Wangzi

The Prince is the young royal whose pursuit of Rapunzel turns her tower from a place he can only approach by listening into the starting point of their attempted escape. His story moves through a sharp reversal: the voice that first draws him into the forest becomes a bond, but when he climbs the tower expecting to find Rapunzel, he encounters Mãe Gothel instead. His leap leaves him alive but blind, and only years later does he find Rapunzel again; her tears restore his sight, allowing them to return together to his kingdom.

Identity and First Encounter

The Prince appears as the son of a king, riding through the forest when he hears a beautiful voice near a tower. Rapunzel is alone there, spending her days singing to herself. Though he wants to see the singer, he finds no door in the tower and rides home without meeting her. The encounter nevertheless changes his daily course: her voice has moved him so deeply that he returns to the forest every day to hear it.

At first, his connection to Rapunzel is therefore mediated by sound and distance. He does not know who is singing or how to enter the tower; he listens from the forest, then watches from behind a tree as Mãe Gothel arrives and calls up to Rapunzel. Seeing the old woman use Rapunzel’s long braids to climb gives him the means to approach her, turning observation into action.

Entering the Tower and Planning Escape

The next day, as dusk begins, the Prince goes to the tower and repeats Mãe Gothel’s call for Rapunzel to let down her braids. Rapunzel lowers them, and he climbs through the small window. The route that had served the witch now admits a stranger: the Prince’s entry changes the braids from a means of confinement and access controlled by Mãe Gothel into a passage toward a relationship beyond the tower.

Rapunzel is frightened when a man appears at the window, especially because she has never seen one before. The Prince speaks gently and explains that her singing moved him so profoundly that he could not be at peace without seeing her. She loses her fear; when he asks her to marry him, she accepts. Her thought that he will like her more than the old Mãe Gothel accompanies that decision, while her proposal makes their shared objective explicit: she wants to leave the tower with him but does not know how to descend safely.

Rapunzel asks him to bring a skein of silk on each visit so that she can weave a ladder. Once it is ready, she intends to climb down and leave on his horse. The plan depends on repeated meetings rather than an immediate escape: the Prince agrees to visit every night, since Mãe Gothel is there during the day. Their promise creates a secret routine that initially goes undetected.

Exposure and Reversal

The secret is exposed when Rapunzel asks Mãe Gothel why it is so much harder to pull her up than the young Prince, who reaches the tower in a moment. Her comparison reveals both the Prince’s visits and the contrast between the witch’s familiar access and his new route into Rapunzel’s life. Mãe Gothel recognizes that the isolation she intended has failed and reacts with fury, accusing Rapunzel of betrayal.

Mãe Gothel sends Rapunzel away and cuts off her braids. On the same day, she ties the severed hair to the window latch and lets it fall when the Prince arrives and calls up. He climbs, believing the familiar signal will lead him to Rapunzel, but Mãe Gothel is waiting above with an angry, venomous look. She tells him that Rapunzel is gone forever and threatens that the thornbush will scratch his eyes as well. The braids, once the practical route that joined the lovers, have become an instrument of deception: the Prince follows their appearance upward only to meet the person who has separated them.

Blindness and Reunion

Overwhelmed by grief, the Prince jumps from the top of the tower. He survives the fall, but a thornbush growing where he lands scratches his eyes and blinds him. Unable to see, he wanders through the forest, finding only roots and berries to eat. He spends his time weeping and mourning the loss of the wife he believes he will never see again. His leap is at once a response to Mãe Gothel’s deception and the beginning of a long separation: survival does not restore his former life, and blindness makes his wandering materially precarious.

After many years, the Prince reaches the desert where Rapunzel is barely managing to survive with the twins she has borne, a boy and a girl. He hears a voice that seems familiar and follows it. The voice that first drew him to the tower now guides him through blindness toward Rapunzel; she recognizes him when he comes close, embraces him, and cries. Two of her tears fall into his eyes, and his sight suddenly returns, clear as before. The reunion reverses the injury that began with his leap and joins the separated pair again.

Return and Narrative Role

The Prince returns to his kingdom with Rapunzel, where they are welcomed with great celebration and live happily for many years. His trajectory connects the tale’s central changes of access and separation: he first cannot enter the tower, then enters by climbing Rapunzel’s braids, loses her through a false repetition of that route, and finally finds her by following her voice across the desert. Sight is lost through the thornbush and restored through Rapunzel’s tears, while the voice that began their relationship persists through the years apart as the clue that leads him back to her.