Why Tangled Never Should Have Happened With it’s debut in 2010, Tangled became an instant Disney classic. Featuring the typical Disney characters, the beautiful princess and unlikely hero fight evil to defeat the wicked witch. With a happily ever after, all is right in the kingdom again. However, Tangled has a dark side in the movie that went untouched by screenwriters. The evil witch, Mother Gothel, had kidnapped Princess Rapunzel as a baby and kept her hidden for the entirety of her childhood. The psychological damages this would have had on Rapunzel would have been so crippling that Rapunzel would have never been able to fight back. Abducted by Gothel before she could even walk, Rapunzel never had the experience of grass on her feet, dirt on her hands, or wind in her hair. She missed a pivotal portion of development, exploring the world. Through interaction with the outside world, normal children …show more content…
are able to develop core mental processes to conserve mental effort, which now take form in split-second, unconscious decisions. Four processes dominate everyday life: attention, judgment, interpretation, and memory. Attention allows our minds to determine what to focus on and what is just background. Living in the same small tower her entire life, Rapunzel would have developed very poor attention skills because she was never placed in new environments. Instead of the joy she felt while exploring the forest outside of her tower, she would have felt overwhelmed by it’s novelty. Everything would have been new and her brain would not have known what was important. The second process is interpretation, which involves making sense of events in the world around us. Interaction with only one person in a very limited environment would cause Rapunzel’s interpretational database to be exponentially smaller than others. For example, on her trip to the “Snuggly Duckling” pub, she would not have known the social norms regarding restaurant etiquette, how to use money, or even what a restaurant is. Next, there is the judgment. This involves how we use the interpreted information to make decisions. In Rapunzel’s case, her skewed interpretations would effect her judgments. After the ruffians were nice to her, Rapunzel immediately changed her opinions on them. To someone with “street smarts,” we know that immediate trust of strangers is not a sensible thing to do, but because of her upbringing, Rapunzel was not able to make proper judgment calls. Lastly, there is memory. This is the collection of all events that influence future decision making and interpretation. At the base level, this is what would have effected Rapunzel’s decisions most drastically because all her memory up until leaving the tower had been based upon her hyper-sheltered life. Therefore, her archive for all mental process would be a fraction of a normally developed adult’s. Once out in the world, Rapunzel would not be able to conserve her mental effort and been left in a state of mass confusion and disorientation. Even if she had made it to the kingdom, Rapunzel would not have been able to effectively communicate with other people.
From the beginning, she was set up for an unfulfilling childhood. Gothel loathed her job as a mother because she only sought to use Rapunzel for her own gain. As demonstrated through Gothel’s continued put-downs and self-absorbed comments, Rapunzel would have developed an attachment style based on fear and obedience to Gothel. Commonly referred to as an “insecure attachment,” Rapunzel would have grown up to be introverted, anxious and avoidant of large social situations. In addition, Rapunzel spent most of her days alone in the tower. These extended periods of isolation would have halted the growth of Rapunzel’s emotional intelligence, if they hadn’t driven her mad. Not being able to talk to anyone would have increased Rapunzel’s antisocial personality traits and left her incapable of effectively communicating. This drastically contrasts from the girl who readily sang with a group of ruffians at a bar, or danced freely in the plaza of the
kingdom. Although Disney portrayed Rapunzel as sheepish and overly cautious of her surroundings, they did not show the psychological detriments that would have left Rapunzel in a state much worse than she was. In fact, she would have most likely been closer in relation to a feral child, commonly referred to as “Genie.” Genie grew up in an environment similar to that of Rapunzel. Genie was chained to a chair alone for hours on end, where she was unable to move around or socialize with anyone. When her parents did talk to her, it was verbally and physically abusive. Genie was eventually taken into police custody but was unable to walk, talk, or behave like socialized human being. Even after four years of work with psychologists, Genie was still unable to fully grasp a language or use anything other than a very basic set of social skills. When found, Genie was 14 years old, which is well past the critical period for development. In the movie, Rapunzel was around 17 years old. Although Rapunzel was able to move and learn a language, both her and Genie were isolated for long periods of time during childhood. Rapunzel’s inability to socialize during her critical development period would have left her more like Genie than a normal person. Perceiving the world with a skewed set of core mental processes would be difficult enough. Combined with the inability to constructively interact with another human being means that Rapunzel’s trip to the Kingdom would have been impossible. Even in the presence of another person, Rapunzel would have still remained helpless. In the movie, the main element that made the trip possible was Rapunzel’s guide, Flynn Rider. He was originally very reluctant to guide her, but she used coercive tactics and bargaining to get him to agree to take her. In reality, Rapunzel would not have understood the concept of a bargain or any higher level social skills to persuade another person to do what she wants. She never would have gotten her guide and, therefore, never escaped the tower. Sadly, Rapunzel’s story would have ended where it started, with her alone and under total control of Mother Gothel.
Imagining the similarities between one of the most famous Shakespearean plays and a new animated Disney movie is difficult, until you look deeply into the characters. From the Shakespearean play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is extremely similar to Mother Gothel from the Disney movie Tangled. Lady Macbeth is Macbeth’s wife that has strong desires and personality. The movie Tangled created a similar character with Mother Gothel, she is Rapunzel's mother and believes in going after what you want. The two characters are not the exact same, they differ in their desires and in their ending demise. They are much more similar in their motives and their actions which reveal their shared character traits.
Tangled goes through the Call to Adventure close to the beginning of the film. Rapunzel asks Gothel if she can go outside, but she says no; fortunately, Flynn shows up and promises to take her to see the lights and return home. Flynn doesn't just offer to take her, it takes some persuading; for example, Flynn complains saying “Unfortunately, the kingdom and I arent simpatico at the moment. So I won't be taking you
The Beautiful Struggle and The Wire deeply expressed the Black experience. Both factors gave the perspective on how Black individuals view society based on what they go through. The book, The Beautiful Struggle, covers Ta-Nehisi Coates’s childhood and adolescence of growing up in Baltimore, Maryland. In the show, The Wire, it is based on a group of four boys who are also being raised in Baltimore, Maryland. The Beautiful Struggle and The Wire are comparable because the book and the show both consist of young Black boys who are trying to find a place in life where they belong, while being surrounded by street challenges such as, violence, gangs, and drugs. Also, the character Dukie in The Wire and the character Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Beautiful
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
America has always been depicted as an amiable place to live in. More than often, foreigners would visualize America as the place where neighbors would greet each other in the morning and have their children play in the back yard with the family dog. However, as with most foreigners, this image was shattered by the adverse environment that surrounded them. One of the biggest mistakes that they failed to recognize was the murder of innocent civilians. These murders were almost always published on the front-page of every major newspaper. As such, Americans have always been interested in the death of others. This is true in the ninetieth and, more predominately, twentieth century. As tales of murders got colder and bloodier, Americans had an instinctive
Children have often been viewed as innocent and innocent may be a nicer way to call children naive. Since children’s lives are so worry free they lack the knowledge of how to transition from being a child to becoming an adolescent. Their lack of knowledge may be a large part of their difficulties growing up, which could be a few rough years for many. In books like the boy in the striped pajamas the story is told from the point of view of a little boy, this way we get a full view of how innocent he is. In this book the writer shows the reader first hand how a child viewed the holocaust and how his innocence cost him his life. Then in books like the perks of being a wallflower Charlie is a teen whom is struggling with the transition from being a child to becoming an adolescent. In this book the writer gives a first hand look at how difficult it can be to transition into an adolescent. Charlie has many difficulties in this book; he is in search of his identity and how to fit in.
In the middle of the story, Rapunzel has no idea that the witch will soon show her true color. Before the witch notices Rapunzel’s physical changes, the prince finally gets to see her by climbing her hair, in other words, touching her hair. This symbol, someone is touching the hair indicates“desire for sexual adventure” (Dream Dictionary). Thus even if they are just met each other, prince was might thinking to have a sexual relationship with her in such a short period of time. As time goes by, when the witch gets mad about her pregnancy, Rapunzel looses the most attractive feature; the unbelievably and unrealistically long hair by the witch. Being cut her hair by someone symbolizes “feeling weakened or brought down by someone”, which what she
Gothel, who kidnapped Rapunzel for her own selfish needs demonstrates bad parenting persistently through the movie, Gothel demonstrates narcissistic behavior toward Rapunzel. When they are both standing in front of the mirror Gothel says, “Look in that mirror. I see a strong confidant young lady. Oh and look, you’re here too!” Gothel tends to her own wants and needs, neglecting the wants of Rapunzel. The adolescent stage of life is a period of time where teenagers need to find a personal identity and sense of self. Receiving positive reinforcement and encouragement from parents allows an adolescent to be able to find out who they want to be in life and gives them a sense of direction. According to Erik Erikson’s theory of development this is important to the process of forming a strong identity. (Kroger, 2006) Rapunzel is given no sense of self when is she is constantly being put down by what she thinks is her “mother”. She often receives more criticisms then she does compliments.
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.
At first glance, what makes a fairy tale a fairy tale may seem obvious—some kind of magic, hidden symbols, repetition, and of course it’s evident it’s fiction—but fables are more than that. As Arthur Schelesinger puts it, it’s about “[expanding] imagination” and gaining understanding of mysterious places (618). While doing this, it also helps children to escape this world, yet teach a lesson that the reader may not be conscious of. A wonderful story that achieves all of this is Cinderella, but not the traditional tale many American’s have heard. Oochigeaskw, or The Rough-Faced Girl, and Ashputtle would be fitting for a seven-year-old because they get the gears of the mind turning, allowing for an escape on the surface, with an underlying enlightenment for children of the ways of the world.
In 2009, Disney released a movie called the Princess and the Frog. The movie itself tells a story about Disney’s first black Princess, a poor African – American named Tiana. Her mother works as a clothes maker for her best friend’s father. The friend was a privileged white girl. Disney’s first idea was to named Tiana Madeleine, in which she would be a chambermaid for a white woman, a historically ‘correct’ profession, however this idea was too much like slavery. Her family friend throws a party one night and a magician turns Prince Naveen into a frog. The Prince convinces Tiana that if she kisses him, he would turn back into a Prince and would help her to open her own restaurant. However, after Tiana kisses Prince Naveen, she too turns into a frog, and the two of them then set on an adventure to find a voodoo specialist who can turn them back and fix everything for them. Tiana being Disney’s first black Princess was a big step forward for Disney. However, many articles point out that though Disney may have cast a black princess for the very first time, the Princess spends most of her time as a frog. This leads to the impression of Disney not wanting to have the lead as a black princess. Critics also point out that the witch curse has African-American like masks, which portrays that the African American people are viewed as frightening, and they have a magical element about that. Involving the white Prince also
Ross, D. (2004). Proquest. “Escape from wonderland: Disney and the female imagination”. Marvels & Tales, 18(1), 53-66,141.
Though Rapunzel’s lengthy confinement in one room, her home, is convincing evidence of the female’s domestic belonging, it does not adequately demonstrate the connectedness of the woman to the domestic. The ambitious young Prince faces an insurmountable task when he plans to elope with Rapunzel; he must, temporarily, displace the woman from her domestic home. After the Prince decisively wins Rapunzel’s affection, Rapunzel delineates her escape plan: “ 'I will willingly go away with you, but I do not know how to get down. Bring with you a skein of silk every time that you come, and I will weave a ladder with it, and when that is ready I will descend, and you will take me on your horse’” (The Brothers Grimm). First, Rapunzel states she will “go away with [the Prince]” and he will “take [her] on [his] horse,” two statements which reveal both Rapunzel’s dependence upon the Prince and her lack of independence. Though Rapunzel agrees to leave her domestic realm, she does so only to elope in the safe, steady hands of the Prince, venturing from one sphere of domesticity, with her mother, to another sphere of domesticity with a man. Rapunzel also promises to “weave a ladder with [silk].” Weaving, a deep-rooted, traditional female activity arises in Rapunzel because it is both feminine and perfectly accessible within a domestic setting. The woman’s skills, in any patriarchal work, are not
Our world, and lives, are full of trials and tribulations. Its our choices, actions, or lack thereof when facing these difficulties that influence the direction of our lives. Rene Denfeld explores this wonderfully in her novel The Enchanted. Her characters all face trials, of varying degrees of intensity, that not only shape them but also the direction of their lives. She delves into this process thoroughly through her character of the white-haired boy. He transforms from an optimistic boy, to a hollow victim of abuse and a corrupt penal system, and finally into a man who did what was necessary to survive.
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.