Carol Ann Duffy’s “Little Red Cap” is a poetic play on the fairy tale “Little red riding hood”. Carol Ann Duffy incorporates her own experiences with encountering a “wolf” and how she felt about it. Carol Ann Duffy uses many poetic devices such as using symbolism and imagery to help readers better understand her experiences. Her unique way of structuring the poem and switching between her own experience and the fairy tale helps to make the poem more dynamic, whilst conveying her story better.
Caroll Ann Duffy structures her poem to help the audience understand how fragmented she was feeling. She also uses symbolism to convey messages such as broken love and purity of women to readers better. “Little Red Cap” keeps the structure of each stanza having 6 lines throughout the entire poem. Though one thing that stands out in her poem is how some of the stanzas abruptly end, and how the next stanza abruptly begins. An example of this can be seen between the third and fourth stanza. She writes “I lost both shoes” and ends the stanza, beginning the next stanza with “but got there”. This fragmented beginning and ending of stanzas may be a reflection of the narrator’s feelings. Showing the narrator is not ready for adulthood and not prepared, hence the fragmentation of stanzas. Though when the narrator starts to understand how adulthood works, we can see the stanzas end with a full stop and begin normally, which can be seen between stanza five and six. This can be seen as the narrator regaining control of adulthood and herself, leading to a more organised and prepared sentence structure. Symbolism can be seen throughout the poem. One example of this is when the narrator gifts the wolf a white dove. A white dove is usually seen as a symbol of peace and love. By the wolf feasting on the white dove in an unappreciated manner, this can convey to the audience that the wolf doesn’t care about the love the narrator is trying to give them. “virgin white of my grandmother’s bones” can be seen as another example of symbolism. The “virgin white” can be interpreted as purity as white is seen as a pure colour. The second half, “grandmother’s bones” can be interpreted as fragility (from the bones) and also other women, when we see this from the context of Carol Ann Duffy’s experience. From the use of symbolism and structuring of the poem in a unique manner, Carol Ann Duffy is able to convey her emotions and send messages to readers better.
Caroll Ann Duffy regularly switches between her story and the fairy tale in order to deliver her experience in a more effective way that can be understood more easily by the reader. We can see that the narrator regularly and explicitly talks mentions certain words to remind the readers about the poet’s experiences. An example of this would be the regular reference of poetry. This can be seen throughout the poem, for example in line 7 where she says “reading his verse out loud.” By not letting the audience completely immerse into the poetry, but by adding a sense of reality and her own story frequently, this can be seen as a reminder to readers about the message she wants to send. However, the poet can also be seen blending the elements of the fairy tale and her story together. By metaphorically using the wolf to represent the antagonist of her own story, this can help readers easily understand the roles the characters play in this poem. Quickly understanding that the wolf can be seen as an antagonist in both the fairy tale and in the narrator’s eyes. By using the fairy tale as a vessel for her own experience, readers can quickly understand the situation represented in the story better. Because this fairy tale is widely known, using this fairy tale as a representation of her life can make readers understand and empathise with the narrator better. Switching between the fairy tale and her own experience can help readers stay focused on the main message Carol Ann Duffy wants to send, at the same time helping readers get a better grasp of the situation she has been put in, and ultimately help them gain a better perspective of her life story.
Caroll Ann Duffy used many techniques such as structuring the poem in a unique manner, the use of symbolism and switching between her own story and the fairy tale with the goal of helping the reader gain a new perspective on her life story and understanding it better.