The introduction of this story creates an ominous atmosphere 'they have cold weather, they have cold hearts', creating immediate tension for the reader before the story has developed. Carter emphasises the stereotypical original Gothic type stories everyone has been exposed to, of witches, the devil etc. typical scary content. 'the Devil holds picnics...and invites the witches; then they dig up fresh corpses, and eat them'. Creates the idea of evil as an openly existing, ever-present thing.
Heroine in the story a brave young girl, the innocence of her virginity creates her bravery in that she is not exposed to the dark side of human nature, which Carter emphasises to be sex throughout her collection of short stories. 'she dropped her gifts, seized her knife and turned on the beast'.
Ironic death of her grandmother, cut of her paw as a wolf and then discovers her in human form with her bloody stump 'festering' (Gothic image of death/rotting).
Women represented as as the enemy (grandmother the villain), similar to Snow Child, shows that woman are not always the innocent victims.
As the reader we do not necessarily hate the villain (the grandmother), feel sorry for her as she cannot refrain from preying on her granddaughter. idea of being cursed/damned by something completely out of your control (link to The Lady of the House of Love) and also raises the idea of higher powers at work, destiny/fate.
Carter's emphasis on the treatment of witches etc (being stoned) could be seen as Carter's criticism of over-judgement in society. Could also be seen as a demonstration of how easily the traditional Gothic villains could be removed, eg. by stoning them, or placing a 'wreath of garlic' on the door. The point Carter is trying to make here is that the neo-Gothic that she is demonstrating in her writing is not as easy to rid yourself of, as it is an innate feature of human nature. Suggesting that this is where the true Gothic comes from, and this is what we should really fear in life, the dark side of human nature.
