psychology

Valencia College

Professor Leighann Ostrowsky-Leonard MS, MHC.

Abstract

This paper will look at the psychological concepts in the movie Tangled. It will focus on the development of Rapunzel, and her relationships with Eugene, goes by Flynn Rider, and her “mother” Gothel. Both Rapunzel and Eugene experience role confusion during the movie. Role confusion is the fifth stage in Erik Erikson’s stages of development. Rapunzel goes through it due to the abusive relationship she has with mother Gothel. While Eugene goes through it due to insecurities with his identity, which makes him start a fake persona, Flynn Rider. Gothel’s narcissistic personality will also be explored.

Tangled Movie Analysis

Tangled is one of the newer Disney movies out today. The movie is aimed towards young children and adolescents. Once you start looking deeper into this movie you can find some psychological concepts present.

Gothel

Gothel is the main antagonist of the movie. She displays many symptoms of Narcissism personality disorder. According to the Mayo Clinic staff (2014), the symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder includes: High feelings of self-importance, being jealous of others and thinking others are jealous of you, expecting to be treated as a superior without earning it, high sense of entitlement, taking advantage of others to achieve your goals, expecting special treatment, unable or unwilling to recognize the needs are feelings of others, needs lots of attention, acts arrogantly, magnifies your successes and talents, and is obsessed with fantasies about beauty, success, power etc. To be diagnosed you must five of these symptoms, which Gothel does. Firstly, she does have a high sense of entitlement. She believes only she is allowed to have access to Rapunzel’s magically hair. Secondly, her entire motivation for everything she does is driven by her obsession with beauty. The entire movie plot is due to her kidnapping Rapunzel just so she can stay young and beautiful. Thirdly, she takes advantage of Rapunzel pretty much her entire life by pretending to be her mother in order to use her hair. Fourthly, she doesn’t recognize or care for Rapunzel’s needs or feelings. Gothel keeps her isolated in a tower, treats her more like a possession than a person, and paints a false reality of the outside world for Rapunzel. Gothel doesn’t care how any of this will affect Rapunzel, only that it will keep her hair within reach. Lastly, Gothel becomes extremely envious when Rapunzel is with Eugene. She goes as far to purposefully sabotage their relationship and trick Rapunzel into thinking Eugene was just using her. All of this because Gothel can’t stand the fact of Rapunzel being with someone else. It can be concluded that Gothel does have Narcissistic personality disorder because of these five symptoms she displays. Having this disorder leads her to be emotionally abusive towards Rapunzel.

Gothel and Rapunzel’s Relationship

Rapunzel and Gothel’s relationship plays a significant role in the movie and in Rapunzel’s development. It starts shortly after Rapunzel born. Gothel kidnaps her and locks her away in a tower. Gothel is very neglectful and emotionally abusive to Rapunzel. According to Slep, Heyman, and Snarr (2011), emotional abuse is when someone intentionally uses non-physical acts to hurt another. This can include humiliating, shaming, threatening, confining, and verbally abusing another. Examples of verbal abuse are name calling and yelling (Slep, Heyman, and Snarr, 2011). Gothel does many of these things to Rapunzel. She keeps Rapunzel confined and constantly insults her. In the song “Mother Knows Best”, Gothel spends the entire song saying that Rapunzel is too weak or dumb to leave the tower. As well as calling her naive and gullible. While Rapunzel is helping her up the tower, Gothel makes a jab about how long she took. Gothel is the type of woman who tries to hide her insults. She either says them in a flippant way or will try to cover it up. For example, Gothel was getting on Rapunzel for mumbling and then a second later is telling her how much she loves her. Gothel is also neglectful to Rapunzel. According to Odhayani, Watson, and Watson (2013), neglect is when the child’s parent or caregiver doesn’t provide the child with adequate care and supplies necessary to survive and grow. Some examples of neglect include emotional deprivation, lack of supervision for extended periods of time, failure to provide proper education, lack of food, inadequate shelter, and lack of clothing (Odhayani, Watson, and Watson, 2013). Gothel does many of these things to Rapunzel. In the movie, Gothel returns to Rapunzel after being gone for a while, and then quickly leaves on a trip that will take a few days. This lack of supervision seems to be normal for Rapunzel. Gothel also doesn’t provide Rapunzel with much if any education. It can be seen that Rapunzel only has a small handful of books, and she seems to have next to no knowledge of how the outside world works. Lastly, Gothel emotionally neglects Rapunzel. She doesn’t provide Rapunzel with adequate emotional care. She doesn’t care how Rapunzel is feeling and doesn’t provide support for her.

Rapunzel

Rapunzel is the main protagonist of this movie. She has spent her entire life living with Gothel in the tower. Due to Gothel’s maltreatment, Rapunzel has some problems in her development. According to Joanna Cahall Young and Cathy Spatz Widom (2014), child maltreatment can disrupt emotional development, higher the risk for lower intelligence, higher the risk for anxiety, and higher the risk for depression. Rapunzel displays some of these things. Rapunzel’s intelligence might have been higher if she were with her real family. This is because with Gothel she probably wasn’t cognitively stimulated. She was locked away with a neglectful woman who didn’t want her to learn much if anything about the outside world. She has very few books or any other activity that could stimulate her cognition. So even if she had genetics for a high IQ she wouldn’t be able to reach her maximum potential intelligence. Rapunzel shows some anxious behaviors as well. It can be easily seen with Gothel when Rapunzel is trying to ask her if she can leave the tower for her birthday. It takes Rapunzel a few tries to just get the question out, and for the majority of this exchange she is nervously stroking her hair and avoiding eye contact. She also has some anxiety once she is outside of the tower. When she finally leaves the tower with Eugene she is incredibly happy for a moment. She then becomes stressed and anxious for a few reasons. She thinks she is a horrible daughter for sneaking out, she is worried what Gothel will do if she finds out, and she is worried that something bad might happen. Another thing is her emotional development. Due to Gothel’s emotional abuse Rapunzel has low self-esteem, low self-confidence, and seems to have some trouble managing her emotions. Rapunzel’s low self-esteem and confidence is from Gothel constantly belittling of her. You can see Rapunzel isn’t the best a managing her emotions. She gets over excited, disappointed, and stressed very easily.

Eugene

Eugene Fitzgerald is one of the protagonists and the love interest of Rapunzel in the movie. He never really knew his parents and spent his childhood in an orphanage. Children are more at risk for behavior problems, like externalizing and internalizing, if they grow up in an orphanage (Mertz and McCall, 2011). Eugene displays lots of externalizing behaviors in the movie. Externalizing behaviors include aggression, theft, attention problems, and problems following rules (Liu, 2004). Eugene is first seen as an infamous thief. He is wanted by the guards for stealing from the palace. He seems to not really care for the law or following its rules. He also likes attention. When seeing a wanted poster of himself Eugene is more concerned that it doesn’t arcuately display how he looks, than with the fact he is on a wanted poster. Eugene also displays some internalizing behaviors. Self-consciousness, depression, anxiety, and feeling inferior are all internalizing behaviors (Bornestein, Hahn, and Heynes, 2010). Eugene shows that he feels inferior and self-conscious. Instead of acting like his true self, he feels the need to make a persona. This persona is Flynn Rider. He used to read a book in the orphanage about the tales of Flynn Rider and decided that in order to get a more successful life he had to become someone else. In other words, Eugene’s self-consciousness and feelings of inferiority in himself make him believe that the only way to get anywhere in life is to act like a different person.

Rapunzel and Eugene Role Confusion

Both Rapunzel and Eugene go through role confusion. Vogel-Scibilia et al. (2009) explain that identity versus role confusion is Erik Erikson’s fifth stage in his theory of human development. It is during this stage that a person must find out who they truly are and how they fit in society. Failure to do this results in role confusion (Vogel-Scibilia et al., 2009). Rapunzel’s role confusion is a result of the abuse she suffered from Gothel. Rapunzel is the lost princess and wants to learn more about the world, but her mother constantly instills in her that the world is awful and dangerous. Eugene’s role confusion can be traced back to his childhood in the orphanage and the belief he has that he has to act like someone else. Rapunzel and Eugene both help each other find and accept their true selves. Rapunzel’s total acceptance of Eugene is what allows Eugene to drop his Flynn Rider persona, and act like himself. He stops stealing and breaking the law because he realizes he doesn’t have to do any of that anymore. He can just be himself. Eugene showing Rapunzel how the outside world really his and having his support allows Rapunzel to stand up to Gothel. Rapunzel is then able to return to her true home and be the princess she is supposed to be.

Summary

Tangled is a fun movie that unknowing shows some developmental problems that can happen. Gothel’s narcissism led her to kidnap and abuse Rapunzel. Rapunzel’s emotionally abusive and neglectful “mother” led her having problems socially and mentally. Eugene’s childhood in the orphanage is probably what led him to have internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Luckily both Rapunzel and Eugene were able to find their true identities together, and overcome their role confusion. All in all, I believe that the movie’s name, Tangled, refers to Gothel and Rapunzel’s relationship. It is a metaphor for the web Rapunzel is trapped in from Gothel’s constant emotional abuse. It is only after Rapunzel stands up to Gothel, that she is totally free from her, or untangled if you will.

Reference

Al Odhayani, A., Watson, W. J., & Watson, L. (2013). Behavioural consequences of child abuse.  Canadian Family Physician,  59(8), 831–836.

Bornstein, M. H., Hahn, C.-S., & Haynes, O. M. (2010). Social Competence, Externalizing, and Internalizing Behavioral Adjustment from Early Childhood through Early Adolescence: Developmental Cascades.  Development and Psychopathology,  22(4), 717–735. http://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579410000416

Liu, J. (2004). Childhood Externalizing Behavior: Theory and Implications.  Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing: Official Publication of the Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nurses, Inc,  17(3), 93–103.