Gothel is a once-beautiful but now aging narcissist who restores her youth and beauty as long as she is exposed to Rapunzel's healing long hair. Gothel is the archetype of the worst in deceptive, abusive, and even violent narcissism.
What personality disorder does Mother Gothel have?
Mother Gothel - Mother Gothel is shown to have narcissistic personality disorder, where she is preoccupied with her own needs and desires and has little regard for others, including.
In this re-telling of the classic Rapunzel story, Mother Gothel is a narcissistic, emotionally abusive sorceress who abducts the infant Rapunzel from her crib. Mother Gothel raises Rapunzel as her own, isolating her in a hidden tower to control Rapunzel and her magical hair.
vain, manipulative, and selfish. Mother Gothel has some motherly, nurturing qualities, but they're always as part of a façade used to maintain control over Rapunzel. She lies about the dangers of the outside world, plays the victim for sympathy, and batters Rapunzel's self-esteem – all in order to keep her power.
Once Rapunzel disobeys her and begins to fight back, Mother Gothel becomes overtly violent, more abusive and dangerous. Mother Gothel consistently puts Rapunzel down in underhanded ways. In her brilliantly written villain song “Mother Knows Best”, she insults her “adopted daughter” incessantly.
Narcissistic Parenting: Did Mother Gothel Ever Love Rapunzel in Disney’s Tangled? - The Fangirl
Is Mother Gothel Gaslighting Rapunzel?
Mother Gothel imposes extensive gaslighting on Rapunzel, a term used to describe a form of psychological manipulation that causes someone to question their own reality, oftentimes by presenting a false narrative which leads someone to doubt their perceptions and become misled or disoriented.
Mother Gothel, rather than accepting Rapunzel's plans, condemns her and promises she will remain locked in the tower. This specific scene points out the toxicity of this type of parenting. Tangled uses Mother Gothel's lack of encouraging skills to relay a message to children about why this is a problem.
Gothel knew if Rapunzel left their tower, she would realize that she was a princess, kidnapped, and used for the magical properties in her hair. These are rather dark messages in Tangled but that's what made Gothel one of the darkest, underrated villains in any Disney movie.
Gothel, terrified of growing older, is motivated by fear. As a result, she begins to display symptoms of BPD--to the point where she will literally die without Rapunzel and her magic hair.
Mother Gothel played the nice mother, even did her best to make Rapunzel's life fun and confortable inside the tower, but she never fooled herself, she knew she was the bad guy in the story, and in the end her bad deeds only affected Rapunzel and her parents…
Often, narcissistic parents perceive the independence of their child as a threat. What distinguishes the narcissistic parent is a pervasive tendency to deny their child's independent selfhood. Biggest telltale signs of a narcissistic parent include emotional manipulation, lack of empathy, and neglect.
Narcissism tends to play out intergenerationally, with narcissistic parents producing either narcissistic or codependent children in turn. While a self-confident parent, or good-enough parent, can allow a child their autonomous development, the narcissistic parent may instead use the child to promote their own image.
Being gaslighted by her mother and stolen at birth are some of the traumas that Rapunzel faces in her life. Trauma can cause confusion from constantly being in a fight-or-flight state of mind. That is why Rapunzel is not able to put the pieces together of the lost princess during the movie.
Rapunzel syndrome is an extremely rare condition associated with trichophagia (hair eating disorder) secondary to a psychiatric illness called trichotillomania (hair-pulling behaviour). It is most commonly seen in children and adolescents. Untreated cases can lead to a number of complications.
While Gothel's age is never explicitly stated, it is hinted in the series that she is at least 1,000 years old, as she is depicted as a pupil of Lord Demanitus, who lived 1,000 years prior to the events of the series.
Gothel did care for Rapunzel but not because she was a person, but because of what she could give Gothel. She loved her hair, her magic more than anything.
Elsa (Idina Menzel) demonstrates traits of paranoid personality disorder. She is definitely guarded and suspicious. She is so scared her powers will hurt someone again that she closes herself off. Also, she does not want to strike others with “fear”; Elsa wants to be accepted, not chased away.
Now, it's possible that Gothel feels some fondness for Rapunzel. But based on her actions, she clearly does not love Rapunzel at all. Rapunzel is someone who ultimately must be put up with in order maintain what Gothel really loves more than anything: herself.
According to the Brothers Grimm, Princess Rapunzel is named after the cultivated vegetable of the same name, growing in a witch's garden. The wording of the story suggested to me that the Grimms' contemporaries would be familiar with the plant as a vegetable, that it wasn't a fantastical invented thing.
Meanwhile, Flynn manages to escape the palace and journeys to rescue Rapunzel. When he arrives at the tower, he is fatally stabbed in the stomach by Mother Gothel.
Instead, Gothel exercises control over Rapunzel by playing on her fears. In her villain song “Mother Knows Best,” she sings “One way or another, something will go wrong I swear”; she belittles her, “You're looking a little chubby”; and then isolates her, “Skip the Drama, Stay with Mama, Mother Knows Best”.
The Mattel cartoon Ever After High (2013–2017), features Rapunzel's has two daughters: Holly O'Hair and Poppy O'Hair. Tangled: The Series (2017–2020) is a 2D animated TV show based on Disney Animation's computer animated musical feature film Tangled.
Gothel is the main antagonist in Tangled. She kidnapped baby Rapunzel to get the magical power of Rapunzel's golden hair. Its magic can make people young but when the hair is cut, it will lose its power. So instead, she had to kidnap baby Rapunzel to make herself young.
