Mother Gothel

Mother Gothel is the main antagonist in Disney's 2010 animated feature film Tangled, voiced by Donna Murphy. Although she poses as Rapunzel's motherly figure, she is responsible for kidnapping and locking her in a tower when she was a baby. Though she is quite fond of the young princess, her refusal to communicate with Rapunzel along with her passive and demeaning comments toward her are anything but nurturing. Gothel's motivation for all of this is purely to keep herself from aging and prolong her life so it is unknown if Gothel ever really cared about Rapunzel. Gothel is pushed further and further into the role of villainess as Rapunzel grows close to Flynn Rider and begins to find out about her true identity. She proves her willingness to go to whatever lengths necessary to keep Rapunzel trapped and her healing powers safe during the film.

Role in the film
As an elderly woman near the end of her life, Gothel is the single witness of a drop of pure sunlight falling to the ground, creating a magical flower with healing abilities. When Gothel sings to the flower and strokes its petals, she becomes younger and beautiful. She is determined to keep this secret from the rest of the world and hides the flower to keep herself beautiful and young forever. Hundreds of years pass, and in that time a nearby kingdom prospers. Sadly, the young queen falls deathly ill while pregnant, and the entire kingdom searches for a cure. A guard manages to find the flower and Gothel is powerless to stop him. After drinking a broth made from the flower, the queen is cured and the flower's abilities are given to her unborn child, a girl named Rapunzel.

In the dead of night, Gothel breaks into the little princess's room and uses Rapunzel's long golden hair to replenish herself. When she tries to cut some of the hair for herself, however, it turns brown and the healing powers are destroyed. The king and queen awaken as Gothel kidnaps the little princess. She isolates her in a hidden tower far away from the rest of the world, and raises her as her own daughter. Gothel refuses to let Rapunzel go outside, telling her the world is a dangerous place where people would try to hurt her and use her gift for themselves. Rapunzel, however, sees some special floating lights every year on her birthday (really floating lanterns the king and queen set free to remember their lost daughter) and yearns to find out what they are.

Eighteen years later, Mother Gothel is still as manipulative and over-protective as ever. She constantly uses subtle jabs, over-the-top guilt trips, and refrains of "Mother Knows Best" to keep Rapunzel from leaving the tower. When Rapunzel pushes her with requests to leave the tower and see the lights she finally snaps and screams at her "You are not leaving this tower, EVER!!" when Rapunzel was really trying to tell her how she managed to capture Flynn Rider and was currently hiding him in the closet. Rapunzel promises to never ask about the lights again if Gothel will bring her back a special birthday present, a paint for her room made from white seashells, which will require a three-day journey. Confident that Rapunzel is safe, she agrees.



While on her way, Gothel comes across Maximus, who is now without a rider and still searching for Flynn. Realizing what a riderless horse could mean the discovery of Rapunzel, Gothel hurries back to the tower and calls for Rapunzel to let down her hair. Desperate when she hears no reply, Gothel reopens a previously sealed entrance to the tower and enters the room. She is terrified to find no one there, but discovers Flynn's satchel with the stolen tiara and a wanted poster. Thinking he kidnapped Rapunzel, Gothel steals a dagger and begins his search for him. When she comes across the Snuggly Duckling tavern, however, she overhears Rapunzel singing how happy she is now that she is has left the tower. She spies Rapunzel and Flynn escaping through a hidden tunnel when the royal guards arrive and flirts with (then quickly threatens) Shorty the pub thug to find out where it leads.

Gothel soon comes across the Stabbington Brothers, who are out to get back at Flynn for betraying them. Using this to her advantage, Gothel gives them the crown but tells them she can offer them an even greater treasure, along with revenge on Flynn. That night she talks to Rapunzel while Flynn is out getting firewood and tries to get her to return to the tower with her. Rapunzel refuses, wanting to continue her journey and admitting she has some feelings for Flynn. Gothel insists the only reason why Flynn is with her is to get the crown, which she thrusts into Rapunzel's hands and orders her to give it to him as a test before vanishing.



Gothel's plan is put into action while Flynn and Rapunzel are watching the lanterns the next evening. Rapunzel gives Flynn his satchel to show that she trusts him. But before they kiss, Flynn spies the Stabbington Brothers on the opposite shore and tells Rapunzel to wait as he goes to talk to them. Flynn tries to apologize and return the crown to them, but they reveal that they now know about Rapunzel's gift. The brothers find Rapunzel and tell her Flynn left with the crown and told them about her healing powers. Rapunzel refuses to believe them until they point out Flynn sailing away on a boat, ignoring Rapunzel's screams. Before the brothers can kidnap Rapunzel, Gothel betrays them so it appears she's rescuing her. She leads the heartbroken Rapunzel home and Flynn, who was knocked out and tied to the mast of the boat, is caught by the guards, who prepare to hang him the next morning.

At home, Gothel reminds Rapunzel that the world is intolerant of joy and happiness and will destroy any ray of sunshine it finds. After she goes to fix dinner, Rapunzel realizes that she is the princess who was stolen years ago from her home and confronts Gothel with the revelation, standing up to her for the first time. Gothel tries to calm Rapunzel by saying she only wanted to protect her but angers Rapunzel further when she informs her on Flynn's sentence to be hung. Rapunzel insists she will never let her use her hair again, inciting Gothel's rage. When Flynn escapes on Maximus and returns to the tower, he climbs up Rapunzel's hair only to find her chained and gagged. Gothel fatally stabs him from behind and prepares to take Rapunzel to a new hiding place, but Rapunzel fights back with all her might much to Gothel's protests. Rapunzel promises Gothel that she will go with her quietly and never resist her again if she is allowed to heal Flynn. Gothel agrees to this, but underestimates the thief's affection for Rapunzel. Choosing death over allowing Rapunzel to be trapped forever, he cuts off all her hair with a shard of glass before she can heal him. The healing power is gone forever, and a horrified Gothel watches as her true age begins to catch up on her. As she writhes around in panic and tries to hide her aging beneath her cloak, Pascal pulls the length of the cut hair and she trips over it, falling out of the tower window. When she hits the ground, only her cloak remains.

Disney On Ice: Dare to Dream
Gothel is first seen returning home to Rapunzel in the tower and performs Mother Knows Best. Later on, she meets the Stabbington Brothers and strikes a deal with them. Right after, she encounters Rapunzel and attempts to convince her to leave Flynn and join her back home. After which she meets her demise

Trivia

 * Mother Gothel's death is somewhat similar to the demise of The Ghost of Christmas Present in A Christmas Carol, in which both villains disintegrate and are turned to dust.
 * Mother Gothel is similar to Judge Claude Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame in several ways as they both lock the hero/heroine (Quasimodo and Rapunzel) away from the world, forbade them from interacting with society, lied to them and uses them for their own personal gain as well as not using any magic powers. However, Mother Gothel kidnapped Rapunzel whereas Frollo killed Quasimodo's mother and was forced by the Archdeacon to care for the child and raise him ever since, though Mother Gothel raised Rapunzel as her own daughter. Also, both tried to kill the love interest of the hero/heroine, as Mother Gothel fatally stabbed Eugene while Frollo tried to kill Esmeralda. Finally, both villians meet their deaths by falling from a great height, as Mother Gothel fell from the tower and disintegrates into dust before hitting the ground, while Frollo fell from the Notre Dame bell tower into a pool of molten lead.
 * Mother Gothel's voice was originally going to done by Grey DeLisle.
 * Similar to Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, Gothel stabs her enemy, then falls a great distance to her death.
 * Mother Gothel's clothes at the beginning of the movie when she first finds the magic flower is black dress and red cloak, the reverse of the clothes she wears for the rest of the film: red dress and black cloak.
 * Apart from the opening narration, Gothel is never referred to or addressed by her name in the movie.
 * The directors of the film stated that Mother Gothel's wardrobe style is 400 years older than Rapunzel's wardrobe style, and Gothel is designed to be the opposite of Rapunzel, thus explaining her curly black hair (opposite of Rapunzel's straight blonde hair).
 * She is a very unique villiain, showing that she did have some feelings for Rapunzel, by making Rapunzel her favorite dinner, agreeing to go on a long trip to get seashells for a paint Rapunzel said she wanted for paint, and other things that made Rapunzel genuinely love her. But in the long run, she only cares about herself.
 * Similar to Stromboli from Pinocchio, both villains plan to keep the protagonists (Pinocchio and Rapunzel) locked away for their own purposes, and also when Pinocchio and Rapunzel protest, both villains yell and shout at them. Their names also originated from a different European country: "Gothel" is German, and "Stromboli" is Italian.