He sprang unpon the old woman and ate her up 

This engraving titled ‘He sprang upon the old woman and ate her up’ was created by Gustave Doré in 19th-century France. Doré was a prolific illustrator, and this image is one of many he created for a new edition of Charles Perrault’s fairy tales. Doré’s images captured the darker elements of folklore, reflecting a shift in cultural attitudes. No longer were fairy tales simple moral lessons for children; instead, they became a medium to explore the anxieties of a rapidly changing society. The rise of industrial capitalism brought wealth and progress, but also precarity, and social dislocation. This image doesn't shy away from the brutality of the original story, a tale designed to caution young women about the dangers lurking beneath polite society. To understand the impact of Doré's work, scholars consult not only the literary context but also the visual culture of his time, exploring how anxieties found expression in popular media. Fairy tales and illustrations thus became a canvas for the fears and desires of a nation on the cusp of modernity.