Tangled: A Perfect Prison and the Desire for Floating Lights

 

Tangled: A Perfect Prison and the Desire for Floating Lights

            In Victoria Schmidt's model of the heroine's journey, the Illusion of a Perfect World is the first stage and marks the beginning period when the heroine first views her life, circumstances, and environment as perfect, using coping strategies like naivete, dependence, arrogance, or subservience to distract herself from the precariousness of her position and imperfections of her reality. With this general description and Disney's Tangled, this blog explains how the beginning scenes of the movie Rapunzel's Illusion of a Perfect World in her heroine's journey.

            At the beginning of Tangled, Rapunzel is content in her perfect world. The movie depicts Rapunzel's tower as a safe, cozy, and vibrant environment tucked away in a beautiful valley with soaring cliffs. Exuding a warm aura due to the lighting and pale colors, the tall tower reinforces Rapunzel's sense of comfort and security in the secluded space. Observing Rapunzel contently completing her daily tasks, we see a space filled with books, art supplies, and other supplies for Rapunzel's entertainment. Providing tasks and encouraging Rapunzel's creative hobbies, Mother Gothel shapes Rapunzel into a busybody, effectively barring her from social interaction, prolonging her naiveté, and distracting her from the imperfections of her childhood and living environment. In her song "When Will My Life Begin?", Rapunzel sings about both the perfection of her current reality and her growing restlessness to "begin her life" and meet new people, implying that, while she has grown physically older, she has yet to mature and make friends. It's literally like she has yet to be born, still contained within the tower and Mother Gothel's grasp, unable to grow up until she escapes and experiences the outside world.

            Growing up in her tower with Mother Gothel, Rapunzel has been instilled with this false sense of security and the notion that the outside world is dangerous. As a crucial aspect of Schmidt's Illusion of a Perfect World, this false sense of security discourages Rapunzel from leaving the illusory safety of her known world and venturing into unknown realms. Since childhood, Mother Gothel has molded Rapunzel into the perfect prisoner, using manipulative praise, affectionate words like "my flower," and nightmarish tales to control Rapunzel's desires, gain her trust, and discourage her from leaving the tower -- her physical and psychological cage. Receiving these manipulative words from a seemingly trustworthy maternal figure strengthens Rapunzel's illusion further. With a seemingly loving mother providing her with food, shelter, and manipulative praise, Rapunzel deeply internalizes her "perfect world in the tower", oblivious of her prisoner status and dangerous situation. Throughout her tower, Rapunzel has created elaborate and beautiful murals, filling the prison with self-expression and making it a place she wouldn't want to leave. Even the only thing she cannot fix by herself, her loneliness and lack of social interaction, is somewhat remedied by the company of her pet chameleon, Pascal. Never facing true hardship in the tower yet given all she is indoctrinated to desire, Rapunzel is brainwashed into believing that the tower is the best place for her.

     

            Despite these dominating overtones of Rapunzel living in her perfect known world at the beginning of the movie, we can also see her subtle desire to leave the tower and venture into the unknown outdoors. As mentioned before, her song "When Will My Life Begin?" conveys her growing restlessness to "begin her life," interact with others, and embark on thrilling adventures outside the tower. The line of the song, "Mother might just let me go," is particularly significant as Rapunzel continues to yearn for the floating lights and outside world despite constant rejections from Mother Gothel. In addition to the song, Rapunzel's murals also highlight her desire for the outside world, depicting the nature outside her window and the floating lights spectacle that occurs on the night of her birthday each year. Yet, no matter how much or how good she paints, Rapunzel realizes she can never capture the essence of the outside world and her favorite floating lights on the tower walls. Thus, she yearns to actually experience that essence herself and venture into the unknown. The floating lights in particular symbolize this force pulling Rapunzel to the unknown. Appearing every year on her birthday, Rapunzel feels a special connection to this light spectacle, which enhances her desire to participate in the event herself and for objects and experiences beyond the confines of her tower. Essentially, the lights challenge the perfection of her world within the tower, suggesting that there are more desirable things only attainable outside her prison. Implanting curiosity and defiance in Rapunzel, the lights serve to destroy her deeply-rooted illusion of perfection and establish the foundational context for the rest of her heroine's journey.

- Max Bolton