Essay 2:
Question 2: Psychoanalysis of Rapunzel
sexual desire within the traditional narrative which manifests itself symbolically. The title
character Rapunzel becomes a re-occurring symbol for unfulfilled sexual desire. Rapunzel is
consistently captured and re-captured throughout the narrative as each supportive character
attempts to expel their latent sexual drives by yielding their control over her. This control
slowly becomes unveiled as a fixation as a result of the characters’ internal conflict between
their unsatisfied id and overruling super ego. Thus, the conformity of the ego amongst the
only a fulfilment of social convention but also a result of the manifest content from the
As early as the precursor to Rapunzel’s conception, the latent drives to fulfil sexual desire
become embedded into her character. The man and woman ‘long for a child in vain,’denoting
their unsatisfied latent desires (Freud, 1986:88). These desires are not satisfied until the
woman’s husband descends into the garden bed of beautiful flowers where he finds a
rampion, from which Rapunzel later receives her name. The garden bed (and consequently
Rapunzel) becomes objects of displaced sexual desires for the man and woman who cannot
fulfil each other’s sexual desires. As a result, the woman resorts to displacing her desire by
‘greedily’ consuming the rampion of the enchantress’s in excess in order to gratify her
unconscious sexual drive through which her husband cannot. Consequently, this defence
mechanism works to resolve the conflict between the id and the ego resulting in the
regression of the wife to the oral stage where her desires can be easily pacified through the
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As a result, the wall to the enchantress’s garden becomes a symbolic manifestation of the
anxiety the couple suffer when they are not able to fulfil each other’s sexual desires. The
“high” wall is gazed over by the wife in envy for the neighbouring garden. At the same time
the husband must struggle to overcome the wall in order to reach the rampions. Thus, the wall
symbolises the couple’s mutual unconscious conflict with the id and super ego to fulfil their
sexual desires while they seem to have no garden. The wife’s claim that she ‘shall die’ if she
does not have some of the rampion from the neighbouring garden works as an additional
Similarly, the husband who is unable to tame his sexual desires with his wife invades the
garden of the enchantress which acts as a symbolic space for the enchantress’s sexuality.
However, his invasion of the enchantress’s is symbolic of his latent sexual desire and works
as the sublimation of underlying sexual relations between the husband and enchantress. Here
he attempts to fulfil the desires he cannot fulfil with his wife. Considering this, many aspects
product of the husband’s reinvigorated libido through the desires he successfully satisfies
with the enchantress. Thus, the enchantress’s claim to the child becomes not only a claim for
the child but the sexual reinvigoration and fulfilment she has served to both the husband and
wife. Through this process Rapunzel is born and becomes a sustained symbol for unfulfilled
Consequently, as Rapunzel grows up she assumes a symbolic role as the object of sexual
desire. The enchantress’s placement of her in an isolated tower acts as a phallic symbol object
representing the repressed sexual aversions the enchantress develops in response to the
previous invasions of the husband. Notably, she does not do this while Rapunzel is younger
but rather at the age of twelve closer to puberty. In an effort to repress her experience with
the father and satisfy her own sexual drives, the enchantress mounts Rapunzel’s hair and
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climbs the tower after crying, “let down your hair to me”. In doing show, Rapunzel and her
hair becomes a displaced alternate object for the father’s sexuality synonymous with the
phallic symbolism of the tower through which the enchantress can repress her previous
encounters and satisfy her unconscious latent desires whenever she wishes (Freud, 1986:101).
Thus, Rapunzel’s long braids become a symbolic substitute for her sexuality which develops
beyond her own sexual maturation. Rapunzel herself cannot pass through the normal stages
of infantile sexuality as she has become entirely removed from her parents. Ergo, the
transition through the phallic and oedipal stages become entirely stagnated (Freud, 1987:44).
Instead, the narrative substitutes her underlying underdeveloped sexuality with her long
braids which act as a symbol for her latent sexuality. It is not until the prince is introduced
As a result, the king’s son (or prince), arrives at the tower seeking to satisfy his own desires
in a similar way to the enchantress. When he witnesses the enchantress climbing the braids of
the hair he pursues to satisfy his sexual desire for Rapunzel by climbing her braids in the
same way. However, due to Rapunzel’s stagnated sexual development she is afraid of him at
first and remains unmoved as her sexual desires have not yet matured and lie underdeveloped
within the earlier stages of sexuality (Idema, 1990:28). Instead she instructs the prince to
bring her silk every time he visits through which she constructs a ladder of silk and liberates
herself from the tower. In doing so her ego substitutes her foregone sexuality for the mutual
object of desire she develops synonymously with the prince manifested as the silk ladder.
Accordingly, when the enchantress returns to the tower and discovers the prince has been
visiting Rapunzel she destroys Rapunzel’s symbolic sexuality by cutting off her hair. The
prince’s mounting of Rapunzel’s hair mimics the previously repressed sexual invasion of the
enchantress by the husband and consequently spurs the enchantress’s ego back into conflict.
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As the enchantress utilises Rapunzel’s hair and the tower as a phallic substitute, she responds
to this threat through a ritual of castration which manifests itself as the cutting of Rapunzel’s
braids and the banishment of Rapunzel to the desert. In doing so, the enchantress disarms the
threat of her unconscious conflict with the id but in doing so also eliminates the ability to
satisfy any latent desire for herself or in the scope of the rest of the narrative. As a result, the
author immediately eliminates her from the story after her character becomes defunct and
However Rapunzel’s exile in grievance allows her to mature through the phallic and oedipal
stages as she comes to terms with her lack of phallus. With the symbols of the phallus
previously manifested in the tower and her hair finally removed, Rapunzel’s sexual
stagnation concludes. Instead, she is finally given the opportunity to mature through the later
stages of sexuality during her isolation where she secures her love for the prince. Only after
this latent process of grievance is does the narrative allow Rapunzel to suddenly become a
mother.
Simultaneously, the blinding of the prince prevents him from seeing anyone else as an object
of sexual desire, marking his journey through the forest as a regression into the oral stage.
During his journey through the forests, his loss is remedied by being comforted through an
oral fixation on berries in the forest. Consequently, his desire for Rapunzel is sublimated into
the primordial desire for food and allows his fixation for Rapunzel to survive through the
years in the forest and desert. This process is not reversed in the narrative until they are
reunited.
Inversely, when the prince finally reaches Rapunzel she takes begins to mother him in the
final passages. The prince having ‘fell on his neck and wept’ lets her tend to him and ‘wet his
eyes with her tears’. With this his vision is suddenly restored re-awakening the latent id from
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the oral stage and again allowing him to see her as an object of sexual desire. In totality, the
final passage is required not only to satisfy the ending of the narrative but to fulfil the
prince’s oedipal complex which finally secures his love for Rapunzel. This allows them to
live ‘joyfully’ and ‘contented’ with the fairytale ending being completed after having the
In conclusion, the latent content found in the story of Rapunzel revolves around the central
notion of Rapunzel being utilised as the object of unfulfilled sexual desires. This process
starts as early as the prologue to Rapunzel’s birth as her very conception becomes a product
of unfulfilled sexual desire. Amongst the characters’ unconscious drives, Rapunzel is then
transformed into a symbolic object of sexual desire which each character fights to posses.
These struggles to hold control over Rapunzel are the product of the internal conflict of the
narrative as a whole.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Blocker, D.H., 2000. The evolution of counselling psychology. New York: Springer
Publishing Company.
Freud, S., 1957. A Preface. In Benjamin, N., ed. Freud and the 20th century. Cleveland: The
Freud, S., 1986. The Essentials of Psychoanalysis. Freud, A. ed. London: Pelican.
Idema, H., 1990. Freud, Religion and the Roaring Twenties. Maryland (US): Rowman &
Littlefield Publishers.
Grimm, Bros., 1884. Grimm's Household Tales. Translated from German by Margaret Hunt.
London: G. Bell.
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