The story supports a Freudian anal stage interpretation. In ""The Three Bears": Four Interpretations" (1977), Professor Emeritus of the University of California, Davis Alan C. Elms makes such an interpretation and points to the story's emphasis upon orderlinessone of the character traits Freud associated with the anal stage of human developmentas compelling evidence. Elms traces the story's anality to Southey and to his dirt-obsessed aunt who passed her obsession on to him in "somewhat milder form".