Fairy tales have long been part of children’s lives, folktales passed down from generation to generation, first orally and then written down. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are among the famous writers that made these stories available to a broader audience by transcribing them. The Grimm brothers’ “Rapunzel” recounts the story of a girl who is trapped in a tower as a result of the actions of her parents. This story went through many versions before and after its publication, including a Disney movie, Tangled. In this paper I will compare and contrast “Rapunzel” and Tangled, and how the story morphed as time and the world’s opinion changed.
Stories similar to that of Rapunzel are said to have started around the time of the beginning of Christianity, relating it to Santa Barbara’s’ ordeal with her father and her beliefes. Other stories from Italy, Germany, and Turkey, like “Little Parsley” (Petrosinella) or Persinette, would also be published before the Grimm Brothers released theirs (Ashliman). These stories influenced the development of the Grimm Brothers’ “Rapunzel”.
“Rapunzel” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm is the story of a girl who is given to a sorceress after father steals a rapunzel plant to satisfy his wife’s craving. This sorceress raises Rapunzel as her own daughter, never revealing to her who she really is and who her parents are. Tangled is the Disney modern adaptation of the Grimm brothers’ story of Rapunzel. The essence of the story is still maintained, but Rapunzel takes a more active role as the plot progresses.
Comparing the two stories, there are several similarities between “Rapunzel” and Tangled. In both of them find the girl, Rapunzel, trapped in a tower by a sorceress or an old woman, with no way to escape. The only...
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...n. Rapunzel is pregnant with twins at the end of the story and is outcast by the sorceress when she finds out, sing of children (Ashliman). The information is then omitted from subsequent versions of the story.
In both stories, the reader can observe similarities and differences. “Rapunzel” is a classical story resembling the roles and perceptions society had around the time the story was written, the values expected of the women of that time. Tangled is a more modern version, in which the woman takes an active role on her life and how she wants to achieve her goals, side by side which the person she loves, sharing the adventure.
Works Cited
Ashliman, D. L. “Rapunzel” Folklore and Mythology: Electronic Texts, 2012. Web. 3 March 2014.
Tangled. Dir. Nathan Greno; Byron Howard. Perf. Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi. Walt Disney Animation Studios, 24 November 2010. Film.
These two stories are about the story of Rapunzel. They are both from different places and have some of their culture. One article is “ Blond Beauty “ and it is from France. The other story is “ Parsley [Petrosinella] “ and it is from Italy. “ Blond Beauty “ is more like the Rapunzel I know, it has a godmother type of person that calls for Rapunzel to let her hair down. The story “ Parsley [Petrosinella] “ is different from that it has orges and a garden, but there are things that are very alike about both of these stories as well.
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.
In the 21st centuries take on the fairytale Rapunzel, the movie “Tangled” depicts the troubled life of an adolescent that is raised by a woman whom is not her mother. Rapunzel is abducted from her crib as an infant by an evil witch, Gothel, for the sole purpose of using her magical hair to enhance her beauty to make her young again. As an eager Rapunzel ages, she soon wants to be set free into a world that she has yet to see.
Tatar, Maria. Off with Their Heads!: Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1992. Print.
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.
Over centuries of children have been enjoying the classic fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers and Charles Perrault. The fanciful plots and the vivid details allow children to be entranced by characters and adventures that can only be found in these stories. One of the most beloved fairy tales, which both the Perrault and the Grimms have their own separate versions of, is Cinderella. Cinderella is able to show how both versions are able to feed off the same plots while personifying the century and social economic situation in which they have lived.
These two films are not only similar on these surface levels, but also in their narrative structure and intent as well. Dorothy and Alice, both find themselves trapped in a world of their own fantasy, but with no context on how to navigate their way home. They are then lead by an array of strange characters who guide them on their journey. Dorothy meets the scarecrow, the tin man, the cowardly lion, and so on. While Alice crosses paths with the white rabbit, the cheshire cat, the mad hatter, and so on. With the assistance of their companions, both heroines maneuver their way through the challenges each fantasy presents. Perhaps the biggest similarity these films share narratively, is the underlying emphasis on empathy and perspective. Both
During the 19th century, Grimm’s fairytales were strongly disapproved of due to harsh, gruesome details and plots. One American educator from 1885 stated, “The folktales mirror all too loyally the entire medieval worldview and culture with all its stark prejudice, its crudeness and barbarities.” As childre...
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
... alive at the end, there is a fairy that turned them into statues because of their evil actions where as the beautiful daughter’s sisters supported one another in all situations.
One way both works are similar are in their back story. In both the children are taken into the woods, and left there by the father. In hunger they come across the house made of candy, and take a bite. The witch gets them, and Hansel is forced eat, while Gretel...
Over centuries, fairy tales were passed down by word of mouth to portray a story with a hidden meaning. As these fairy tales were passed on they traveled to different destinations and were modified to conform to other cultures. One example of this is the story of Grapnel. Most people are familiar with the Brothers Grimm version of Rapunzel; however, an earlier variant that comes from Italy was the forerunner to the Grimm version. The Italian version, Petrosinella, written by Giambattista Basile, is an example of how culture has an influence on literature. Although this is the case, both fairy tale versions portray jungian archetypes that are often misinterpreted by mainstream portrayals of these fairy tales.
The commonly used saying, “they lived happily ever after,” originates from early fairy tales. Fairy tales are stories that feature fanciful characters that convey a moral to teach children lessons and values that they will keep for the rest of their lives. The original story of “Cinderella” by the Grimm Brothers and the later Disney version Cinderella (1950) are both descriptions of a legendary fairy tale of a kind and gentle girl who overcomes the rancor of her stepmother and stepsisters and ultimately finds a happy ending. Although both stories have the same plot, the overall messages that they deliver are different.
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.
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.