Rapunzel

577 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Project gender roles in fairy tales

Rapunzel

I have always enjoyed this fairytale, about a young woman with exceptionally long hair who is kept prisoner in a tall tower by a sorceress. The Grim Bothers and Zelinky's version is very different from each other. Zelinsky retells the story in another way. He brings the story alive and I was able to experience in a whole new way. One thing for readers to remember is that many fairytales were originally for adults, so that is the why they may not always seem quite age appropriate. Zelinky's version relates that Rapunzel reveals that she has had a visitor in the tower when she asks the sorceress to help her with her dress for, "it is growing so tight around my waist, it does not want to fit me anymore." The sorceress discovering that Rapunzel is pregnant could be done in a more considerate way. In my opinion, it is inappropriate message to put in a story, especially for children. Grim Brothers describe the story in a more adequate way. The Grimm Brothers state that Rapunzel tells the step-mother without thinking, that why does she take so long climbing on the hair when the King's son only takes but a moment. The step-mother quickly reveals that Rapunzel is seeing some one. They do not relate the story stating she is pregnant, they mention almost at the end that Rapunzel had twins.

Both stories relate that a men and a woman had no children. The Grimm Brothers difference comes to mind that the couple is not able to conceive a child and in my interpretation is that maybe the witch puts a spell on the rampion in order for the women to get pregnant. In this version of the story it never states on when she got pregnant. So the witch maybe has a plan all along to get a child for herself because maybe she also can not have children. In the version of Zelinsky the couple is going to have a child but she starts cravings for rapunzel. Although her cravings are natural and understandable, the woman's behavior is selfish and spoiled. She is not willing to satisfy her urges through other things. She is endangering her health and the health of the unborn child with her behavior. Once again the woman is selfish and demanding behavior.

Show More
Related

  • Rapunzel Vs The Root Of The Matter

    1188 Words  | 3 Pages

    Fairy tales are a part of childhood. They go back through time depicting magical images of happy children, love stories, beauty, wealth and perfection. Authors, movie and film creators, artists and more draw beautiful images for people to remember and pass on through time. Many times the ugliness of the villains and the horrors that come into play throughout a fairy tale are often not as advertised. However, after careful analysis it is very clear that both authors of the original “Rapunzel” and its retell “The Root of The Matter” by Gregory Frost do not shy away from these evil aspects through their tales, while still capturing the magical moments that make a fairy tale memorable. The Root of the Matter fits the Rapunzel tradition with both

    Read More

  • Grimm Brothers Film Analysis

    1197 Words  | 3 Pages

    In order to appeal to today’s audience, Disney had to change aspects of the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales to fit the audience’s modern day ideals. Any form of entertainment is written for a specific audience. The time period between when the Grimm Brothers were writing to now has seen many changes which alter the way stories are told. In the 1800s, when the Grimm Brothers wrote their fairy tales, people passed down stories through word of mouth. It was a simple time,”They continue to live in such a way that nobody ponders whether they are good or bad, poetic or crude… And they take pleasure in them without having any reason” (Grimm Brothers page xxvi). People absorbed what they heard which did not require reading deeply into each story. Each

    Read More

  • Wizard of Oz as a Fairytale

    4055 Words  | 9 Pages

    [5] If we look at a tale like Rapunzel we see a girl of 12 whose

    Read More

  • Gender Conflicts In The Girl With Bangs By Zadie Smith

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    A young girl is forced to live with her step-mother and step-sisters after her father and mother die. She becomes the maid of the family, tending to their every need. Eventually there is a ball; she acquires a fairy Godmother, goes to the ball, falls in love with the prince, blah blah blah. All you really need to know is that she has a happy ending. A happy ending. No matter how much suffering she went through in her early years, at the end, it all came together and she had no more worries. And this is the problem. Cinderella is not realistic. It never was and never will be. Watching this movie when I was young made me believe there was a prince waiting for me somewhere. I grew up thinking that life was simple and uncomplicated, that I did not need to worry about the future because there was a man that would provide everything I wanted and needed. But as I got older, I realized this was not the case. I saw many of my friend’s parents divorce, people die, and the world fight with each other. My fantasy died off, and I realized I had to work hard for myself, and not others. The poem Cinderella by Anne Sexton made fun of the ending of Cinderella. She states, “Cinderella and the prince / lived … happily ever after … / their darling smiles pasted on for eternity. / Regular Bobbsey Twins. / That story.” (Sexton 11). Notice who she referenced and how she has a sarcastic tone. Cinderella and the prince smiled for others, trying to convince

    Read More

  • Snow White Vs Disney

    253 Words  | 1 Pages

    There are many differences between the two. One difference in them is the number of times the Evil Queen tries to kill Snow White. In the Grimm version of the fairy tale, the Queen tries to kill Snow White three times instead of just once, as she did in the Disney film. Another difference is that in the Grimm version of the tale, Snow White promises the dwarfs that she will cook, clean, and keep up the running of the house in order to live there with them. In the Disney version, Snow White arrives at the dwarf’s

    Read More

  • Comparing Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club and Waiting for Mr. Kim

    1577 Words  | 4 Pages

    In both of these stories there are certain characteristics of females that are the same, they are inner strength, obedience, honor and respect, the good of the family is better than the good of the individual.

    Read More

  • Comparing Disney's Cinderella And Grimm Brothers

    406 Words  | 1 Pages

    Have you ever heard of Disney’s Cinderella? Have you ever heard of Grimm’s Cinderella? There are many stories about Cinderella and her “Happily Ever After.” Many versions end the same way as the original story. But sometimes they don’t always end that way. Many writers have re-created versions of Cinderella. The differences and similarities between Disney’s Cinderella and Grimm’s Cinderella are pronounced, and they deserve thorough examination.

    Read More

  • Symtorical Interpretation Of 'The Shroud'

    820 Words  | 2 Pages

    For those who know this, they may see this story in a literal way. Creating stories with fictional characters like Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel and many other imaginary creatures. This approach to the short story would cause one to see the little boy as a ghost after he dies. This would mean that the mother’s body is not responding to a traumatic event and having a mental confrontation with her own self. Instead, she is physically seeing the ghost of her deceased child and not only in her head. The Brothers show their side of fantasy almost immediately in this story by stating “THERE was once a mother..” This is a classical statement used in a broad range of fairy tales. Even when people create their own fairy tales, spoken or written, they often begin with the words “Once Upon A Time” which is similar to how this story is started. It brings creativity to the mind and makes one wonder how the story might continue on to be. This style of writing is a signature for the Grimm Brothers considering it is what they are most widely known for. This particular piece brings a part of reality that readers can relate to and turns it into a fairy tale and nightmare all in one. It describes one of a parent’s worst fears and ways they may actually react and

    Read More

  • Riding the Red

    1195 Words  | 3 Pages

    This modern fairy tale contains diverse characters but none of them is as important as the grandmother. Through her narration, the reader gets all the information needed to understand the story. Indeed, by telling her own story she provides the reader the familial context in which the story is set with her granddaughter and her daughter but even more important, she provides details on her own life which should teach and therefore protect her grand-daughter from men, and then save her to endure or experience her past griefs. This unnamed grand-mother is telling her life under a fairy tale form which exemplify two major properties of fairy tale, as mentioned by Marina Warner in “The Old Wives' Tale”: “Fairy tales exchange knowledge [through the moral] between an older [most of the time feminine] voice of experience and a younger audience”. As suggested in the text, fairy tales are a way to teach insights of life through simple stories directed to, most of the time, younger generations. Most of the time because fairy tales work on different levels of moral which are directed to categories of people, for instance in “Little Red Riding Hood” the moral ...

    Read More

  • The Difference Between Tangled and Rapunzel The Short Story

    1192 Words  | 3 Pages

    In many fairy tales, there is always a damsel in distress that is beautiful and the male character always falls in love with her. In Rapunzel the short story, Rapunzel is put into a tower and lives there most of her young life by her ‘mother’ before her prince comes to recuse her. The difference between Tangled and Rapunzel the short story is that, Rapunzel is the princess and her prince is actually a thief, which ends up falling in love with her. Tangled illustrates how a naïve and beautiful heroine, evil mother figure, and a shallow egotistical hero can make a fairy tale story end with love and marriage.

    Read More

  • Compare and Contrast: Beauty and Beast

    1361 Words  | 3 Pages

    Most modern fairytales are expected to have happy endings and be appropriate for children, nonetheless, in past centuries most were gruesome. Consequently, fairytales have been modified throughout time. The stories “Beauty and the Beast” by Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont and “The Summer and Winter Garden” by Jacob and Wilherm Grimm share similarities and differences. The two stories are distinct because of the peculiar year they have been written in. LePrince de Beaumont’s story is written in London of 1783 and Grimm’s in Germany of 1812. At the time, wealthy people in London, were educated and had nannies who would read to their children; whereas, in Germany, the Grimm brothers created their own interpretation into a short story. Because many high class parents in 18th century London would not be able to spend time with their children, nannies would read “Beauty and the Beast” to them since they were intended for children and considered appropriate. In “The Summer and Winter Garden,” the Grimm’s’ story was mostly based to entertain misbehaved children and teach them the valuable lesson that everyone should be treated with kindness. The Grimm brothers’ goal in rewriting this short story is to better children’s behavior which worked quite well. Since these stories have been re-written for children, it would be safe to say the reason why parents expose the two stories to their children is because they both portray the same moral: good things happen to good people. The two interpretations of “Beauty and the Beast,” although written in separate countries, share important similarities and differences even though the authors have different interpretations and came from different cultures.

    Read More

  • The Importance of Fairytales

    1612 Words  | 4 Pages

    I chose to research the genre of fairytales because the genre retold by Grimm’s caught my attention. Fairytales in modern day usually have a happy ending after the good versus evil concept. Rapunzel specifically, isn’t told in its original form.Theres much more darkness and even though happily ever after is in play, not all fairytales end that way. Fairytales have much more depth than people realize in modern day. It portrays the real struggles we face growing up. In Rapunzel, her mother gave her away and she was raised by an enchantress who locked her away. This very much explains child abandonment or a child that has been given up for adoption and the things they face growing up.Theres a connection between these fairytales and real life situations .Fairytales have a way of expressing real life situations in a way that uses a few elements that help tell the story in a way children can understand. Some of the elements include: magic, morals, royalty and love.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Little Briar Rose

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    The basic elements of the story can also be interpreted as a nature allegory: the princess represents nature, the wicked fairy godmother is winter, who puts the Court to sleep with pricks of frost until the prince (spring) cuts away the brambles with his sword (a sunbeam) to allow the Sun to awaken sleeping princess nature. I think that it may depend on each person, and how they view fairy tales to say if it molds how they think of the world around us. I do however think that the stories we know as children affect us as we move into adulthood, because as we grow older our minds become more complex and we don 't see the world as a fairytale anymore. Many people stopped believing in fairy tales by the time they go up. The message of the Grimm brothers is very simple - she should stay passive, wait for Mr. Right and everything will be fine. This however isn 't the only message behind the story. There are symbols in many fairy tales. It has very simple message: it doesn 't matter if you get an impression everybody around are living full life and you are just waiting. Some things just need time and one day you can still find a partner, true love, just like we already said, some kind of

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis: The Fairy Tale "Rapunzel"

    1845 Words  | 4 Pages

    Rapunzel is an old fairytale that shares some differences with the Italian version. In the German version the father of Rapunzel is present and is the one in the garden caught taking the rampion plant. This is different from the Italian version which only mentions the mother. This difference shows the differences between both countries at the time these fairy tales were written. Germany during the 1800s, was well off and broken up into different kingdoms. It was more common that a couple stayed together during such economic stability. Italy however, suffered during the time that Petrosinella was written which was 1643. Italy faced foreign domination and economic crises during this time which explains why Rapunzel mother was alone during this time. She was symbolizing the dire times that the country itself was facing. The vegetable that was stolen in the fairy tale also varies between both versions. In the German version, the husband goes after rampion radishes. Radishes and dreams of radishes are thought to be ...

    Read More

  • Hansel & Gretel: A tale of Many Stories

    1245 Words  | 3 Pages

    Fairy tales have been a big part of learning and childhood for many of us. They may seem childish to us, but they are full of life lessons and intelligent turnings. Components of fairy tales may even include violence, but always with the aim to provide a moral to the story. Hansel and Gretel is in itself a very interesting story to analyze. It demonstrates the way that children should not stray too far from their benchmarks and rely on appearances. In 2013, a film adaptation was produced. This film is produced for an older public and has picked up the story to turn it into a more mature and violent version. Hansel and Gretel is a German fairy tale written by the Grimm Brothers which has undergone several changes over the years and across the cultures which it touched, but for the purposes of this essay, I will stick to the original story. In the development of this essay, I will analyze the components of this tale by the Brothers Grimm based on the factors listed in the course syllabus (violence, interpersonal relationships, the function of magic and the ending), and I will then do a summary and comparison between the story and the film which was released in theaters recently.

    Read More

More about Rapunzel

Open Document