What Does The Rapunzel Symbolize

Byron Howard and Nathan Greno’s Tangled and the Grimm Brother’s “Rapunzel” tell two similar but noticeably different versions of the story about a girl with long hair kept locked away in a tower. While Tangled presents a fairly lighthearted story, with some moments of despair, “Rapunzel” is told in a mostly despondent manner. This paper will attempt to discern the differences in themes by comparing and contrasting the routes taken the stories.

The film “Snow White and the Huntsman” depicts the journey between the two main characters Snow White and Ravenna the evil Queen. Snow White, who is played by Kristen Stewart for majority of the film, has been locked in her slain father's castle for years. The character is imprisoned by her father’s evil second wife played by Charlize Theron, whose now queen. The Queen also lives in fear of losing of her young appearance and uses the blood of virgins to restore it. She tests the success of this with the well-known mirror on the wall. When the magic mirror reveals that Snow White is the source of her immortality, the queen seeks to kill Snow White. In “Snow White and the Huntsman” many patterns are used like the camera shots of the film, lighting and color. The pattern of camera shots is seen throughout the movie using close ups shots and wide range shots. For example, when Snow White fled from the castle and is chased by the Queen’s horsemen into the Dark Forest, there are close up shots of medieval like armor enforcing the idea that the film is not in modern day and the action of the film will be done with weapons like swords and axes. Close up shots of Snow White and Ravenna dictates who is in power and who is not. The shots show Snow White wearing peasant’s clothing, whereas the Queen wears jewelry, expensive clothes and a crown. Wide range shots are shown in film with vast plains, castles and battles’ giving a sense of realism to the setting. Lighting is another pattern

Cinderella has changed so little over time that it seems we’re still in the 1700’s listening to Charles Perrault. And yet it remains of the most popular fairy tales read to children. The role of women continue to be either the cruel, evil one or the good, docile one while the prince continues to be the saving grace of the helpless girl. The skeleton hasn’t changed much as well. A damsel in distress, saved by a knight in shining armor, who falls in love with her and they live happily ever after. Does this sound familiar? This sentence might as well be a fairy tale. We’ve seen this over and over in Cinderella, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.

The Fall of Man utilizes the social function of a myth. In this story, the social function of the myth tells how society should be organized and who should have control. God said Adam and Eve could not eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge in the middle of the Garden of Eden. The serpent tempted Eve and she ate from the forbidden tree. Adam then committed the same sin. By sinning, their eyes were opened to the world of sin and evil. They now could feel guilt and shame. Through disobedience to God, Adam and Eve gained an awareness of good and evil. An example of this can be seen when they first realize they are naked after they have eaten from the forbidden tree. In Gn. 3:16, Yahweh says, "He (the husband) shall be your master. " This quote in Genesis demonstrates that a man had complete control over his wife in a marriage which was the standard in ancient times. A misconception people saw was that this was not God's divine plan forever. Women being controlled by men was the consequence of sin. Other punishments were Adam had to work for a living and Eve experienced pain in childbirth. This myth could also explain why we wear clothes. This story demonstrates the idea that in inequality between

Like all fairytales, Rapunzel has a history that extends far earlier than the 1800s when it first transcribed by brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. However, Rapunzel is a tale that continues to be re-written and re-interpreted even today. From the 1970s with the feminist revitalization of fairy tales to the early 2010s with Disney’s Tangled (2010), this timeless tale continues to engage its listeners. In 2015, Katie Kapurch of Texas State University revisited Rapunzel with an eye on its more recent modernizations. By starting with Anne Sexton’s poem “Rapunzel” from her 1971 collection Transformations, Kapurch analyzed the lesbian elements of the tale in order to examine the 21st century Tumblr culture that “ships” Tangled’s Rapunzel with Brave’s (2012) Merida.

Before the Brothers Grimm transcribed what is known today as one of the most recognized fairytales ever recorded, it was being passed down orally from generation to generation at every corner of the globe. Various versions of Cinderella’s myth can be found in almost every culture in the world, all very distinct with their own specific qualities, reflecting each society’s predominant interpretations of religious themes. For instance, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s works were known to promote their Prussian culture and language, such as “Aschenputtel”, their German version of Cinderella. Most of their adjustments were heavily influenced by the criticism of their fellow countrymen, their audience, and their Christian beliefs.

The tradition of telling fairy tales to children effects not only the listener but also the reader. Maria Tatar, in her book Off with Their Heads!, analyzes how fairy tales instill and reaffirm cultural values and expectations in their audience . Tatar proposes that fairy tales fall into three different tale-types: cautionary tales, exemplary stories, and reward- and- punishment tales. These three types portray different character traits as desirable and undesirable. Due to the tale’s varying literary methods it can change the effectiveness of the tale’s pedagogical value. In Tatar’s opinion, all of these tales are similar in the way they attempt to use punishment, reward, and fear to encourage or discourage certain behaviors. In the cautionary fairy tale “The Virgin Mary’s Child”, the use of punishment and fear to discourage certain behaviors is enhanced by the Christian motifs and values employed by the tale. These literary devices encourage the audience to reflect on and internalize the lessons that are presented in the fairy tale.

Tangled is a fascinating childhood movie about a teenage girl named Rapunzel, who has been trapped inside the tower of a castle her whole life. She was dying to experience the outside world, and isn’t going to let anyone or anything stop her. Everyone knows the story of Rapunzel, but this paper will give you a better overview of how it relates to child development. This childhood movie relates to child development in the fact that she is cut off from socialization, and she is very unsocial and oblivious to the world outside of the tower she has been trapped in. Although she does interact with her mother every day that is the only personal interaction she ever has experience with making it hard on her when she finally ventures out to

Outsiders’. Rapunzel has lived a very sheltered life considering she is a teenager who has never seen another person before, other than the Witch. She has all these speculations about the people below her and her tower that she gathered from rumors from the Witch and books - causing her to believe all these ridiculous about people. Although, she brings up very good points in her arguments such as, why would she want to be kidnapped from her own home by an unknown “ground peasant”; it just shows that she knows nothing about people and things going around her. In most of this book, she is absolutely confused about everything going around her because the land of Tyme and the people in it are nothing like Witch told her.

Like the introduction, the main part of the tale is also composed of three distinct parts which form a short story on their own. A clear beginning, a central story, and an ending exists. The opening of the main part is concluded after the prince, although enchanted by Rapunzel’s singing, gives up his plan to pursue her when faced with a barrier: no entryway to the tower in which Rapunzel lives. When the prince enters the forest a second time, he is a changed person – he now has a motivation to act on his desires for Rapunzel. The prince is no longer a man who easily gives up; he is eager to form a plan for entry into the tower, and at the same time, the life of the sheltered Rapunzel. She too undergoes a

Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm also known as the Grimm brothers are historically known for their uniqueness both in their styles of writing and the exceptional illustrations of their works. Their age old literature has been told and retold with the essence of gothic architecture and contemporary children's stories for decades now. This essay will contrast the Grimm brothers story of Rapunzel and Disney's story of Rapunzel, it will also include comparing their illustrations with Molly Bang's theory.

The New Yorker featured an article depicting a different, yet similar story from the brothers that also touched upon a unique aspect of human nature. The author of the article described the tone of the story as such, “It feels like a glimpse of the dreadful side of the nature of things.” That is true of very many of the Grimm’s’ tales, even those with happy endings.” (Acocella). This outlook towards the brother’s work gives a darker point of view towards the fairy tales that are enjoyed as children, however this leads to a different interpretation to many stories as an adult.

   The familiar story of Rapunzel, as told by the brothers Jacob Ludwig Carl and Wilhelm Carl Grimm, takes on new meaning with a psychoanalytic interpretation. It is a complex tale about desire, achievement, and loss. The trio of husband, wife, and witch function as the ego, id, and superego respectively to govern behavior regarding a beautiful object of desire, especially when a prince discovers this object.

If Rapunzel was never captured in the tower, the prince may have never found her that deep in the forest, and heard her sing. A plot makes up a story, and a main part of the plot was the prince finding his love and furtively planning an escape each day he came. However, Rapunzel was locked away and the story encroaches with a series of events that are a result from this. When the prince finds that Rapunzel is stuck up in the tower, he insists on marrying her, and does. They then plan a way out, which sparks into another problem, in which that problem sparks into the conclusion. Rapunzel is thrown out into the wild, and the prince is tricked and goes blind in the process. However, these key details of the story are all essential to the outcome of the lovers finding each other again. This is where a conflict can come to an end and be solved through the sequence of events that all tie to the main conflict.

In “The Faerie Queene”, Spencer Edmund produces an allegory. His intention was to relate England in the 1590s to a mythical land in which each character had a symbolic meaning as well as the events they were undergoing. He lived in an era where Roman Catholicism was replaced with Protestantism and he dedicated himself to unconsciously teach and educate his readers the Catholic Church was corrupted and was the wrong religion to follow. For this reason, he gave each character a common role who would relate to anyone in England and showed the readers how his role in the story symbolized good or evil. The themes he expressed in his books talked about his interpretation in religion, politics, symbolism, and his dedication to make his allegory as influential as possible.