A good example of this is the Rapunzel story, a sweet and friendly princess who is stolen from her parents’ arms when she is a baby by an evil witch. The hair of Rapunzel It has wonderful powers which is why it is never cut. The witch raises her in a very high tower, far from civilization, and tells her that she is her mother and that if she wants to be calm, she should never come down from the tower and should not trust anyone, all this under a discourse of false and overprotection. .
Rapunzel
The Brothers Grimm
It happens that this noble version is based on the tale written by the Grimm brothers, authors of other popular stories and fables such as “The Princess and the Frog” or “Hansel and Gretel”. At the beginning of the 19th century the history of Rapunzel It was much crueler and darker; Rapunzel She was constantly tortured and raped in her confinement. When the prince, aided by the long and powerful hair of Rapunzelis about to save him, the young woman’s brothers attack him, cut out his tongue and eyes before throwing him back down the tower, all in front of his eyes. Rapunzel. In the end, a flock of crows devour the prince’s remains and Rapunzel She is sacrificed by her brothers.
Blanche Monnier
But, unlike what one might believe (and, fortunately) Grimm brothers They did not rely on any real life story to create this story. In reality, the unfortunate young woman who experienced a similar story was born many years after this was published. tale. His name was Blanche Monnier and she received extremely cruel treatment from her entire family, who forced her to live in inhuman conditions of confinement for more than 25 years, constantly suffering emotional, physical and sexual abuse.
It is said that the young woman belonged to a good family of the French elite. Blanche She was always distinguished by being very attractive, Louise, her mother overprotected her, she did not want there to be men hanging around her, this caused her to Blanche She remained single and without suitors until she was 27 years old, therefore she began to be considered a “stay.” Until a Protestant lawyer appeared who was interested in her, but the young woman’s mother did not consider him enough for her daughter. Blanche She begged for her family’s approval, however, this backfired, as punishment she was locked in a small room in the house for 25 years.
To justify her absence, the parents said that the young woman had enrolled in a boarding school in and after she had moved to Scotland. Both versions were accepted naturally and did not raise any suspicion from the respected family. When Blanche She was about to turn 52, her father died, she was in such deteriorated health that she could not even stand, she had lost her sanity and showed signs of extreme malnutrition, she was fed scraps of food. Her long hair reached past her ankles.
The secret of the inhuman existence of Blanche It was not unique to the family, since there were many people who worked in the house as servants, who remained silent until March 23, 1901, fed up with the cruelty and mistreatment, they decided to send an anonymous complaint to police. When three members came to inspect the house, they were surprised to find Blanche completely naked and malnourished, living on a rotting mattress, among remains of urine, feces and decomposing food. The police broke the glass of the boarded-up windows to ventilate the stinking room and for the first time in many years a little light was able to enter the place.
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The true story of Rapunzel
The gloomy appearance of Blanche He impressed members of the police and the press, who were quick to compare his story with that of Rapunzel, the poor princess trapped in a tower, guarded by her evil family, with long hair. The mother of Blanche He assumed full responsibility, but died shortly before the trial, his brother was only sentenced to 15 months in prison. While Blanche Monnier She was never able to recover from all the abuse, so she had to be locked up in a psychiatric hospital until the day she died.
This terrible story was immortalized in the novel by André Gilde called “The Kidnapped of Poitiers”, which won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930.