Company of Wolves

Company of Wolves

Love-

-       Not love, infatuation. ‘rustic seduction’. ‘There’s beggary in love that can be reckoned’

-       Not love, just sexual attraction- similar in Ant and Cleo. ‘my pet’ – burning clothes in fire, symbolic of passion, lust, loss of innocence- journey to hell?

Gender-

-       Red assumes a very female submissive role asking instruction from wolf ‘what shall I do with my shawl, my blouse’ obeys him. Sexually and by throwing her clothes on the fire.

-       ‘Only immaculate flesh appeases him’ – didn’t eat Red as she lost her innocence by sleeping with him? Not clean. Idea of the fallen woman.

-       ‘The girl burst out laughing; she knew she was nobody’s meat’ – confidence, standing up to power, more like Cleopatra.

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Links to Antony and Cleopatra-

-       Links to animalistic bodily instincts, lower order pleasures ‘the wolves will eat you’, ‘eight wild boars roasted at breakfast and but twelve persons there’ –gluttony.

-       ‘a witch from up the valley once turned an entire wedding party into wolves because the groom had settled on another girl’ , similar to Cleopatra’s destructive wish to ‘Turn all to snakes’ and let ‘Egypt melt into Nile’ -Destructive anger.

-       ‘if you stray from the path the wolves will eat you’ – step into Egypt and you are consumed by Cleopatra.

-       ‘he half welcomes the knife that dispatches him’ – Antony when he wishes for death

-       Sexual connotations, strong links to sexual attractiveness etc ‘stark naked’ , ‘bellows and the fan to cool a gypsy’s lust’

-       ‘I wish I were a wolf again, to teach those whore a lesson!’ – similar to when Antony grows angry with Cleopatra and wishes her dead.

-       Wolf in some ways like Cleopatra. Eats grandmother, wants to sleep with Red Riding Hood, Egyptian bodily lower order pleasures.

-       Wolf in some ways like Antony, controlled by these bodily impulses- Antony will always return to Egypt ‘He will to his Egyptian dish return’ – wolves ‘famished’

-       Wolves eyes ‘shine like candle flames’ – Antony ‘shine like plated mars’ Wolf and Antony live like a beast have roughed survival ‘roughest Berry’

-       Wolf – uses sexual power to manipulate Red Riding Hood. Sexuality is power. Cleopatra is sexual predator.