Synopsis:
A couple beg for a daughter until they get pregnant, and the soon-to-be mother craves the rapunzel from a witches garden until she becomes ill from her craving. the husband is caught stealing the cabbage and trades unlimited cabbage to save his wife with the promise of giving his daughter to the witch once she is born. When Rapunzel is born, the witch steals her and locks her in a tower. The witch uses Rapunzel's long hair to visit her 'daughter'. Son, a prince hears Rapunzels voice and falls in love. Rapunzel says that if he can bring her a skein of silk everyday, she can make a ladder and climb down. Rapunzel though, tells the witch of her plan and the witch banishes her to the woods and cuts her hair, and then tricks the Prince into coming into the tower by using Rapunzels hair. The prince becomes blind and wanders the wood until he hears Rapunzels voice and Rapunzel cries into his eyes and his vision is restored. Rapunzel, the prince, and their twin children return to the Prince's castle.

-Rapunzel is a German type of cabbage
- locked up at sexual peak
- the story doesn't really begin until Rapunzel begins puberty
- witch may have become curious when Rapunzel showed signs of pregnancy
- the stereotypical role of prince and princess are reversed; She herself is really the hero of the story
- Prince falls in love with her voice
-Rapunzel's body is key/solution for story: -her hair lets the prince/witch into the tower (and the reason how she knows how to tie a ladder); her tears cure the prince's blindness
- the Prince's blindness is restored because it was a magical punishment
- On that note, blindness served a purpose in fairytales: it was a punishment for heroes (as it can be cured, if magically inflicted), it was a sign of evil (ie witches, like in Hansel + Gretel), this was b/c eyes are the window to the soul, so the body mirrors the goodness of the soul deafness was linked to idiocy, which is why the prince was not deafened, or even came up a lot in fairytales as a whole.
- reminiscent of Snow White; heroine locked up at sexual peak for protection

	Created by Carolyne Hess about 10 years ago

University Children's Literature Note on Rapunzel, created by Carolyne Hess on 05/10/2014.