Tangled: Is Rapunzel an ENFP or an ENFJ?
Rapunzel from Tangled is most commonly typed as an ENFP, but we actually saw quite a few arguments for ENFJ as well. So, I’m going to treat this article like I did Mother Gothel, since Rapunzel also has a couple of different external factors that directly affect how her personality type manifests… Factors that I keep seeing people use as key points in their argument for her personality type. Of course, by the end of the article, I’ll have listed our theory on Rapunzel’s personality type, whether that be ENFP, ENFJ, or something else. So, let’s get right into this.
The Relevant Factors To Consider
Factor #1: The Tower
“Oh, come on Pascal, it’s not so bad in there.”
Rapunzel was locked up in a tower for basically her entire 18 years of life. It’s important to be aware of this factor, because it most certainly can affect how she interacts with the world. For instance, claiming that she’s a Se user, because of her excitement over touching grass, is invalid because the girl has literally never touched grass. Anyone would be excited to physically experience the most minor things in life for the first time, if they’d never had the opportunity to do so in the past.
Beyond that, it could impact her perspective of the world, or her naivety. It could also influence how she was expressing her extraverted functions for that entire time. After all, her choices were very limited. These things all have to be considered when analyzing her personality type.
Factor #2: Her Relationship With Her Mother
“Mother would be so furious… Well, that’s okay. I mean, what she doesn’t know won’t kill her, right? …Oh, my gosh! This would kill her.”
Parents affect us all. That is a fact. I saw so many people argue that Rapunzel is Fe due to how much she worries about what her mother would think. That is an invalid argument. For all intents and purposes, Rapunzel is a good daughter. She wants to please her mother, like many children do. That does not make her a high Fe user. Plus, her mother is literally the only person she has ever known, and has ever been close to. (There’s probably some Stockholm Syndrome going on there.) Of course, Rapunzel wouldn’t want to “break her heart and crush her soul.”
So, is Rapunzel an ENFP or an ENFJ?
I think everyone would agree that Rapunzel is a feeler. So, it seems logical to address Fe (or FJ) versus Fi (or FP) first, to start narrowing her down to a specific personality type.
Fe/Ti vs. Fi/Te
“Something brought you here, Flynn Rider. Call it what you will, fate, destiny… So I have made the decision to trust you.”
As mentioned earlier, we need to set aside the moments where Rapunzel is overly concerned with her mother’s feelings or opinion. That is the natural response of an ordinarily obedient daughter. Her mother aside, does Rapunzel actually get very wrapped up in other people’s feelings? Not really.
When Flynn first shows up in the Tower, Rapunzel never hits a point where she releases Flynn because she realizes that he’s not a threat, and then feels bad about how she’d treated him. Instead, she takes full advantage of his presence and demands that he take her to see the floating lights. She mainly uses threats to convince him, rather than charm or reason. This brute force method is more in line with Te, than Fe.
“Put him down! Okay, I don’t know where I am, and I need him to take me to see the lanterns, because I’ve been dreaming about them my entire life. Find your humanity! Haven’t any of you ever had a dream?”
Later, in The Snuggly Duckling, Rapunzel wins everyone over, and saves Flynn by drawing all the attention onto herself and getting people to empathize with her dream. She makes the entire scene about herself, and in the process, inspires people to consider their own dreams. Rapunzel does something similar, although far less elaborate, with the horse later on, when he’s trying to capture Flynn. She begs him to hold off, because she needs to fulfill her dream, and because it’s her birthday. Again, Rapunzel never tries to make it about the horse, or what the horse wants. She keeps the focus on herself. This is more consistent with Fi than Fe.
“Look, today is kinda the biggest day of my life. And I need, I need you not to get him arrested. Just for twenty-four hours and then, you can chase each other to your heart’s content. Okay? And it’s also my birthday. Just so you know.”
Ne/Si vs. Ni/Se
“And I can’t help but feel that they’re…They’re meant for me. I need see them, Mother. And not just from my window. In person. I have to know what they are.”
Rapunzel has spent her life dreaming of what is outside. That could qualify as any type, given her situation. Although, Rapunzel fixates on what the floating lights might mean for her life (in spite of being disconnected from them), inspires others to come up with their own dream, and does things like attribute Flynn’s initial arrival to fate or destiny. These all seem like intuitive themes. Although, what we (and many others) do notice about Rapunzel is that her dream is failure singular, and she doesn’t do a lot of speculating around what it might mean… at least not externally anyway. In other words, she never offers up possibilities as to what the “floating lights” might mean, or be. She simply says that they’re meant for her. I’ve seen people argue that this is Ni, which is an understandable conclusion. However, taking the opposite approach, this could also just suggest that she’s not a Ne dominant, or an ENFP.
“What if it’s not everything that I dreamed it would be? …and what if it is? What do I do then?”
When Rapunzel is finally about to see the floating lights, she mentally breaks away from experiencing the moment, to worry about if the ideal that she’d built in her head would live up to reality. That’s Fi-Si in action. She’s hyped this moment up so much in her head, that she’s worried about actually experiencing the experience. (An ENFJ should have an easier time sinking into the moment, due to tertiary Se.) In addition, she’s worried about what to do next, because her mind has been so completely wrapped up in this one event. She hasn’t thought beyond this moment, like a long term thinker (NJ) would.
Wait, Rapunzel is an INFP?
Well, from watching Rapunzel, she always appears to be personal identity and values first. For instance, she really struggles to leave the tower on her own, because she’s earnestly trying to live within the boundaries her mother has set for her. Even after she does rappel out of the tower, Rapunzel doesn’t immediately yield to her extraverted function and start enjoying her freedom. She keeps second-guessing herself, getting trapped in a back and forth game of enjoyment and self-judgment. Similarly, Rapunzel doesn’t seriously rebel against her mother (at the end of the movie) until she discovers the truth about who she is.
The initial song with Rapunzel makes it clear that she has a fairly established routine within the tower. Granted, there’s probably only so much someone can do when cooped up in a small space like that. However, she legitimately struggles to break from that, and seems okay with repeating the same things over and over again. (The nearly 50 rounds of hide-and-seek with Pascal.)
“GOTCHA!!! That’s twenty-two for me. How about twenty-three, out of forty-five? …Okay, well, what do you want to do? …Yeah, I don’t think so. I like it in here, and so do you.”
Of course, I recognize that there are moments where she appears like a classic social extravert, and that it’s possible that she’s an ENFP in the grip of Si. Nonetheless, I believe that there’s a fairly solid case for INFP from a cognitive function standpoint.
In conclusion…
I can’t reconcile Rapunzel having Fe, which only leaves the FPs. Looking over the evidence as a whole, I believe an NFP type is most likely, given the potential Ne/Si, and the general intuitive themes. In addition, dominant Fi seems to fit with the way she is.
Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below. Also, if you enjoyed this format, please let me know, so I can aim to do similar articles in the future!
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I really like the idea of dispelling doubts around typings. This makes it easier to enter the world of MBTI without stereotypes and mistakes common to less experienced people (e.g. Katsuki Bakugo, who is often typed as an ENTJ). Additionally, this approach makes it easier to grasp the difference between Ne/Si and Ni/Se.
Thanks for the feedback!
I typed her as ENFP, but you made a good point about INFP. I’m surprised by the ENFJ response. She’s nothing like an ENFJ to me lol. Then again, it’s PDB so I’m not super surprised.
1. One of the things I used as Si/Ne evidence was her song “When will my life begin” where she lists off a lot of her hobbies (like.. a lot) e trying tons of new things (I don’t remember though).
Ne trying tons of new things + Si recalling details quickly and easily. She also never really fixates on fate and destiny like a high Ni user would; it’s more like a fleeting idea she’s briefly intertaining.
(Playing with an idea and feeling like it’s fleeting or outside of yourself instead of internalizing the concept to project = Ne > Ni to me).
Finally, she doesn’t have the Ni/Se vibe, but that’s a feeling than anything.
Would you say my take on her having a lot of hobbies is okay for high Ne (or general Ne) evidence?
Cuz I’d expect an ENFJ to fixate on 1-2 at a time. I get those hobbies were likely over her lifetime, but she *did* do all of them within a 4 minute song lol.
(Getting a high and excited over passing over the idea and briefly trying it out rather than indulging in the physical experience real time = high Ne > high Se?)
2. What are some signs of an Si grip in ENFPs?
I remembered a while back Heidi Priebe (ENFP) said on Joyce’s channel, “Si to me is where I’ll have the same day 100 days in a row then one day I’ll just stop and I’ll never have that same day ever again.” <— would you say that's an Si grip, or just bad Si?
3. "Well, from watching Rapunzel, she always appears to be personal identity and values first. For instance, she really struggles to leave the tower on her own, because she’s earnestly trying to live within the boundaries her mother has set for her."
While I agree with her struggling to break free and being stuck in a mental cage, I don't see how this is an Fi thing. I don't see an identity struggle.
Are you talking about how she's afraid she'll break Gothel's heart as something that goes against her Fi?
Cuz I always saw Fi as the, "I don't care what anyone thinks/ I'm gonna be exactly who I am (or who they think they are), period, end of story" function that easily resists external influences (Te inferior). Or maybe that's just how Fi seems to me since I have inferior Fi lol.
4. Would an ENFP have an easier time living in the moment than an INFP because of the suppressed Si = less Fi-Si idealism happening, more Ne-Te initiative happening.
Thanks again for doing this series! This was fun to read, haha.
Ping 👌
1. In any ordinary situation, I’d associate lots of hobbies that are specifically disconnected in nature as being evidence of high Ne. (Lots of hobbies is more indicative of high extraverted perceiving in general, although that’s pretty anecdotal.) The problem with Rapunzel is that if you’re stuck in a tower all day long, anyone would probably get a big creative with their hobbies so as not to get bored.
(Also, you have some good points in there about potential Ne/Si evidence)
2. What Heidi described could be Si grip. Basically, think of every negative trait associated with the SJs and then imagine an ENXP doing it. While all those little routines, consistencies, and safeguards would make an SJ feel happy, safe, and secure, it would make the ENXP miserable, but they’d feel compelled to do it, for whatever reason thrust them into the grip state.
3. Sure, that can be Fi, but what if the Fi value is to be an obedient daughter? Now, there is another person (the mother) incorporated into the value. She now has to “care” about what her mother thinks. And, because she feels like she must see the lights, she’s got her dream suddenly clashing with a core value.
That particular way of describe Fi is the basically the cold, selfish picture of Fi that a lot of people have, because any hint of empathy or virtue has been removed. Fe rarely gets an equal or parallel description, although it could, if we’re going to be fair about it.
4. The average ENFP will have an easier time living in the moment than the average INFP because of extraversion.
No problem! This was enjoyable.
1. Gotcha, makes sense. I was talking more about the fact she didn’t fixate on 1-2 and indulge in them and refine them over time like I was expecting an SJ or NJ, or SP to do. (Maybe I’m wrong about SPs though, but that’s the jidst I got out of your articles).
For example, I don’t remember Zoro (ISTP) doing much besides train, drink, and sleep; Naruto (ESFP) has a few fighting techniques he refines over time but never branches out, and Hisoka does the same. I could be taking things out of context though. (And yeah, I know technically fighting styles aren’t hobbies, but they never branched out). Depends on the person, irl (outside of fiction) right?
(And thanks 😄)
2. Gotcha. So what pointed you to a possible Si grip for her? Cuz you mentioned above Si grip was possible. Cuz (like you mentioned) she’d have to be more miserable if she was in a constant routine like that if she was, but she seems pretty happy.
3. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I just didn’t think an Fi dom, if she’s one, would struggle *that much*, but it makes sense now.
“That particular way of describe Fi is the basically the cold, selfish picture of Fi that a lot of people have, because any hint of empathy or virtue has been removed.”
Wouldn’t this be Te, since empathy (which is a feeling thing) is removed? Perhaps an FP who’s crutching on that Te can come off colder? So wouldn’t this version of Fi be more common in TJs? 🤔
No, I don’t think FPs are basket cases, and I get Fi-Te need the other function to exist, but I always associated coldness with Te, and passion with Fi, or at least temperament-wise. (I don’t think she’s a TJ btw, just asking for theory’s sake 😅)
4. Makes sense.
Yeee- Glad you enjoyed it!
2. I was considering Si grip as a possible explanation for the subdued Ne. She does seem socially extraverted in town and such.
3. Well, actually, Jung describes Fi as being cold. Wrapped up in their own emotion regardless of what’s going on around them. Empathy is something that any type can learn, although feelers probably take to it quicker than thinkers and express it more readily. Ultimately though, empathy has more to do with moral development. With that being said, Jung was describing unhealthy types, so on average, you’ll see an FP appear more passionate while a TJ appears more cold. But, an FP can contain their passion while still being driven by it, so that they appear cold on the outside.