Rapunzel (With, as she is often depicted, golden hair)
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!
Once upon a time, a couple lived next door to a witch with a beautiful garden. The wife developed such a craving for the rampion in this garden that the husband snuck into the garden and stole her some. The longing increased, and the husband tried to steal more, only to be caught by the witch, who demanded their unborn child as a consequence.
Sure as her word, the witch took the couple's daughter and called her Rapunzel. When she was twelve, the witch shut Rapunzel into a tall tower without doors, whenever she wanted to enter, she would call, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair", and Rapunzel would lower her
extremely long hair for the witch to climb. One day a prince
overheard Rapunzel singing, and, having taken an interest in her situation, soon saw how the witch came and went.
He repeated the witch's trick, Rapunzel dutifully let her hair down, and the two made plans to elope. One day, however, Rapunzel
accidentally revealed the Prince's existence to the witch, who
cut off the girl's hair and banished her to the desert. The witch then lay in wait for the Prince, and pushed him off the tower into a bed of thorns, which blinded him.
The
unlucky couple wandered the wasteland for some time (during which Rapunzel bore twins) before running into one another. Rapunzel immediately embraced him, weeping, and her
tears fell on his eyes and healed them. He took her back to his kingdom, and they lived
Happily Ever After.
The best known version of this story comes from
The Brothers Grimm, probably based on Giambattista Basile's
Petrosinella. Initially, Rapunzel betrayed the Prince's existence by remarking on how tight her dress was getting around the middle, but the Grimms decided that
this was too raunchy and so in later versions, she instead remarked that the witch was much heavier to pull up than her Prince.
The story may have been based on St. Barbara. Many of the older forms — such as
Snow White Fire Red — appear more closely related to a tale type called "The Girl Helps The Hero Flee" — such as
The White Dove. Another variant is
PrunellaA
Disney Animated Canon version of this fairy tale was released in 2010 under the title
Tangled as a result of
Executive Meddling figuring a non-gender specific title would bring more people in.
It went on to become one of Walt Disney Animation Studios' highest-grossing movies of all time.
"Rapunzel" contains examples of the following tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion: Despite popular belief, Rapunzel never reunites with her parents in most traditional versions of the story. Doing so is also unrealistic, considering girls would usually leave their families upon marriage at the time the story is set.
- Adaptation Expansion: Very prone to it. Into the Woods expands on the relationship between Rapunzel and the Witch (as well as Rapunzel's mental state when it's all over...) There is also a graphic novel, Rapunzel's Revenge, set in the Old West where the title character escapes on her own, uses her hair as lassos, and sets out to overturn the wicked witch's empire.
- Donna Jo Napoli's Zel delves into the psyche of the Witch, the Prince and Rapunzel, including the effects of being locked in a tower and devoid of almost all human contact for months at a time.
- Babies Ever After: Almost all versions end with Rapunzel and the prince living happily ever after with their two children (even if Rapunzel's pregnancy was not mentioned earlier on).
- Distressed Damsel
- Dumb Blonde
- Enter Stage Window
- Evil Tower of Ominousness
- Evil Matriarch: The witch is Rapunzel's godmother, which is the meaning of Frau Gothel. While it could be just a formality, she is a literal godmother in some early French variants of the story.
- Eye Scream: The Prince is blinded near the end of the story, either by falling into thorn bushes or by the witch scratching his eyes out.
- The Fair Folk: In early versions, the witch was a fairy. She sure acts like it!
- Girl in the Tower: Possibly the girl in the tower.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: The innocent, beautiful, pure, inaccessible maiden is blonde. Yup.
- Handicapped Badass: The prince may qualify as after he's blinded he still searches for Rapunzel on foot. Some versions have him do this for years.
- Happily Ever After
- I Am Not Pretty: Some variations give Rapunzel self-esteem issues, making her believe she's ugly.
- Idiot Ball: The Brothers Grimm gave Rapunzel this in their Bowdlerised version when they have her, unprompted, mention the Prince to the witch. The first edition at least makes sense — Rapunzel wonders aloud why her clothing no longer fits. Unsurprisingly, considering how the girl lived her life, she didn't know she was pregnant.
- The parents also carried an Idiot Ball, considering they lived next door to a women they knew was a witch and then chose to even risk stealing from her. Wacky Cravings or not, that was just dumb in its purest form.
- However, in some versions, the mother's want for the lettuce is so strong that she faces death if she doesn't get it.
- In at least one version, the mother is ill and the flower is a magic cure.
- If I Can't Have You: Mother Gothel, of course.
- The Kindnapper: Some interpretations of the witch.
- Knight Templar Parent: Some versions of the witch.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: her parents had long wanted and never had a child. Apparently the witch also wanted a child.
- Love at First Note: The prince for Rapunzel.
- Love at First Sight: Rapunzel for the prince.
- Parental Abandonment: Her father was pretty quick to accept the witch's deal of some rapunzel lettuce in exchange for his unborn child. Maybe she really was better off with the witch.
- Pregnant Badass: Rapunzel. Living alone in the desert isn't easy at the best of times, especially for a pregnant woman who has no survival skills.
- Rapunzel Hair: Trope Namer.
- Shaking Her Hair Loose: Some versions the story say that Rapunzel's long golden hair is braided or tied up 90% of the time, and it's only untied when Mother Gothel or the prince climb up it.
- Swiss Army Tears: Rapunzel's tears unblind the Prince.
- Teen Pregnancy: In the first edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales, Rapunzel is actually pregnant. And gives births to two sons (in some versions a boy and a girl instead).
- Traumatic Haircut: Done to Rapunzel by the witch.
- Wacky Cravings: Rapunzel's mother.
- What Happened to the Witch?: In many, if not all, versions of the story, the witch vanishes completely from the story after blinding the prince and sending Rapunzel elsewhere. Where did she go? What happened to her? She just seems to go away, scot-free.
- Wicked Witch: In earlier versions, a fairy.
- World's Most Beautiful Woman: Rapunzel.
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