English 2

Rapunzel re-write

Original by Grimm’s Fairy Tales

Flash Forward

“Is that my prince?” She heard the moaning in the distance – the sound of someone in pain, both
physically and emotionally. “Where have you been all this time?” Rapunzel moved toward the sound and
found him lying on the ground beside a berry bush. A torn rag covered his blood-stained eyes. Instantly,
Rapunzel knew what had happened. “She can’t hurt you anymore, my love,” she said as she reached out
to her prince. It had been years, and the years had not been kind, but he seemed to know her voice
without seeing her face. The prince let Rapunzel hold him, and she wept tears of sorrow and joy into the
scars that had once been his eyes.

Earlier

There were once a man and a woman who had long in vain wished for a child. At length the
woman hoped that God was about to grant her desire. These people had a little window at the
back of their house from which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the most
beautiful flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to go
into it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded by all the
world. One day the woman was standing by this window and looking down into the garden,
when she saw a bed which was planted with the most beautiful rampion (rapunzel), and it looked
so fresh and green that she longed for it, she quite pined away, and began to look pale and
miserable. Then her husband was alarmed, and asked: 'What ails you, dear wife?' 'Ah,' she
replied, 'if I can't eat some of the rampion, which is in the garden behind our house, I shall die.'
The man, who loved her, thought: 'Sooner than let your wife die, bring her some of the rampion
yourself, let it cost what it will.' At twilight, he clambered down over the wall into the garden of
the enchantress, hastily clutched a handful of rampion, and took it to his wife. She at once made
herself a salad of it, and ate it greedily. It tasted so good to her—so very good, that the next day
she longed for it three times as much as before. If he was to have any rest, her husband must
once more descend into the garden. In the gloom of evening therefore, he let himself down again;
but when he had clambered down the wall he was terribly afraid, for he saw the enchantress
standing before him. 'How can you dare,' said she with angry look, 'descend into my garden and
steal my rampion like a thief? You shall suffer for it!' 'Ah,' answered he, 'let mercy take the place
of justice, I only made up my mind to do it out of necessity. My wife saw your rampion from the
window, and felt such a longing for it that she would have died if she had not got some to eat.'
Then the enchantress allowed her anger to be softened, and said to him: 'If the case be as you say,
I will allow you to take away with you as much rampion as you will, only I make one condition,
you must give me the child which your wife will bring into the world; it shall be well treated, and
I will care for it like a mother.' The man in his terror consented to everything, and when the
woman was brought to bed, the enchantress appeared at once, gave the child the name of
Rapunzel, and took it away with her.

Parallel Plot-3rd person POV

Rapunzel’s beauty was beyond compare, but there was no one to compare with her; she spent her
entire life locked in a tower. It was a lonely life, and Rapunzel often wondered what might lie
beyond the walls of the only home she had ever known.

But the enchantress who kept her prisoner, thinking of Rapunzel as her own daughter, warned her
never to go outside and never to admit a visitor. This was the only rule, and Rapunzel followed it
without question.

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Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old, the
enchantress shut her into a tower, which lay in a forest, and had neither stairs nor door, but quite
at the top was a little window. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed herself beneath
it and cried:

'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.'

Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when she heard the voice of the
enchantress she unfastened her braided tresses, wound them round one of the hooks of the
window above, and then the hair fell twenty ells down, and the enchantress climbed up by it.

After a year or two, it came to pass that the king's son rode through the forest and passed by the
tower. Then he heard a song, which was so charming that he stood still and listened. This was
Rapunzel, who in her solitude passed her time in letting her sweet voice resound. The king's son
wanted to climb up to her, and looked for the door of the tower, but none was to be found. He
rode home, but the singing had so deeply touched his heart, that every day he went out into the
forest and listened to it. Once when he was thus standing behind a tree, he saw that an
enchantress came there, and he heard how she cried:

'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.'

Then Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the enchantress climbed up to her. 'If that is
the ladder by which one mounts, I too will try my fortune,' said he, and the next day when it
began to grow dark, he went to the tower and cried:

'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.'

Parallel Plot- 3rd person POV

Until one day a prince happened by the tower during his ride. He noticed Rapunzel and instantly
fell in love. He knew that this was the woman he was meant to marry, and even if she was held
prisoner by an enchantress, he would find a way to speak with her.

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At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man, such as her eyes had never yet beheld,
came to her; but the king's son began to talk to her quite like a friend, and told her that his heart
had been so stirred that it had let him have no rest, and he had been forced to see her. Then
Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if she would take him for her husband, and she
saw that he was young and handsome, she thought: 'He will love me more than old Dame Gothel
does'; and she said yes, and laid her hand in his. She said: 'I will willingly go away with you, but
I do not know how to get down. Bring with you a skein of silk every time that you come, and I
will weave a ladder with it, and when that is ready I will descend, and you will take me on your
horse.' They agreed that until that time he should come to her every evening, for the old woman
came by day. The enchantress remarked nothing of this, until once Rapunzel said to her: 'Tell me,
Dame Gothel, how it happens that you are so much heavier for me to draw up than the young
king's son—he is with me in a moment.' 'Ah! you wicked child,' cried the enchantress. 'What do I
hear you say! I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me!' In
her anger she clutched Rapunzel's beautiful tresses, wrapped them twice round her left hand,
seized a pair of scissors with the right, and snip, snap, they were cut off, and the lovely braids lay
on the ground. And she was so pitiless that she took poor Rapunzel into a desert where she had to
live in great grief and misery.

On the same day that she cast out Rapunzel, however, the enchantress fastened the braids of hair,
which she had cut off, to the hook of the window, and when the king's son came and cried:

'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.'

she let the hair down. The king's son ascended, but instead of finding his dearest Rapunzel, he
found the enchantress, who gazed at him with wicked and venomous looks. 'Aha!' she cried
mockingly, 'you would fetch your dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the nest;
the cat has got it, and will scratch out your eyes as well.

Parallel Plot-Witch’s POV

My heart was broken, but I had to know the truth. There was a part of me that regretted cutting
Rapunzel’s hair and sending her away, but I could never forgive her for letting someone else in. She knew
the rules, and she willfully broke them.

I heard the voice within the hour. “Rapunzel! Rapunzel! Let down your hair to me,” he cried. And I let
down the hair. He had no idea what he would find when he reached the top.

Technique explanation

In this assignment I used flash forward to show the end of the story at the beginning. This is supposed to
make the audience interested in how the characters got there. I also used parallel plot, focusing on
different points of view to show what different characters were feeling at various points in the story.