Mother Gothel

Short Films
 Video Games
 Portrayed by
Old Lady
The Witch
Mother Gothel
Gothel
 Personality
 Goal
 Enemies
 Likes
 Dislikes
 Quotes

“*You want me to be the bad guy? Fine. Now I'm the bad guy.*”

―Mother Gothel

**Mother Gothel** is the main antagonist in Disney's 2010 CGI animated feature film *Tangled*. She is voiced by Donna Murphy.

## Background

### Personality

Mother Gothel is a woman who poses as Rapunzel's motherly figure, and is responsible for kidnapping and locking her in a tower when she was a baby. Though she appears to be 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. Gothel is very vain, arrogant and makes multiple comments concerning her image. Gothel is pushed further and further into the role of villainess as Rapunzel grows close to Eugene (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.

Gothel's burning desire to retain her youth for all eternity has notably driven the woman to complete madness, to the point where she was more than willing to devilishly force Rapunzel into slavery for the rest of her years, as opposed to taking the role of Rapunzel's mother, which would avoid conflict for the most part. Not only that, she was also driven to a murderous state, killing Eugene with no remorse, and shown to be perfectly fine with doing the same with whomever else may get in her way, much like other iconic Disney villains. She is very possessive and selfish, which can easily be seen through the fact that she has been hoarding a magical flower for at least four hundred years and her biggest nightmare was someone to find it. Despite her madness, Mother Gothel attempts to keep an elegant flair to her, often attempting to keep a poised demeanor when speaking with Rapunzel, despite the fury ranging inside. Nevertheless, it truly doesn't take much to infuriate Gothel, as shown several times during her interactions with Rapunzel at the start of the film.

Although Mother Gothel initially had taken the role of a "kindly mother figure" to Rapunzel after her kidnapping, she has shown to be emotionally abusive, constantly berating Rapunzel over her appearance and personality though she claims the insults are mere jests and harmless teasing. Even so, Rapunzel made it quite clear through facial expressions that the sarcastic quips were rather hurtful nonetheless. She's also shown to blame Rapunzel for any form of conflict that befalls their "humble" home in the tower, including arguments and, later seen in the climax, Eugene's death.

Also, she has a certain quality that other Disney Villains lacks. She watches only her own business and does not mind absolutely anyone until someone upsets her, jeopardizes her or takes away something important to her. When Gothel breaks into the castle, she shows no desire for revenge against the queen and king even though they are reason for the loss of her magic flower. Also, she has a surprising compromising gesture when she tries to cut and take only one strand of Rapunzel's magic hair and left the child untouched. She kidnaps Rapunzel only when she realizes that she has no other options to retain her immortality, although that does not excuse kidnapping. Despite her arrogance and narcissism, she accepts just the compliments she gives herself, ignoring the ones given by others.

She seems to be a misanthrope and has true hate for people because they took away the magic flower she wanted all to herself. She even advises Rapunzel to hate people, saying: "The world is dark, and selfish, and cruel. If it finds even the tiniest bit of sunlight... It destroys it."

Mumbling appears to be one of Gothel's personal, and rather intense, pet peeves, as seen when she twice scolds Rapunzel not to do so. This could be because she finds it very rude or she can barely understand people who do or both.