Rapunzel Syndrome: A Study of Self Discovery And Personhood In Margaret Laurence’s The Stone Angel, A Jest Of God And The Fire-Dwellers

Abstract

The present article will essay to examine Margaret Laurence’s three novels – The Stone Angel, A Jest of God and The Fire-Dwellers
– by anchoring the discussion within the framework of Rapunzel Syndrome to expose social and personal barriers that act as drain on
the female protagonists’ realization of selfhood. The paper will chart out the odyssey of these independent, intelligent and confident
women from being prisoners of socio-familial cages to eventual self-discovery, thus emerging as convincing and breathing women
by shedding the false wrappings shrouding their personas.