'Rapunzel' retold and illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky

Zelinsky, Paul O.  1997.  Rapunzel.  Ill. by Paul O. Zelinsky.  New York: Puffin Books.  ISBN 9780142301937.

Photo by L. Propes

Rapunzel, as retold and illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky from the European traditions of the tale of the young girl hidden in a tower, was the 1998 Caldecott Medal winner.  The Rapunzel tale has a long history, whose origins are shrouded in the mists of time.  In a long author's note, Zelinsky states it was published in France in the 1630s, but the tale itself is likely much, much older.

Rapunzel recounts the story of an infertile couple who finally conceive a much-wanted child.  Their house overlooks the garden of the neighboring garden, which just happens to be owned by a sorceress.  The wife is overcome with a desperate longing for the rapunzel growing in the garden (from the German word die Rapunzel -- "corn salad", a salad green that falls between arugula and watercress).  So desperate is the wife for the greens, that she proclaims she will die if she does not eat the rapunzel.  Naturally, the husband is quite concerned, but he loves his wife, so he scales the high wall surrounding the garden and steals an armful of the rapunzel.  The wife's cravings are only momentarily sated, and the husband is over the wall once more.  He is caught by the sorceress who allows the husband to take as much rapunzel as the wife desires in return for one thing: their child.  Once the child is born, the sorceress takes her away and raises her as her own.  When the girl -- Rapunzel -- is twelve years old, the sorceress locks her away in a tower.  Rapunzel sees no one aside from her adoptive mother until a prince hears her singing and finds out how to gain entrance to the tower.  Rapunzel and the prince fall in love.  He visits her each night, unbeknownst to the sorceress until Rapunzel slips and releases a tidbit of information that reveals her secret.  Enraged, the sorceress banishes Rapunzel, cutting off her long, long hair.  As for the prince, the sorceress uses Rapunzel's shorn braids to trick the prince into climbing into the tower where she informs him Rapunzel is lost to him forever.  The prince tumbles to the ground, blinding himself in the process.  He wanders around the forest for a year until he heard Rapunzel singing once more.  As he falls into her arms, two of her tears land on his eyes, healing his blindness.  He takes Rapunzel to his kingdom to be his wife and they, of course, live happily ever after.

Underneath the surface, Rapunzel is about the inevitability of growing up. It's no coincidence that the sorceress locks Rapunzel up at the age of twelve,"to preserve her from the effects of an awakening sexuality" (Publisher's Weekly, 1997).   Of course that isn't what happens.  Children still mature, no matter how high and isolated the tower.  In Zelinsky's version, Rapunzel and the prince perform an ersatz marriage ceremony and consummate the marriage.  It's not readily apparent to younger children, but older children and teenagers will pick up on the subtle hint that Rapunzel is pregnant when she mentions to the sorceress that her dress is too tight in the waist, a parallel to her biological mother's discovery that she, too, was pregnant.  School Library Journal's review commends Zelinsky for not, "sidestep[ing] the love between the maiden in the tower and the prince...  it is Rapunzel's signs of pregnancy that bring about her banishment from the tower and the prince's downfall" (Wilton 1997).  (On a side note, the only other place I've seen the sorceress actively admit to wanting to keep Rapunzel separate from the world is in the musical Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim.  If you can find a copy of the version filmed to air on television in 1991, give it a whirl.  Bernadette Peters plays the sorceress, and the scene where she finds out about the prince and confronts Rapunzel is absolutely heartbreaking.)  If there's a moral to the story, it might very well be that the more tightly one holds on to someone, the more likely they are to lose them anyway.

Zelinsky does not portray the sorceress as a monster, at least not in the beginning.  Her love and affection for Rapunzel are obvious, as is the hurt and disappointment when the sorceress feels Rapunzel has betrayed her.  True, she is quite fearsome when she enters the scene at the beginning of the story, but in the scene where she carries the baby Rapunzel out of her parents' house, her body language is anything but.  Of all the characters in the story, Zelinsky gives the sorceress the greatest character development.  It would be so easy to make her the villain of the story.  To make her the evil witch who locked a girl away in a tower.  I think most parents would relate to wanting to keep their child safe from harm, but perhaps not to the rather extreme level of the sorceress.

Photo by: L. Propes

The combination of Zelinsky's text and the oil paintings illustrating the book make it seem like a much older publication.  The language takes its cues from a more formal and structured manner of speech, lending itself to the antique feel of the story.  The paintings are reminiscent of the Italian Renaissance, and the story itself takes place in a sun-drenched location.  The paintings contain lovely bits of detail, like the filigree engravings on the scissors the sorceress uses to cut Rapunzel's hair, or the embroidery on the cuffs of a dress.  Characters' faces are expressive and Zelinsky perfectly captures the movement of a dress or cloak as it billows in the wake of someone's passing.  Most of the paintings are intimate glimpses into the life of Rapunzel, but at times, Zelinsky includes one that encompasses the scale of how high the tower was, and how long Rapunzel's hair must have been.  When Rapunzel is banished, he paints her so small, all you can see is a hint of the lavender of her dress against the barren mountains, giving a visual cue to just how alone Rapunzel must have been in the world.  He uses the same effect with the prince, painting him three times in one scene, each version of the prince smaller and further away in the perspective than the last to denote how far the prince wandered.

Photo by: L. Propes

The book is listed as appropriate for ages 5 and up, but at 48 pages, and some rather long sections of text, it might be a bit too long for a kindergarten classroom.  Older children would probably enjoy the story and appreciate the artwork involved.

Zelinksy has been selected for a Caldecott Honor book three times: Swamp Angel (text by Anne Isaacs), Rumpelstiltskin, and Hansel and Gretel (text retold by Rika Lesser).

There are many options for activities with Rapunzel.  Students could find other versions of the story and compare them to Zelinsky's retelling.  Older students might enjoy viewing the Broadway musical Into the Woods (where the second act examines what happens after "happily ever after") and using that as a springboard to fracture the fairy tale, or even write their own version of it.  They could even write a version of life after "happily ever after".  Younger children could do illustrations, study Renaissance art or grow rampion (die Rapunzel in English).  Several age groups could write selected scenes from a different point of view and present it Rashomon-style.  Other activities and interviews with Zelinsky can be found here.

Students may enjoy visiting Zelinsky's website at http://paulozelinsky.com.

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"...this story is as much about the fierce love of mother for child as it is about the romantic passion between the imprisoned Rapunzel and the prince... The rich oil paintings evoke the portraits of Renaissance art.  The costumes are lavish, the interiors intricate. Rapunzel is both gorgeous and maidenly.  The sorceress is terrifying: the pictures also reveal her motherliness and her vulnerability, especially in the two double page narrative paintings that frame the drama.  One shows the sorceress taking the baby -- and we see how she lovingly cradles it in her arms..." -- Hazel Rochman, Booklist, November 15, 1997

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Works Cited:

Rapunzel. in Publishers Weekly [database online]. New York, 1997 [cited January 30 2014]. Available from 
        http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-525-45607-0.

Rochman, Hazel. 1997. Rapunzel. 11/15; 2014/1, http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2216/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA20042283&v=2.1&u=txshracd2583&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w&asid=f608007c8c925b84279d5ceaa9290d46.

Wilton, Shirley. 1997. Preschool to grade 4: Nonfiction. School Library Journal 43 (11) (11): 113, 
       http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? 
       direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9712086828&site=ehost-live&scope=site.