Karen Apodaca

Professor Strode
Bettelheim Essay
September 21, 2015
Rapunzel
Fairy tales are short stories that usually target the young audience. In
the introduction to The Use of Enchantment, Bruno Bettelheim claims that
most fairy tales have a particular structure to young children in which they
have to hold childs attention by entertain him and arouse his
curiosity(Bettelheim 5). The stories must stimulate their imagination in
ways to make them feel identify emotionally. In my analysis of the fairy tale
Rapunzel by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm I found that Bettelheim claims are
accurate about the way fairy tales function in children development. One of
Bettelheim claims are that fairy tales have no ambiguity of who is good or
bad character. Other claim that he refers in his text is that fairy tales have an
"existential dilemma briefly and pointedly" (Bettelheim 8) with an
emotionally security as of happy endings. Lastly, he claims that the moral of
the story can be changed depending on the child's needs current emotions.
In this essay I will support Bettelheims claims with proof from the fairy tale
text of Rapunzel that his claims are accurate in child development.

Bettelheim states that fairy tales have no ambiguity with who is a good
and evil characters. The characters are either good or bad but not both at
the same time. He explains how "good and evil are given body of some
figures and their actions"(Bettelheim 9) that makes them villains, like the
power of a witch in the case of Rapunzel. The evil character is the "sorceress
who possessed great power and was fear by everyone" there is no ambiguity
of how is the bad character. Its clear in the text who is the evil character in
this fairy tale. While Rapunzel's dad steals flowers from the garden of the evil
fairy to save his dear wife from dying, sorceresses took advantage and her
evilness took over her and allowed the man to take the flowers under the
condition that he must give her his child the day he is born. In this particular
situations children will learn that bad actions have consequences. The father
took something that it wasnt his and the consequence of this situation was
that the sorceress took away what he wished (Grimm) the most, his
daughter. In contrast, the good characters that are always doing good things.
We have Rapunzel, who is innocent and the victim of the story which is also
the main character. We also have a hero, the prince, who discovers Rapunzel
in the forest and was amused by her beauty and asked her if "she would take
him as her husband" (Grimm). The main character, Rapunzel and the Prince
ended up together and as a family they all return to his castle. This
resembles that good always wins and evil never persist.
Bettelheim claims fairy tales have an "existential dilemma briefly and
pointedly" with an emotionally security as of happy endings. This argument

"permits the child to come to grips with the problem in its most essential
form" (Bettelheim 8). When stories are shorter and simple children are most
likely to finish the reading, rather than when they have a long book it might
be more tedious to read. As Bettelheim asserts, fairy tales state the dilemma
in which offer permanent and temporal solutions. In Rapunzels story the
main dilemmas are the robbery of the enchanted flower and Rapunzel being
locked up in the forest with neither a door nor a stairway. The permanent
solution to the robbery is that the man and the women who wished for a
child has been taken away when she was a baby. The story continues with
Rapunzels captivity, the prince discovers her and they fall in love with each
other. Leading us to a happily and ever after ending. The sorceress was left
alone in her own tower as to Rapunzel and the prince returned to his castle
with their family and "lived happily and satisfied". Happy ending will
promote confidence in children and their futures "the need to be loved and
the fear that one is thought worthless" (Bettelheim 9).
Bettelheim claims that the moral of the story can be changed
depending on the child's needs current emotions, meaning that it can be
target to different age groups (Bettelheim 17). The importance is that the
main motif can be perceive differently depending in the childs age which
leads to their life situations. Rapunzel offers different perspectives depending
on the childs age which variates from the way they perceive life as well as
their life situations. For one, many teenagers can feel identify with the main
character, Rapunzel, because the fairy locks Rapunzel in the tower when she

turned 12 years old. This may be connected to the story of many teens when
their mothers yields and tries to prevent them from their independence, like
going out with their friends. In other hand, there are children of a younger
age that do not understand why their parents work long shifts and see their
parents for a short time because they hardly see each other. Children might
feel connected with Rapunzel as they feel lonely and isolated from their mom
or dad and even sometimes from the rest of the world.
In conclusion fairy tales are stories with certain characteristics usually
aimed for children in which they can be entertain but most importantly
helped them with their development. In my analysis on the fairy tale of
Rapunzel I found the story had no ambiguity of who is the good or bad
character, fairy tales dilemmas are briefly pointedly making it short and
simple with a happy ending, and that morals can be target to different age
groups depending on their current emotions. I found that Bettelheim claims
are accurate because fairy tales makes children feel identify emotionally
making their development grow in different aspects of their lives.

Work Cited
"Rapunzel." Grimm 012:. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2015
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm012.html
Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and
Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Knopf, 1976. Print.