Rapunzel

Scolire, Tara
RLL 520
Traditional Tales Analysis

Rapunzel As a Multicultural Tale

The traditional tale of Rapunzel is most often traced back to the original version that was recorded by The Brothers Grimm, although the Grimm’s version itself is altered from others that are believed to have come before it, and again altered into many new versions, many of which span across cultures.
The original tale tells of a young girl who is locked away by a witch “of great power” in exchange for the rampion her father took from the witches garden when her mother was pregnant with her and craving some. The original uses physical barriers in both garden walls of the witch’s garden and in Rapunzel’s tower walls. It makes connections between Rapunzel’s mother looking out a window and Rapunzel later looking out the window of the tower. Grimm’s described Rapunzel as being “the most beautiful child under the sun” as well as having the talent of singing, both being common themes throughout the stories. The Brothers Grimm cleaned up the ending of the story with Rapunzel asking the witch “How is it, good mother, that you are so much harder to pull up than the young Prince? He is always with me in a moment”, as opposed to earlier (and later) versions where Rapunzel gives away her secret of meeting with the Prince by asking the witch to help her with her dress because it has grown tight (implying that she is pregnant). Also, at the end of other versions Rapunzel is mother to a set of twins, while in the end of the Grimm’s version she is only the “lovely bride” that the prince lost.
The first version that I analyzed was Sugar Cane: A Caribbean Rapunzel by Patricia Storace. In this version, the pregnant woman craves Sugar Cane, not rampion/rapunzel, but the craved plant again leads to the name of the young girl and story. Instead of being a witch, the antagonist in Storace’s version is a sorceress, perhaps playing into the superstitious nature of Caribbean people. Storace writes that Sugar Cane lived with her parents until her first birthday when the sorceress came to take her, whereas the Grimm’s version had her taken away when she was born. In the Grimm’s version, the mother and daughter were connected through their peering through windows, while in this version they both hear the sea’s waves surging (as well as this being the description for the unborn Sugar Cane moving inside her mother’s womb). Often, Rapunzel’s lover is portrayed as a prince, but Storace wrote him to be a young man who was a Carnival musician, nicknamed the King of Song, and so called King. I found this to be an interesting connection to the traditional title of prince. The way the protagonist gets caught with her lover by the antagonist is different in this version than Grimm’s and most others because she did not mention the young man nor was she pregnant. Instead, the sorceress was braiding Sugar Cane’s hair and found a jeweled hairpiece that King had given her. Further, the jeweled hairpiece found (a butterfly) as well as others that King gave to Sugar Cane were all enchanted and later played into King finding his way back to Sugar Cane. In the end, Sugar Cane and King are married and Sugar Cane’s biological parents find her: a happy ending for all.
After the Caribbean version of Rapunzel, Sugar Cane, I analyzed Rachel Isadora’s Rapunzel. Set in Africa, this story is illustrated in a very culturally African way, yet the story is much similar to the Grimm’s own. As in Grimm’s, the expecting mother in Isadora’s version desired rapunzel so strongly that she believed she would die if she did not have any. Her loving husband decided that he would do whatever it took to get her the rapunzel she so craved, was caught by the sorceress who demanded repayment in the form of their child once she was born. As in the traditional tale, Rapunzel grew to be the a beautiful child, was locked in a tower that had nothing but a window at the very top that the sorceress climbed into using Rapunzel’s hair as a ladder. The prince is again, or rather traditionally, a prince, hears Rapunzel singing and watches the sorceress to learn how to climb into her tower. Varying from Grimm’s version, Rapunzel and the prince say their vows and are married in the tower, possibly justifying her being pregnant before leaving the tower, as her pregnancy is how the sorceress learns of the prince: Rapunzel asks for help with her dress because it had grown tighter. In the end, the prince finds Rapunzel by her voice, as he could not see, and found her with a set of twins that were his own. Rapunzel cures his blindness with her tears, and again, all live happily ever after. In keeping with my idea of seeing how different cultures interpreted the Grimm Brother’s Rapunzel, I also analyzed a bilingual version titled Rapunzel/Rapunzel (to signify the mirrored storied in both English and Spanish), adapted by Francesc Bofill. Other than being a dual-language book, with the English version separated from the Spanish stylistically with a ~ symbol, the book seemed to be a traditional tale, and in fact, I wrongly assumed that this tale would be nearly identical to the traditional as it was an adaptation. Instead, this story had several unique elements that were displayed at the very beginning of the book. The story opens with a couple who longs for a child but is unable to have one, and the “fearsome witch” who lives next door and has a bountiful garden. The woman is not pregnant yet craves radishes from the witches garden, the husband steals some for fear that his wife will die without them, and is caught by the witch. In this version, the man readily agrees to give the witch their first-born child as payment, but because he believes that he and his wife are unable to have children. True to her word, the witch took the child shortly after she was born and names her Rapunzel (which, in this first, has no connection to the food craved). The witches locked her in a tower where she grew to be a charming young woman, rather than the most beautiful as other versions have stated. The prince rides by and hears her singing, as in the other versions, and finds his way into the tower. There, the prince works out a plan with Rapunzel that he will bring her silk thread that she may weave into a way to escape the tower. This was omitted from the other picture books but was present in the Grimm’s version. Rapunzel gives her love away when she asks why the witch is so slow to climb up to the tower, unlike the prince. As in Grimm’s, the prince is a strong character who threw himself from the tower rather than be pushed by the witch, having control over his fate. In the end, the prince wandered into a desert that Rapunzel was living in with two young children. Although the author never states that the children are hers, the reader can assume as Rapunzel is living alone in the desert she was banished to, possibly to keep the story sexuality-free and child friendly. In fact, the author also keeps sexuality apart from the story as she says it was like magic that the couple became pregnant with Rapunzel in the beginning. Further, the author makes this version child friendly by explaining to the reader that in the end the witch exploded due to her rage and Rapunzel’s “true” mother was able to eat as many red radishes from the witch’s garden as she desired. The last, most unique, and the one version of Rapunzel that I was most excited to analyze was Rapunzel: The Graphic Novel. This book opens with a Cast of Characters that introduces how Rapunzel, the witch, the prince, the husband, and the wife will appear in the following pages. Most interesting is the depiction of the which, who seems more to be a gremlin, turtle-like creature; the other characters look relatively how you would expect. The storyline remains pretty traditional except that it is told mostly through dialogue instead of as a narrated story. The story does open with the wife being pregnant and craving rampion from the garden of the witch next door. The husband attempts to please his wife repeatedly but is caught by the witch and frightened into agreeing to give her their child. The story becomes unique as the reader finds out that Rapunzel grew up next to her biological parents, behind the witch’s garden wall. One day, Rapunzel swung too high on her swing and caught a glimpse of the world beyond the walls. The witch becomes enraged and has the bricks of the wall fly through the sky to the deepest, darkest part of the forest where they stacked themselves into a tall tower that Rapunzel would live out the rest of her days. Rapunzel is lonely and craves someone to talk to, learns to sing by signing along with a little bluebird that visits her, and has daily visits from the witch. As in the traditional tale, a prince rides by and hears her singing, find his way into the tower, and is found out by the nurse when Rapunzel asks why the prince can climb up fast than she can. Rapunzel becomes banished to a desert, as in the traditional, and the prince is tricked and dropped from the tower by the witch. In this version he does not jump, but rather falls. The prince is blinded until he wanders into the desert where he finds Rapunzel with child twins. Uniquely, in this version, there is a dialogue blurb of Rapunzel telling her babies that when they are older she will tell them about their father, the prince. I found that it was rare for authors to hint to any sexuality, and that often the twins just came to be. The family lives “in perfect happiness from then on” and the witch was never heard from again. Overall, I found that Rapunzel is a tale as old as time that has been readapted closely as well as with a range of variants from the version written by the Brother’s Grimm. They all begin with a selfish wife who wants something and her loving husband who does whatever it takes to get it for her, and the wicked woman who interferes. It seems that the idea of a young girl being locked away by a wicked step-mother figure and rescued by a young man were the most common themes that remained the same throughout all versions. Different cultures put their own spins or details in, as best displayed by Sugar Cane: A Caribbean Rapunzel, and different times take different liberties with sexuality, as in the modern graphic novel version. Not explored in the analysis is the variations in illustrations. Interestingly, not all displayed Rapunzel as a damsel-in-distress princess figure (visually) nor the prince as a handsome young man: The Caribbean Rapunzel, Sugar Cane, had a musician, King, as her “prince figure”, while the bilingual version Rapunzel/Rapunzel was set in a city with apartments and high fences. Rapunzel: The Graphic Novel displayed the characters as peasant people (the prince included) and the witch as a monster, while Isadora’s African version displayed the witch as a tribal sorceress, perhaps medicine woman. Overall, despite the differences, all of the versions I studied would be quickly recognized as being Rapunzel stories. Conclusively, the overall theme remained the same while much variety exists in the timeless classic, Rapunzel.