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Eric Baccei
Mrs. Jurczyk
20 March 2017
Family matters in fairy tales are often one of the key plot lines of the story.
Whether abandonment, betrayal, abuse or love, families drive the story more than any
other idea. This is true in the story of Rapunzel as well. Not only is the main character
Rapunzel influenced by family, but the story has metaphors to family problems
The most definitive version of Rapunzel would be most likely be by The Brothers
Grimm, as its story is the most well known. Grimms story starts with a woman who has
finally managed to get pregnant and craves some of a certain plant to feel better. Her
husband ventures into a witchs garden to get her some. The second time he does this,
he is caught by the witch, who exchanges his life for his child yet to be born. The witch
then holds the girl, Rapunzel, in a tower only accessible by her long hair. However a
prince discovers her and enters the tower, where they fall in love. Rapunzel innocently
gives away the prince to the witch, is kicked out of the tower, and the prince gets
blinded by falling out of the tower. Years later, the prince wanders towards Rapunzel
singing and is healed by her tears, where they then live happily ever after.
The Brothers Grimm focus on the mother daughter relationship and how it can be
strained in their version of the story. Rapunzel seems to have love for her mother until
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the prince arrives1, suggesting that dating causes a change in the mother daughter
relationship dynamic. Rapunzel never expresses a want to leave her mother before the
prince arrives. When the prince arrives, however, Rapunzel thinks that, He would rather
have me than would old Frau Gothel (Grimm 1; ed.2). With the arrival of the prince,
Rapunzels love is shifted. She no longer feels much love for the witch, Gothel. This
causes the tension between her and the witch, who eventually throws her out of the
tower. Before this action though, the witch In her anger grabbed Rapunzel's beautiful
hair, wrapped it a few times around her left hand, grasped a pair of scissors with her
right hand, and snip snap, cut it off. Then she sent Rapunzel into a wilderness (Grimm
1; ed. 2). As a sort of punishment for choosing the prince over the mother, she is kicked
out of the house and deprived of the one thing she had.
The differences between two editions of the story also show different parts of the
dysfunctional relationship. In the seventh edition of the story 2, which is considered the
most definitive, Grimm changed two major things. Instead of complaining of her clothing
getting tight when she gives away the prince, Rapunzel instead asks the witch, Frau
Gothel, why it is that you are more difficult to pull up than is the young prince
(Grimm 1; ed. 2). This change makes her look less intelligent, but also changes the
nature of Rapunzel and the princes relationship. Complain of her clothing getting tight
could be alluding to pregnancy. As she gives birth to twins later on in the story, this is a
very real reason for the witch to get mad. As the mother character, her child breaking
the sanctity of marriage3 reflects badly on her, and she immediately kicks the sinner out
of the house. The seventh version of the story also changes the ambiguity of Rapunzel
and the princes time together: the first edition merely states that they lived in joy and
1 Rapunzel never knows her real mother or father. It is said in the story that she was taken at birth as payment. Thus,
seeing her relationship with her captor is like seeing her relationship with a mother.
2 Only two versions need be mentioned because the story only changed once. The change took place after the first
edition, and never came up again. Thus, the finalGrimms book is used here, as the seventh edition was the last.
3 The sanctity of marriage as in she had sex before getting married. As this was not accepted at all at the time of the
stories publication, a mother would be furious. This action would also reflect bad parenting on the mothers part.
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pleasure for a long time (Grimm 1; ed. 1). The seventh edition says they made
conversation and planned an escape from the tower, while the first edition gives a subtle
suggestion that they were much more physical. This makes sense when Rapunzel
comments on her tightening clothing. This would absolutely drive a mother mad, and the
witch has no real emotional connection to Rapunzel that could soften the blow. She gets
rid of Rapunzel immediately. Thus, the first edition gives the witch a more extreme
situation to deal with. The second edition acts more from the standpoint that the witch
does not care for the girl anymore, but the first editions witch acts more like a real
mother.
This version has many variations from the Grimm version. In this, the mother
herself goes to get the herbs of her craving, meeting an ogress instead of a witch. Also,
the Rapunzel character in this version grew up with her mother first, and then was
captured by the ogress as payment of a debt. The biggest change, however is how
Parsley escapes the tower. Here she is under a spell, and uses three gallnuts to break
it. As she and the prince are fleeing, Parsley throws these at the ogress one at a time.
The first turns into a bulldog, the second a lion, and the third a wolf. The ogress tricks
the first two, but the wolf kills her, letting the girl and the prince go free.
In the story of Parsley, the coming of age for the main character takes center
stage. Parsley does know her real parents in this version, so her relationship with the
captor is already damaged. Parsley does not only hide everything from her captor, but
takes lengths to trick her. When the prince first wants to spend time with her, Parsley
worries that the ogress will discover them. Her response is to give the ogress some
poppy juice (Basile 59) and then hoist the prince up. She drugs her captor in order to
have a chance to get to the outside world. Also, the way in which the prince gets
discovered has changed as well. While in Grimms version it was Rapunzels fault, here
she manages to keep the secret. Instead, a gossip of the ogress, who was for ever
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prying into things that did not concern her (Basile 60) tips the ogress off and reveals
the prince. In Grimm she never seemed to be mentally competent or mature, but
Parsley does keep her tongue in this version. She even eavesdrops on the gossip to
find out how break the ogresses spell and escape. This difference in having seen her
parent before changes the way Parsley sees the world. The increase of intelligence of
Parsley creates a more active villain. The dysfunction is larger when both parties are
smarter, as the opposition has to work harder to counter the opponent. Thus, because
Parsley has more intelligence, the ogress has to try harder to beat her.
Disneys Reimagining of Rapunzel
Like most Disney Fairy tales, there a lot of changes to the story and characters. In this
version, Rapunzel was born a princess, and the male character is the commoner.
Additionally, she was kidnapped by the witch Gothel, and was no part of the deal.
Rapunzels hair in this version is magical, carrying healing properties inherited from a
plant her mother consumed to cure a disease. The witch can sing a song to Rapunzels
hair, and keep herself forever young. Rapunzel is also not romantically involved with the
male character, Flynn Ryder, until the very end. She wants to leave the tower before
she meets him and therefore starts as a much stronger and more independent
character, in keeping with Disney retellings. However, she is still raised by someone
As there is no real romance until the end of the second act, Tangled has a huge
controlling of Rapunzel. As Rapunzel is the only thing keeping her alive, she makes
sure that Rapunzel never gets out of the tower. In the song number Mother Knows
Best, the watcher sees the propaganda and fear Gothel sows on the innocent
Rapunzel. With lyrics like Ruffians, thugs, poison ivy, quicksand / Cannibals and
snakes The plague! (Tangled 0.32.36), Gothel paints a dangerous picture of the
outside world. She makes Rapunzel believe that only Mother can protect her. She also
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destroys the one relationship that she started to create: the one with Flynn Ryder.
Gothel fakes him trading her for the crown to make Rapunzel come back to the tower
willingly, and never again want to leave. This makes the reveal of Gothels true nature a
huge deal for Rapunzel's character, and shows just how far Mother will go to stay
young. She loves Rapunzel's hair, not the person. While the other witches and ogresses
see her as payment for a debt, like currency, Mother Gothel needs her to live and thus
will do much more to keep her trapped. She is young as long as Rapunzel cannot leave.
Mothers in real life may sometimes feel this. They will only accept their age if their
daughters leave the house and become independent. When their little baby leaves the
house is when they become, in the worlds eyes, old. Mother Gothel symbolises this to
the extreme.
Rapunzel has an almost exclusive plot line of dysfunctional mother and daughter
relationships. This is in part because she is usually captured by a witch, but no version
of Rapunzel knows her father. In every story, there is an absence of a strong paternal
figure. This absence may explain why in most versions she instantly falls in love with the
prince. Every person should have love for their parents, both mother and father. Having
no father may have left her feeling any number of emotions, emotions that could be
easily manipulated by the prince. Though her relationships are important to her
Works Cited
Edward Taylor,
Tangled, Directed by Nathan Genro and Byron Howard, Walt Disney Studios Motion
Pictures,
2010.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. "Rapunzel. Kinder- und Hausmrchen: gesammelt durch
die
der
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm012.html.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Rapunzel Children and Household tales. 1st Ed., Vol. 1,
Berlin,
http://www.zeno.org/Literatur/M/Grimm,+Jacob+und+Wilhelm/M
%C3%A4rchen/Kinde
r-+und+Hausm%C3%A4rchen+(1812-15)/Erster+Band/12.+Rapunzel.
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