Fairy Tale Examinations #2

(Not sure what this is all about? Check out the first Fairy Tale Examination)

Rapunzel

A damsel in distress is locked in a tower, and her prince comes to rescue her...hmm, I sense a lack of originality here. Still, a wonderful story could be told using a seemingly cliche plot.

A husband and wife (we aren't given names) are having the daughter they've always wanted. Pregnancy craving? Rampion.

I looked it up, because I'm not incredibly familiar with herbs.

Does this seem tasty to you?

Now, I realize it's food, but it looks like a flower. I wouldn't eat it.

This is a dramatic pregnancy craving: "If I can't eat some of the rampion, I shall die."

Something makes me seriously doubt that. But then, I shouldn't judge. Perhaps there is some rare fever, and the only cure...is more rampion.

Her husband gets her the forbidden plant. She wants more, so he goes back, and is caught by an enchantress. He may have all the rampion he wants, if she can have his child. He agrees.

Okay, so he was terrified...but still. It doesn't seem to me he wanted this daughter as much as he claimed to at the beginning.

The moment the daughter is born, the enchantress names her Rapunzel and takes her away.

Hey, look! Someone who actually has a name.

More to the point, the parents don't seem to fight this. At all. "Oh, you want my baby? Here ya go. That rampion was so worth it!"

When Rapunzel is twelve, the enchantress locks her in a tower, with no stairs and only a small window.

How did she get her into it? We're not meant to know.

What we do know is that when little miss enchantress decides to visit Rapunzel, she says:

Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair to me.

Wait, wait, wait. A twelve year old has hair long enough--and strong enough--to replace a ladder.

When I was fourteen, I cut my hair for the first time. It was to my waist. It wouldn't work for a ladder--and I had two years on this girl!

Also... Ouch.

A prince hears Rapunzel singing. He comes every day to listen, until one day he sees how the enchantress gets up. 

So, basically, he's stalking her voice.

The next day, he uses the same phrase, and Rapunzel lets down her hair. She's shocked it's a man.

Did she think the enchantress had a nasty cold?

Rapunzel calms down, he asks her to marry him, and she says yes--because "she saw that he was young and handsome." 

At least she's honest about the reason...

Rapunzel tells Dame Gothel (the enchantress gets a name now) she's heavier than the prince, so Gothel cuts her hair and banishes her to the desert.

Well, that wasn't a kind thing to say...but it's also a bit of an overreaction on Gothel's part.

Gothel attaches the hair to the tower and tries to capture the prince. He dramatically jumps out of the tower, and is blinded by thorns.

Okay, I was under the impression that this tower was 20 feet tall. A little thorn-induced blindness is the only result of a jump from that height? What about broken bones? I broke my leg from a jump of only three feet!

He wanders in agony until he comes upon Rapunzel and her twins. Her tears (of happiness, I presume) return his sight, and they return to his kingdom and live happily ever after.

Apparently, a wedding happened in the tower, since by this point the story refers to Rapunzel as his wife. I'm not sure how, considering it was only ever the two of them in there, but okay.

I'm not even going to comment on the tears-heal-blindness thing.

I'm curious; what fairy tales leave you scratching your head?