Respectfully Yours, Rapunzel
Reimagining the Beginning of Rapunzel
If it pleases the court, I maintain the following revisions to the premise of Rapunzel.
The witch wanted a child and knew the young couple nextdoor could/would eventually become pregnant
The witch helped the woman become pregnant; Perhaps the woman even went to the witch secretly for help becoming pregnant (or end the pregnancy)
The witch did something herbally to make it so that the woman would crave rapunzel leaves as soon as she became pregnant. The witch then started growing rapunzel to supply the woman for the craving even before she knew she would be having a baby.
The witch waited and got the news from the happy couple, now stressed out about having enough money to feed both themselves and the baby
The witch knew the husband would be afraid of her powerful nature-based magic and would neither ask for the rapunzel leaves directly nor question (or try to renogiate) her price for them (the newborn child) because he would not want to risk harm to his wife or the baby.
She prepared the rapunzel and regularly monitored the garden for signs of the impending theft; she was waiting for him when he got there. No matter how silently he scaled the wall, she would have caught him.
Perhaps subconsciously he wanted to get caught - he was wracked with guilt for what he knew was wrong (stealing) and also he knew they could not afford the baby.
(It was not that the husband wanted something bad to happen to the baby, but he knew how poor they were and that it would be difficult financially to take care of it)
Perhaps the wife wanted the husband to get caught. She also knew how difficult it would be to raise the baby on their meager income and it was more socially acceptable for the baby to disappear by bargain/kidnapping than it was for the couple to voluntarily give the child away.
Part II: Reimagining
I do not dispute the facts laid out as follows at the beginning of the second paragraph in the extremely abbreviated telling of "Rapunzel" in Beneath the Moon (Yoshitani 37):
Rapunzel grew up to be beautiful
She had long golden hair
She was locked in a tower at the age of puberty approx. 12 yrs
The tower had one room with a window, no door or stairs
The tower was deep in the woods
The tower was surrounded by thorns
The witch required help from Rapunzel to revisit her 'golden' years (pun intended)
The prince heard Rapunzel and saw how to get to the tower when the witch did it
Part III: Reimagining
It is at this point that I diverge from the tale in the following details:
Rapunzel was not singing just for the fun of it or to pass the time. She was not stupid; she knew eventually someone would find her or hear her and her singing was a call for help. She had never seen anyone but the witch so she may never have been told where babies come from or how big the world was by population, but I think she knew other people were out there.
Possibly she wasn't even singing. Possibly she was screaming for help and then one day the prince heard her and thought he would play the hero.
Maybe the witch came down, saw him, told him to finish the job of dispatching with Rapunzel and then he ended up falling for Rapunzel instead.
When the witch eventually comes back she realizes it has finally been long enough and that Rapunzel is about to have a baby of her own because the prince got her pregnant. She is hoping to continue stealing Rapunzel's youth magic for awhile longer and is outraged that they were intimate and Rapunzel was no longer pure. However, what's done is done and the witch is prepared to steal this baby as well if necessary to repeat the cycle all over again.
She banishes Rapunzel to the wastelands AFTER she has the "twins" (Warner 135) and has hidden them somewhere and then pushes the prince from the tower because he won't sleep with her, proving even further that she is past her prime and cannot bear any children.
The prince lands in the thorns and injures his testicles, not his eyes (M.Goldman suggestion), as most versions say, and is thus prevented from bearing future children as punishment for "marrying" Rapunzel without witnesses before the lord, etc. or the blessing of her parents or the witch.
The prince is found lost and disfigured but Rapunzel joins him and they take care of each other, her with now cut-off hair and him with no chance of virility.
M. Goldman suggestion for next step in storyline inspired by my retelling: Witch's plan after finding out Rapunzel is pregnant is soured when prince injures his testicles because she had hoped to get further future children from them to forcibly adopt.