Rapunzel The Hero's Journey

576 Words2 Pages

Rapunzel was a childhood story that I heard bits and pieces of. Fairy tales are not something that was talked about in my family. Coming from a home of busy, hardworking immigrants, the childhood fairy tales that were shared were little to none. Despite this, I was able to piece together some of the stories of Rapunzel from schoolmates and adapted versions from kid's shows. I already knew about the trapped girl who was saved by the prince by lowering her extremely long hair for him to climb up, but it wasn’t until this class that I got the full story. Looking past my personal interests, Rapunzel is a great example of “The Stages of the Hero’s Journey” described by Christopher Vogler. When describing the Ordeal seen in Rapunzel, one must conclude that it is not apparent. Or it doesn’t jump …show more content…

This explanation is subjective, unlike the example Vogler gives in his next paragraph. In this paragraph, he says the hero may witness or cause death directly, and this would be their greatest challenge – their Ordeal. By solely focusing on the first definition, the reader can see that the ordeal would be when Rapunzel confronted the sorceress. After being trapped for many years by her foster mother, she reveals that she has been with a man. The sorceress, Frau Gothel, felt betrayed and cut off Rapunzel’s beautiful long hair and sent her to the woods to suffer. Rapunzel faced her greatest fear (her foster mother) only to still face continual suffering away from the love of her life – the prince – in the woods. Additionally, when viewing Rapunzel as a love story, Vogler’s example continues to support the fact that this scene is the Ordeal. Vogler explains that the end of a relationship is the “death” the hero experiences during the ordeal. The separation of Rapunzel from the prince fulfills this definition. Notably, Rapunzel only gained the confidence to defy the sorceress after meeting the

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