Rapunzel: A Cinderella Story

Many people love to see and read fairy tales and never give it a second thought to where they originated from. Or some people do not even know that their favorite disney princess movie really was not created by Walt Disney himself. A lot of the time, a lot of movies, books, etc., are taken from stories that were written long ago and twisted to satisfy the person creating a new version of a tale. Like many famous tales, Rapunzel first originated or was written in 1812 by the Grimm Brothers. The Grimm brothers were inspired by earlier tales similar to Rapunzel, but the story plot was the first of its kind. Rapunzel has been made into hit movies, tv shows, tales, poems, name anything, it has been done. There are four versions of Rapunzel that

have the same plot, but are different to their own, Grimm Brothers version from 1812, “Rapunzel as Barbie”, “Tangled”, and “Rapunzel Poem”. All these Rapunzel versions explore the same plot that we all know and love, but they are different once one analyzes them to the core. The fairy tale “Rapunzel” has many versions that may be a childhood story that ends with happily ever after too many, but has a great deal of life lessons and social issues that directly connect to the modern world we live in today.
“Rapunzel” goes way back to the early 1800s which was written by the Grimm Brothers, they were the ones that started it all. Rapunzel was inspired by other stories written in the 1700s that had a similar style which helped the brothers develop the story that we all know and love. There is five main characters in this story version. The characters are the mom and dad of Rapunzel, Rapunzel, the evil fairy, and the prince.The plot of the story is about a couple who suffered for a very long time to have a child, till finally one day the wife became pregnant. Because when the wife was pregnant, all she craved was Rapunzel, so in order to get some the husband made a deal with a fairy that he could get as much as Rapunzel as they want, but when the child is born, it will belong to her. Once Rapunzel was born, the fairy took her away and looked her up at a tower with no doors, just a little window. When the fairy wanted to enter, she called off for Rapunzel with the famous quote “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.” One day a prince found Rapunzel and they became close and would see each other behind the fairies back for a very long time. Then the fairy found out of Rapunzel betrayal because the clothes were no long fitting her, giving away that she was pregnant. The fairy was so upset that she cut Rapunzel's long hair and kicked her out. She lived in the forest miserable for a very long with her children till one day, she and the prince finally reunited (Ashliman). The moral of the story is more for parents than it is for children like many tales are. The story shows that children grow up and escape even after their parents' efforts to keep them locked up and hidden from the world.
Rapunzel by the Grimm Brothers has ideals that represent that tale and benefits from giving it a read. There are two factors that represent the story. The first is her long golden hair, that is what is makes her different from all the other stories. That is probably the first thing that comes to mind. The second thing is her famous saying “Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let down your hair.” Everyone always says that saying when they think of Rapunzel. In order to look at this story connects with today's society, we will need to go back and visit the the moral of the story. The moral of the story is that the kids or teens grow up to want to leave their parents because of all the parents efforts of wanting them to be isolated which can be seen in the world we live in today. There is no lying all the dangers and violence that the world around us bring and there really is not a way to completely avoid it. Parents want to keep their kids safe from all of that and they choose to completely isolate them from the world which causes them to rebel or leave home to be able to experience life and grow up to resent their parents for that fact. Which we saw with Rapunzel, the fairy did not let her actually have a life, so Rapunzel ended up seeing the price behind her back.
Rapunzel is one of the most popular tales of them all that even Barbie did their own version of it. “Barbie as Rapunzel” is the second installment in the Barbie movie series. It is based on Rapunzel, a fairy tale by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. This film was animated and was released in fall 2002 (Barbie Movies Wiki). In this film the story has the same plot elements as the original version from 1812, but has many small details that make it unique and different. The main character are Rapunzel, Gothel (evil witch), Penelope, and Prince Stefan. The story is told by Barbie to encourage her little sister, Kelly, to paint (Barbie Movies Wiki). The story goes of a young girl with long, blonde, hair that goes all the way down to her toes. Rapunzel is a servant to her master, Gothel. The nasty Gothel has cut Rapunzel off from the outside world and has Rapunzel believe that she saved from being killed when she was a baby. One day Rapunzel finds a magic paintbrush, the brush requires no paint and it paints anything she imagines with just a stroke. But, the paint brush's magic doesn't stop there. Rapunzel realizes that she's able to escape to the outside world by walking through the beautiful painting she paints on her wall. Rapunzel goes exploring and runs into a handsome stranger on her journey but fails to get his name before leaving. At the end of the movie Rapunzel is reunited with the birth parents and married prince Stefan. Then the movie goes back to Kelly and Barbie where Kelly is confident enough to start painting after hearing the story about Rapunzel (Barbie Movies Wiki). The moral of the story is that dreams do come true and you can do anything you set your mind to.
Even though “Barbie as Rapunzel” was inspired by the Grimm Brothers there is plenty of differences that set them apart. In this version we see Rapunzel was actually a princess, in the original story she did not state anything about her being royalty (Barbie Movies Wiki). Another difference was that “Barbie as Rapunzel” she loved to paint and in the original, she did not paint at all. Rapunzel's ability to paint is what makes this movie different from the others because people think about the painting when thinking about this movie because it is different from all the others. This movie connects to real life because it teaches people that you can do anything you set your mind to. In the movie Kelly did not think she could paint, but once Barbie told her the story about what Rapunzel overcame, Kelly got confident to paint (LiveIn Nanny). Usually nowadays people never believe they can do what they set their mind to do, but once they see someone or something doing well, it gets them motivated to do what they want to do.
Given all the success of other adaptations of Rapunzel, it only makes sense for Disney to make a movie version of the tale. In this version of Rapunzel, the title of the movie is called “Tangled” (IMDb). The main character of this story is Rapunzel, Mother Gothel (evil witch), and Eugene as Rapunzel love interest (IMDb). After receiving the healing powers from a magical flower, the baby Princess Rapunzel is kidnapped from the palace in the middle of the night by Mother Gothel. Gothel knows that the flower's magical powers are now growing within the golden hair of Rapunzel, and to stay young and never age another day, she must lock Rapunzel in her hidden tower. Rapunzel has been in the tower her entire life, and she is always curious of what the outside world has to offer. One day, Flynn Ryder finds the tower while escaping from police and is taken hostage by Rapunzel. Rapunzel makes a deal with the Flynn to act as her guide to travel to the place where the floating lights come from that she has seen every year on her birthday. Rapunzel ends up having an adventure of a lifetime. At the end of the story Rapunzel is reunited with her parents and kingdom and then marries Flynn (IMDb). The moral to this story is from finding courage within oneself, to the nature of both selflessness and self-sacrifice.
Tangled is probably the most different version from the original of them all, yet still keeping the basics the same. There is plenty of differences that sets “Tangled” and the original Rapunzel apart. One big difference is that her hair has magical powers, in the original version her hair did not have healing power (IMDb). Another difference is that in this version Rapunzel was royalty and Flynn which is technically prince charming is a regular person and in the original version it was the other way around. In this version it also has a lot of girl empowerment that the rest of the versions did not have (LiveIn Nanny). Through the whole movie Rapunzel went on an epic adventure and showed that a girl can do anything that a boy could do. It relates to things that are happening in the world because we need people to believe that women could do anything just as much as men also have the ability to do.
The Grimm Brothers “Rapunzel” inspired Anne Sexton to write a erotic poem titled “Rapunzel.” Sextons peom refers to a homosextual relationship between Rapunzel and Mother Gothel and how it is different than a hetersexual relashionhip that would be with the prince and Rapunzel (Sexton).

The poem goes on to say that Rapunzel would be better loved with Mother Gothel since their love would be gentle and harmless and that her love with the Prince would be rough and dangerous. Sexton described Rapunzel's relationship to the prince as rough, hard, and unappealing. When she described the relationship between Mother Gothel and Rapunzel, she uses words like “lush perennial” and a “tilled bed luminous with the future yield” (Sexton).
“Rapunzel” by Anne Sexton was a very different take on the fairy tale. There was not a plot or anything that related the original and the poem together other than they both had the same characters. Sexton used the characters to celebrate the relationship between two women, specifically women with a high age difference (Sexton). This story relates to the world we live in now because in this time, it is seen that more and more people are opening or being fine with the fact that their is homoseuality in the world and that is what this poem is about, celebrating

women.
Even though there is dozens of different versions of “Rapunzel”, they all come from the same aspiration which is the version of the Grimm Brothers. The more recent the version is, the more one sees how the plot or lesson of the story changed to fit into today's society.