Rapunzel Research Paper

2/11/13
Rapunzel, Rapunzel Stay in the Tower In the Brothers’ Grimm fairytale, Rapunzel, the witch is seen as a horrible, evil character who takes Rapunzel away and locks her in the tower. However, the witch was actually good and she was protecting Rapunzel the best way she knew how to. First of all, Rapunzel should’ve stayed in the tower because the tower was protecting her, the witch was kind to her, and she was naïve. If she stayed in the tower, Rapunzel wouldn’t have ended up stranded in the desert with her babies for years and she would’ve been safe for the rest of her life. All of her actions showed that she was naïve and inexperienced. Lastly, nowhere in the story does it say that the witch was mean to her until Rapunzel disobeyed
A perfect example would be the fact that she let a stranger in the tower. “And the next day, just as it was beginning to get dark, he went to the tower and called out: Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair. The hair fell down, and the prince climbed up” (Grimm). After the Prince stumbled upon her tower and saw the witch call for Rapunzel to let her up he automatically tried it and without hesitation Rapunzel dropped her hair down for him. Surely someone would notice that there would be a difference in a woman’s voice and a man’s voice. However, Rapunzel doesn’t notice the difference in the voices which shows that is naïve. Without even looking out of the window Rapunzel tosses down her hair for the prince to climb up to her tower. At first she was scared of the Prince. For instance, “At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man such as she had never seen before came in to her” (Grimm). The fact
The Prince was a stranger and could’ve hurt Rapunzel but since he was being kind she thought he was good. Another example of how naïve she is would be, “when he asked her if she would take him as her husband, she thought, ‘He would rather have me than would old Gothel.’ She said yes” (Grimm). Rapunzel agreed to marry him after just meeting him. “Rapunzel 's rapid acceptance of the marriage proposal is curious. Is she in love? Does she return the prince 's passion?” (SurLaLune’s Annotations). Rapunzel doesn’t have any experience in the outside world. She doesn’t even know what love means. Lastly, Rapunzel became pregnant with the Prince’s babies. “’Why is my dress getting tighter around my middle?’ She is pregnant and ignorant as to the results of her encounters with the prince thanks to the sheltered life she has led” (SurLaLune’s Annotations). Since Rapunzel was sheltered and naïve she didn’t know what her actions with the Prince can be a hazard on her part. Rapunzel was so isolated from society that she didn’t even know she was pregnant or what