Perception In The Company Of Wolves By Angela Carter

Perception is a fascinating notion, which involves the use of our senses to conceptualize different phenomena. However, if Austen taught us anything, it is that our initial perceptions of individuals may be prejudiced. Upon reading “The Company of Wolves”, by Angela Carter, not only do the reader’s perceptions of certain characters change, but the character’s perceptions of one another, and of the wolves transform as well. It is important to explore how the wolves are perceived in the story. Carter portrays wolves from the very beginning as being menacing and nefarious creatures; “They will be like shadows, they will be like wraiths, grey members of a congregation of a nightmare; hark! his long wavering howl… an aria of fear” (110). In

“Their eyes fatten on the darkness and catch the light from your lantern to flash it back at you – red for danger” (Carter 110). This suggest the colour red, which is reflected in the eyes of a wolf, has the connotation of danger, and should be a source of apprehension. This seems to be a recurring theme, as we later observe in the case of the woman who remarried after her husband disappeared in the night. He is described as having “red eyes” prior to transforming into a wolf and attacking the child (Carter 112). Yet again, red is associated with danger, but when we are introduced to the girl with the red shawl, known commonly in narratives as “Little Red Riding Hood” we don’t associate her with danger – she is rather amicable. Perhaps this is because she is so young, although the author gives us explicit hints, such as: “the red shawl, today, has the ominous if brilliant look of blood on snow/her breasts have just begun to swell” (Carter 113). The sensuous descriptions of her form imply that she is fundamentally a woman. Furthermore, “blood on the snow is not how most would describe a woman’s garb (except my art teacher who thinks everything is “oxblood red”), and what’s more, blood is a symbol of life, sacrifice, and death. We soon see however, that we may have misjudged her character. She commences on what she knows to be a dangerous journey: “her father might forbid her, if he were home, but he is away/her mother

As if the brazen act of laughing in his face wasn’t enough of a shock, she then tears his clothes from his body, strips butt naked, and copulates with the beast. With this, the entire context of the story shifts, for example “in spite of the scarlet shawl she pulled more closely round herself as if it could protect her although it was as red as the blood she knew she must spill” (117). Initially, this may have been interpreted as her preparing to slay the wolf. Now, perhaps the blood in question is her own, especially since Carter went to lengths to describe her as an “unbroken egg”, a “sealed vessel/shut tight with a plug of membrane”