibition at all (but Perrault also eliminates the resurrection of the wolf’s victims); this was added by the brothers Grimm, and Tatar suggests this was in relation to the conversion of fairy tales to instruction of children (a la Struwwelpeter).  The original folk versions of the story are more often bawdy in nature, dwelling on a kind of strip-tease by the girl (as in "The Story of a Grandmother").  These earlier versions were told to entertain adults working together on boringly repetitive chores.  She suggests that the story may have had its origins, then, in a kind of bawdy burlesque, and was only later converted to social instruction.
        It has been argued that in the original (folk) version of the story, the wolf was a werewolf (consider in re Angela Carter's version).  We can see this also in the French tale "The Story of a Grandmother," in which the villain is a bzou - explicitly, a kind of werewolf.
        There is also a social-class element in the later stories.  Zipes suggests that the red cap (chaperon) signified the village girl's nonconformity, in that such caps were worn by the aristocracy and middle classes, not the peasantry.  Thus, she is a more rebellious and individualistic girl - the kind that could easily be drawn into trouble by her natural inclinations.  In 17th-century ideology, she is a potential witch, and her nature is confirmed by her pact with the diabolical wolf.  Numerous subsequent versions connect this to the seduction of bourgeois women by aristocratic men.  As tales are retold by men (i.e., Perrault), of course the woman is the one who has sinned and must be punished, so she is eaten (obvious sexual imagery) by the wolf; insofar as her individualism has led her into trouble, she must be safely eliminated by death.  With the Grimms, the idea of justice has changed and she can be resurrected as a reformed, more obedient girl, the woodcutter/policeman having destroyed the seducing wolf.
        An interesting but highly conjectural interpretation of the story comes from the French folklorist P. Saintyves (1923), who related it to the May Queen ritual - the red hood being a close shift from a hood of red roses which was used to crown the May Queen in England and France.  He differentiates this from a more "surface" reading of an admonitory tale not to stray from the path or to talk to strangers, and an interpretation of the wolf as seducer.   In his reading, leaving the path to go into the woods is wrong because young women were subject to attack by evil spirits (goblins) in early spring; also, boys and girls were to remain separate during part of the May celebration.  The food she takes to Grandmother (butter and flat round cake) is similar to the traditional May festival food (butter and oatmeal cakes in France) one would take as May gifts.  Little Red becomes a symbol of May flowers, the wolf of the devouring winter who must be overcome each year.
        Other  early interpretors saw the tale as a solar myth, with the wolf (the terror of the night) swallowing the sun (Little Red Riding Hood).  In both Saintyves' interpretation and the solar myth, the Perrault version in which she is swallowed up and not returned must be incomplete, as the logic of the interpretation requires her resurrection to signify the new year or day.   However, the concept of fairy tales as degenerated nature myths, on which both Saintyves and the solar-myth interpretation rely, no longer has much currency among folklorists.
 

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