Baccei 1

Eric Baccei

Mrs. Jurczyk

ECE English 1011

20 March 2017

(Fairy Tale Essay)

Dysfunctional Grows More Than Hair in Rapunzel

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

surrounding coming of age. The story of Rapunzel focuses on a dysfunctional mother

daughter relationship and what happens to it as a child comes of age.

The Brothers Grimm Rapunzel

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
 Baccei 2

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.
 Baccei 3

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.

Italys Rapunzel, Petrosinella

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
 Baccei 4

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

who is not her real mother.

As there is no real romance until the end of the second act, Tangled has a huge

focus on Rapunzel's relationship with Mother Gothel. Mother Gothel is extremely

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
 Baccei 5

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

character, the lack of relationships could be a bigger factor.

 Baccei 6

Works Cited

Baslie, Giambattista, The Pentamore: Or the Story of Stories. Translated by John

Edward Taylor,

MacMillan and Company, 1894, pp 56-62.

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

Brder Grimm, Translated by D. L. Ashliman, 7th Ed., Vol. 1. Gttingen: Verlag

der

Dieterichschen Buchhandlung, 1857, no. 12, pp. 65-69,

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm012.html.

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Rapunzel Children and Household tales. 1st Ed., Vol. 1,

Berlin,

1812, pp. 38-43.

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.
Baccei 7