ABSTRACT
Stories of mothers and daughters are popular in fairy tales. Many a tale may be read as a metaphorical account of the daughter’s quest for the archaic mother, but also of the barriers thrown up against it by patriarchal society. Let us consider, for example, Little Red Riding Hood. She is an active or questing heroine whose project, to find flowers for Grandmother in the forest, is symbolically pervaded by erotic desires of the early motherdaughter relationship. But she is also a suffering heroine. Her quest is not brought to a successful end. Instead, she is devoured by the wolf, and thereby transformed from an active subject into a passive object.
