Disney’s Tangled has Rapunzel as a sassy frying-pan-wielding superhero, but ahhh....
the “traditional” Grimm’s fairy tale?
Well, let’s just see.
Scandal?
Betrayal?
Desert Wastelands?
Yes, yes, and yes.
All this and SOOOO much more!
Let’s hop back in time to the beginning of Once Upon a Time.
Tangled vs Grimms’ Rapunzel: Tangled’s Dark Roots
Real quick: the version of the tale I’m basing this video off of is from a compilation
of Grimms' stories.
There are different versions, but I was just really plum upset by it’s telling that I
used it in particular, and it was already on my bookshelf.
Heh.
I know most stories don’t hold up anymore, thank goodness, and are relics from their
time.
They make me really appreciate the modern retellings and re-workings, as things really
do get…
Grimm.
Anyway, let’s dive in, shall we?
A Bargain.
A Life Spared, A Life Taken.
In both Tangled and in Grimm’s story, our tale begins with a flower that belongs to
an Enchantress.
In the movie, the Queen is on the verge of death and needs a draught made from an elusive
flower, which is unfortunately also coveted by the Enchantress, Gothel (although she DID
find it first…)
In the Grimm telling, Rapunzel is no princess, but rather born to a couple who has been trying
for YEARS to have a child.
They just so happen to live next to an Enchantress’s garden…
WHOOPS REWIND!
One day, before the baby is even a blip, the depressed and hopeless Wife is staring into
that garden and spies the “rampion” (also known as: “Rapunzel” wink wink) Gothel
has growing beyond the wall.
She is suddenly hit with such a strong craving for it, that she begs her husband to collect
her some, and he cautiously does, because he just loves his wife so much.
The Wife makes a salad out of the flower, enjoys it, and then is overcome with another
craving so much more intense, that her husband goes yet again to fetch her some.
On this second foray into the garden, however, he is not so lucky.
Gothel the Enchantress catches him stealing her Rapunzel flower and offers him an ultimatum:
The Flower in exchange for their unknown-as-yet-and-unborn child.
He agrees out of the desire to give his wife the flower she craves, even though they have
been desperate for this child for years.
How cruel!
The kicker: he never tells his wife, who was yearning for this kid, that he bargained it
away.
So, imagine, your dream kid is now, finally, in your arms.
You are exhausted from bringing it into the world, and then an Enchantress shows up and
snatches it away.
Forever.
Talk about communication issues!
(Sure hope that salad was worth it)Oh, and to add insult to injury: the Enchantress names
the kid after the flower you traded her for.
Sick burn, Gothel!
(Way Too Young) “Love”: In the movie, Rapunzel has been locked in the tower her
whole life, just one day shy of 18 years.
She is very nearly legally an adult (assuming fairy laws operate like modern laws) and soon
free to do as she will, even if Gothel is right about her not being worldwise.
In Grimm’s story, Gothel raises Rapunzel like a normal child until she is 12 years
old, at which point she tucks the near teenage-ed Rapunzel away in a tower, deep in the forest,
with no stairs or ladder, likely to keep all those pesky hormones away.
Rapunzel is naive and trusting.
She is 12 YEARS OLD, afterall.
After “one or two years” of being locked away in the tower, (when Rapunzel is either
13 or 14), a young “son of the king” is riding through the woods and hears her singing.
He is entranced, but because he sees no obvious way up into the tower, King’s son simply
returns every day and falls more and more in love with the voice.
(Kind of a red flag?)
One day, he sees Gothel ask Rapunzel to lower her hair, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down
thy hair to me.”
“Son of the king” sees how easy it is now to climb up the tower, and tries this
same line later at night, avoiding the enchantress, who visits during the day.
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down thy hair to me,” he calls.
And, even though Rapunzel has NO IDEA who this dude is, SHE DOES IT.
Did she think Gothel had developed a cold or something?
It’s also night!
Gothel only visits in the day time!
Anyway, She lets him climb up her hair and into her tower.
When she sees him, she.
Is.
Terrified.
She has never seen a man “like this” before, and “son of the king” corners her in her
tower (where she is ALONE and has nowhere to escape to!)
He seriously invades her personal space (red flag), declares how he has fallen in love
with her voice (red flag), was “forced” to see her (red flag), and will she marry
him (red flag!)?
Ewww.
SHE IS 13!!!
She is terrified.
But, for some reason, SHE AGREES, thinking “he is young and handsome and will love
me better than Gothel.”
What the heck?!
Girlfriend, you are 13 and you JUST SAW THIS MAN AND WERE TERRIFIED OF HIM 2 MINUTES AGO.
These are ALL RED FLAGS.
Maybe she didn’t have a choice, though…
(ANYWAY, thankfully, Tangled’s Rapunzel is quick to use a frying pan.
She is extremely suspicious of the newcomer, holds him hostage, interrogates him, and is
immune to his “smoulder.”
GOOD ON YOU, LADY!)
Back in the dark timeline, they ‘place their hands in eachothers (which means, I think,
they perform their own marriage ceremony?
OR… click click) you know.
Welp.
The marriage part is most likely an addition by some “Moral Authority” or another,
as you will see...)
Rapunzel won’t go away with the prince right away, saying she “doesn’t know how to
descend the tower.”
(She could really take a lesson from Tangled’s Rapunzel!
You know, USE WHAT SHE’S GOT?)
Instead, she asks King’s Son to bring her a skein of silk each time he visits her, so
that she can weave a ladder to descend.
(Why not just ask him to bring a whole rope?
Why expensive silk?
Is she actually taking him for a ride?
Spreading out the time she needs to marry this dude for real?!)
I wish.
Buckle up, because this tale gets real in one fell swoop.
Gruesome Consequences, Sad Survivalism: “Son of the king” and Rapunzel keep their meetings
secret, until one day Rapunzel blithely comments to Gothel “how much heavier she is to lift
up than the man.”
(Note: in an earlier version of this Grimm’s tale, Rapunzel instead asks: “Why her waistband
is getting tighter?”
We’ll cover that shortly!)
Poor Gothel, who only really wanted to keep Rapunzel safe from the wiles of the world,
has been stymied by her own daughter (well, and the rascal prince, too)!
Yeah, communication could have solved everything.
In furious sad anger, Gothel hacks off Rapunzel’s braids with much fanfare, and then drops Rapunzel
off into a DESERT “where she had to live in great grief and misery.”
Gothel fast-travels back to the tower in time for the evening rendezvous with the “king’s
son,” and when he asks Rapunzel to let the hair down, Gothel uses the cut tresses to
make the ladder for him.
When Sonny gets to the top, the enchantress is up there, mocking him: “Thou wouldst
fetch thy dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the nest; the cat
has got it and will scratch OUT THEY EYES as well.”
In despair, the prince leaps off the tower and into a briar patch, which gouges out his
eyes, leaving him blind.
He forever roams the forest in wretchedness, eating only berries and roots and crying about
the loss of his “wife.”
As luck would have it (or fairy tales, anyway, go figure) he eventually stumbles across someone
singing in the desert.
SURPRISE!
IT’S RAPUNZEL, living in squalor, WITH HIS TWO CHILDREN - A BOY AND A GIRL.
So, to recap: 13-year-old Rapunzel HAD THIS STRANGER'S TWINS, but had to birth them ALL
ALONE...
IN THE DESERT, and raise them ALONE...
IN THE DESERT.
(It’s a miracle she didn’t die in labor, honestly.)
But then when she sees this “king’s son,” the man responsible for this WHOLE SITUATION,
stumble blindly upon her hovel, SHE CRIES TEARS OF JOY that cure his sight.
He is so happy that the newly reunited family of 4 move back to his kingdom, where they
are joyfully received.
Like nothing ever happened.
Happily Ever Freaking After.
In Tangled, Rapunzel’s tears of sorrow DO restore Flynn to life, imbued as they are
with the last of the flower’s magic, and, also like in Grimm’s story, a family of
4 is eventually reunited - The King, Queen, Daughter Rapunzel and her new bow, Eugene.
Similar, but waaay different and waaay less creepy!
Truth be told, I’m waaaaaaay more into the Disney telling of this tale.
It transformed a problematic story into something that works in today’s world.
But unpopular opinion?
In both Grimm’s tale and in Tangled, I’m team Gothel all the way.
Poor enchantress is just living her best life for centuries, minding her own business, and
gets her prized flowers stolen by pesky humans!
In Grimm’s version, and, it’s hard to tell this because fairy tales don't out and
say motives or emotions, I get the sense that Gothel deeply cares for her daughter, and
is just trying to protect Rapunzel.
Yeah, she could have just TOLD Rapunzel about what to be aware of in the world instead of
locking her away in an impossible tower to rot away from boredom, but communication is
never a strong suit in fairy tales.
I’d mamma bear out and go HAM too, if I were her!
In Tangled, vain Gothel loves herself first and foremost, but I do think she also loves
Rapunzel.
Is it a healthy love?
An Open, Safe and Trusting Love?
Heck no.
It starts with a grudge because her beauty potion was stolen.
She keeps Rapunzel locked up to keep her “new flower” a secret, but still tells the truth
- the world IS a dangerous place, and yeah, Rapunzel IS very innocent and naive and unaware
of the outside world (because she’s been locked up in a tower!)
Sure, Gothel’s motives were selfish, but she at least knows how to communicate!
The movie does take pains in Gothel’s dialogue to make the view feel like she does not actually
love Rapunzel as a daughter, but loves her hair more than life itself.
“I see a strong, confident, beautiful young lady...Oh, look, you’re here too!” but
I genuinely feel hurt that Gothel overheards Rapunzel saying she is “so glad she left
that tower.”
And, if Gothel didn’t love Rapunzel on some level, her snapping (around 94-ish minutes
in: ”OK, so I’ll be the bad guy”) wouldn’t be as meaningful.
Before then, she wanted to both protect both the hair (of course!), AND her daughter’s
heart, to some extent.
Gothel has a dramatic ending in Tangled - aging older than dust and tripping out of the tower
window, and splatting on the ground below.
This is more graphic than in Grimm’s tale, where, after banishing Rapunzel and cutting
loose the Prince, she kinda just keeps on keeping on.
Probably because she has so many other fairy tales to appear in!
Anyway, thanks for adventuring with me into the darker origin story of Tangled and Rapunzel!
This kind of stuff has always been fascinating to me, and I hope you enjoyed the tale.
What are some of your favorite old tales?
Please do share in the comments below!
Always looking for a good read.
Thank you for sticking with me to the end of the video!
I’m most likely working on the next adventure, so I’ll have something for you soon!
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