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The Werewolf is a short story by English writer Angela Carter released as part of The Bloody Chamber collection in 1979. It is a loose adaptation of the folk tale Little Red Riding Hood and one of three in the collection. Much like Carter's other works, it is credited for its gritty realism and progressive themes.

Plot
The setting is a snowy, cold northern country filled with evil magic and humans who are often cruel to survive.

A young girl is sent by her mother through the forest to deliver oatcakes to her grandmother who is also ill. Along the path, she is met by a vicious werewolf. She fights it using her father's hunting knife and manages to chop off its paw before it flees.

Upon reaching her grandmother's home, she finds the old woman in a deep fever and aids her until the young girl finds her grandmother's hand has been chopped off and the paw turned into the old women's hand. The girl holds off her werewolf/grandmother and rushes to tell the neighbours who then stone the creature to death as per their tradition.

Feminism
The original story of Little Red Riding Hood is consensually understood to be a cautionary tale for women who would be raped. The iconic titular red hood is seen by many scholars to represent the blood of menstruation and Angela Carter's exclusion of it for a practical fur coat in cold weather is already indicative of The Werewolf altering/developing themes from its original source.

The girl instead of being a victim of the creature fights it and even wins. She then is quick to realise her grandmother is the werewolf and was able to tell the villagers who collectively executed it saving many more potential victims. Indicating that women do not need to be saved by men as in the original but are quite capable enough on their.

The grandmother is also not a victim but she is the perpetrator. Her role can be seen as diminishing to the girl's strength as she only beat another female. That too with her father's knife- a patriarchal protection. Furthermore, the grandmother's execution is from a misogynistic ritual of the people who are liable to murder innocent women by evidence of a wart. It is similar to the Salem witch trials that saw women executed for traits specific to women, therefore, excluding men from practices deemed evil by society.

Survival
At the start of the short story, much attention is given to the setting which is described at first as a cold and dangerous place of wild beasts. The people living there are thus described as cold-hearted themselves in response to it and their short lifespan is an indication of why. The wild beasts are understood by critics to represent animals, mythical beasts and humans.

The act of stoning witches seems obviously cruel as it is a needlessly torturing and violent execution. Additionally, the fact that all that's required is an ordinary wart to warrant this sentence means many innocents were probably murdered in awful conditions. This is all because of the people's precautions that come from the constant threat of death.

Reception
Despite not specifically knowing the response that The Werewolf garnered aside from much critical analysis the collection from which it is from is highly acclaimed.

The Bloody Chamber won the Cheltenham Festival Literary Prize in 1979 and many critics such as Jack Zipes and Marina Warner have given it heavy praise. Neil Gaiman even cited it as an inspiration. The collection has also been studied at University literature courses and AQA, OCR and Edexcel English Literature A-levels in the UK.