A Dark and a Hungry God-Sweeney Todd

Well, I've done a couple of music and movie reviews, I wrote this literary review for a school project, but I quite like it, so I'm gonna publish it.

In 1979, Stephen Sondheim, a relatively unknown lyricist from Manhattan, composed a score and lyrics to an adaption of the Victorian penny dreadful, The String of Pearls, which he entitle Sweeney Todd; The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Though an adaptation of a popular London urban legend, Sondheim took the relatively simple story of The String of Pearls and altered and enriched it, turning it into an epic of morality and conflict. The shallow and two-dimensional characters of the penny dreadful came alive under Sondheim’s pen, bringing Sweeney Todd to life and making it one of the most popular musicals in modern history, with two revivals and a feature film coming from it.
The play opens with pale-faced Victorians attending a cremation. As the body is thrust into the oven, the players open into a haunting dirge, recounting the tale of Sweeney Todd, and accounting what is about to be seen. Sweeney Todd is immediately set up as a murderer, a barber who cuts people’s throats, especially of “those who moralize.” Sweeney is described as “smooth, subtle” and “quick and quiet and clean,” portraying him in terms more mechanical than human. As the introduction draws to a close, a ghostly figure steps onto the stage, Sweeney himself, and the introduction draws to a close. From the chilled, haunting introduction, the play begins in earnest with a young sailor, Anthony Hope, drawing into London harbor with Sweeney Todd in tow. Hope is glad to see London, claiming “I have sailed the world and seen its wonders, from the Dardanelles to the mountains of Peru, but there’s no place like London.” Hope is immediately set up as young and optimistic, seeing the lighter side of London. Todd soon cuts off the aptly-named Hope with his own views on London. Todd, much older and more acclimated to the ways of the world, sees London as “A hole in the world,” a place of evil and corruption. Throughout the scene, Todd’s cynicism is shown more and more prevalently. It draws to its climax as Todd explains his hatred of London. Through the tale of “a barber,” obviously the younger Todd, Todd reveals that he has been imprisoned for unjust reasons, having a beautiful wife coveted by a “pious vulture of the law.” Todd has no respect for the law, it seems, his language here betraying his view that piety is merely a sham, as he does earlier in the scene saying that many a Christian would have seen Todd drowning at sea “and not lost a wink’s sleep for it neither.” Todd hates the law and the ideal behind it, seeing it used only for cruelty and personal gain of its executors. Todd then goes on to broaden his disdain to the whole of humanity, crying as the scene ends “There’s a hole in the world like a great black pit, and it’s full of people who are full of shit, and the vermin of the world inhabit it.”
Immediately in the next scene, Todd goes to his old dwelling-place, and the pie-shop underneath it, and learns from its proprietress, Mrs. Lovett, what has happened in his absence. While Todd learns what has happened, we, the audience, learn more about Todd and his motivation for hatred. His real name was Benjamin Barker, and we learn that not only did Judge Turpin (also a name revealed during the tale’s recounting) have Todd shipped off to Australia, but Turpin raped Lucy Barker publicly, and then, after Lucy’s suicide, took the daughter Johanna as his ward. Told in the form of a song, it ends with Todd shrieking his protest at what has happened. Mrs. Lovett addresses him by his old name of Barker, and he rounds on her angrily, telling her “Not Barker. That man is dead. It’s Todd now, Sweeney Todd, and he will have his revenge.” Todd’s character now develops a more dark tone, not just cynical and misanthropic, but something more dangerous as he swears revenge on those who have wronged him. Certainly, the most significant part of his development in this scene is that darkening of his motive. However, another subtle metamorphosis is brought to the surface here. Todd swears his revenge for the wrongdoings done against him and his family, but he also denies being Barker. He claims that Barker is dead. Todd is trying to distance himself from Barker, trying to make it seem as though what has happened has happened to another person. On the other hand, Todd is still going to claim vengeance for Barker, as an interested party. Perhaps this is a “safety mechanism” for Todd, to cope with the 15 years of torment that he has endured and remain sane. Another motivation behind his insistence on taking a new identity might be to count Barker dead with his wife. Todd then turns into a specter of revenge for not only Turpin’s driving Lucy Barker to suicide, but also for killing Benjamin Barker in Botany Bay simply to sate Turpin’s own lusts. Whatever his motivation, this scene is where Todd finds his purpose; to kill Turpin in repayment for the wrongdoings Turpin has done.
Todd’s purpose set, he prepares to leave to fulfill the same purpose. However, Mrs. Lovett, known by the audience, though not Todd, to desire him, offers Todd his old razors, which she has kept all these years. Todd takes the razors and sings his first full length song of the play, “My Friends.” As Mrs. Lovett fawns on him suggestively throughout the song, Todd sees only his razors, and addresses them more tenderly than anything else he has or will refer to in the play. He does more than merely anthropomorphize his razors, taking it further and crooning to them just as if they truly were his children or brothers. He feels a kinship with them that is more than just a workman and his tools, likening their sojourn inside their box to his confinement in Australia. Todd’s reuniting with his friends gives him the ability to wreak his revenge, as he finishes the song with the promise “you shall drip rubies, you’ll soon drip precious rubies.” Todd is now even more single-minded than ever. Not only has he shut up everything he once was as Benjamin Barker, but he is now becoming oblivious to everything else around him, eyes set only on his task. This is shown plainly through the excellently executed duet of Mrs. Lovett and Todd, as she offers him “splendors you never could dream all your days,” while Todd makes the same offer to the blades in front of him. With an exuberant crow of “At last! My arm is complete again!” Todd ends the scene, an exasperated Mrs. Lovett behind him.
As the scene changes, the same chorus from the beginning of the play sounds, with different words. “Swing your razor wide, Sweeney, hear it singing, yes. Sink it in the rosy skin of righteousness!” Todd’s misanthropy and hate of the law is degenerating. Instead of merely hating those who claim to do good and instead do evil, he is actually hating good itself, and good and evil are beginning to blend in his mind. “He’d seen how ‘civilized men’ behaved, he never forgot and he never forgave.” Todd, in trying to distance himself from evil, is distancing himself from good and becoming something apart from the two of them, and yet also a part of the two of them.
Todd is conspicuously absent from the next few scenes, which instead focus on the budding romance between Johanna, now being raised by Turpin, and Anthony Hope, who catches a glimpse of her at a window. Turpin has his lackey, Beadle Bamford, drive Hope off, but his protection of Johanna comes not from any fatherly desire, but of selfishness, and a desire, seen as Johanna steps off stage, to possess Johanna sexually. Turpin’s character, while not the focal point of this essay, bears some examination here, as it is his action that spurns on Todd. Turpin is not Claudius of Hamlet; he does not struggle with his conscience in the memory of what he has done. His terrible deeds do not weigh on him. He leaves the stage chuckling evilly, and very much confirmed to the audience to remain as vile as he ever was.
Todd reappears soon, in a bustling marketplace, with Mrs. Lovett by his side. He has come to reclaim his place as the most prominent barber in London. Apparently, as revealed by Lovett, an Italian has become “all the rage.” Todd, reading from the Italian’s wagon, scoffs at the credentials of having served royalty, claiming “By Monday they’ll all be flocking to me like sheep to be shorn.” As the Italian’s lad-servant comes out to sell Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir (a baldness cure), Todd loudly scoffs at it saying “what is this? Smells like piss. Looks like piss. This is piss! Piss with ink!” The crowd sways to Todd’s side, and Pirelli himself comes out to defend his product, when Todd challenges him to a shaving contest. Todd wagers his razors against 5 pounds, and Pirelli accepts. Todd calls for Beadle Bamford, Turpin’s lackey, to be the judge, confidently believing the beadle will not recognize Todd to be the same Barker who Bamford helped bring to demise years ago. Todd lets Pirelli enter into a loud, bombastic rant about his credentials. Pirelli performs quite garishly, while shaving, insulting Todd throughout and also injuring his client, apparently not noticing. Pirelli even claims his ability to shave is a divine gift. Todd ignores Pirelli and spends the entire song stropping and sharpening his razor. During the final, high, sopranic note of Pirelli, Todd shaves his client, finishing in but a few seconds and being declared the winner. The Beadle accosts Todd, claiming his face familiar, but Todd distracts the Beadle saying that Bamford is spoken of with great respect, and that Todd would, free of charge, give the Beadle “the closest shave he will ever know.” Todd manages to make the corny line so full of malice that the hokeyness is forgotten.
Todd has, in the time he has not been seen by the audience, lost none of his resolve. He is set on revenge, but also convinced of his own superiority. Even without an actor speaking the lines, one can see the gleam in Todd’s eye as Pirelli claims to be the best in the world. Todd is convinced that nothing can thwart him, or he does not care. If the Beadle were to recognize Todd to be Barker, Todd would be done, but he does not care. His revenge is clearly now obsession, trumping not just his sexual/social desires, but even his desire to safety and life. He may die; he doesn’t care, he will continue to seek his revenge.
Scene to scene, Todd’s depression and obsession grow stronger and stronger, with Mrs. Lovett encouraging him to give up the crusade and Todd brooding more and more on his wrongs. As Signor Pirelli, the barber who Todd publicly disgraced, reveals himself to know Todd’s true identity, having worked for Todd before his exile, Todd quickly kills him. Pirelli’s threat of blackmail does not intimidate Todd in the least, he simply knocks him unconscious, stuffs his body in a trunk, and slits Pirelli’s throat without so much as a thought. Todd’s obsession has grown out of control, he will kill any who stand in his way and hinder his ability to take revenge. The scene cuts with Todd holding his bloody razor and rejoicing over his enemy’s downfall.
The next scenes reveal that Turpin intends to indulge his lechery of Johanna by forcing her into marrying him. Meanwhile Johanna and Anthony Hope intend to elope. Turpin, now very firmly confirmed to the audience as nothing short of evil, decides to go to the Barber to make himself appear more attractive. When consulting the Beadle, he learns of Todd’s establishment, and goes to Fleet Street.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Lovett is fretting over what to do with Pirelli’s body. Typically, Todd is not overly concerned, and he returns to brooding over his wrongs. However, as the Judge arrives at the shop, Todd sees the end of his problems at hand. As Turpin enters the shop, Todd seems to take the persona of a cat playing with a mouse. He quickly gets Turpin into the chair, but he doesn’t slit his throat immediately, deciding to actually shave Turpin first. Todd whistles and sings as Turpin and he enter a merry duet singing of love and the titular “Pretty Women.” Todd sings to his “friend,” instructing it to be patient, for “revenge can’t be taken in haste.” As Todd shaves the Judge, Turpin reveals his plan to marry Johanna, and this only strengthens Todd’s resolve. As Todd draws the razor back to end his troubles forever, Anthony comes to the barber shop and reveals his plans to marry Johanna. Turpin storms out of Todd’s shop, leaving Todd distraught, and the first act reaches its climax in the aptly-named “Epiphany.” Todd screams his frustrations to the world, claiming that the world is inhabited only by evil men, and that “We all deserve to die.” Traditionally, Todd leaves the stage in this part, running among the audience and pointing his razor at individuals and inviting them to his chair. He yells his frustrations amongst these “deluded” ravings, mourning his loss of his wife and daughter, and screaming “I will have vengeance! I will have salvation!” Todd’s vengeance has finally driven him beyond sanity, and his true desires are brought to light in his madness. Todd does not simply wish to kill Turpin for mere vengeance; he wishes to kill Turpin because he believes it will save him. Barker became Todd in order to “save” Barker through death. Much like the Christian teachings of the time, Barker cannot save himself. Barker’s redemption can only be bought with someone else’s blood. However, it is not his messiah’s blood that will free him, but his messiah, Todd, will spill the redeeming blood. Todd serves, as said in the play’s introduction, a dark and a hungry god. If that god cannot have the blood of the guilty, it will have everyone’s blood, as Todd says “Not one man, no not ten men, not a hundred can assuage me!” Todd is his own god, the perfect humanist. Almost a sufferer of Multiple Personality Disorder, Benjamin Barker feels the deep need for salvation and redemption, so he turns to a god of his own making, and he ends up becoming that god, in the form of Sweeney, and when the god is denied its sacrifice, it turns to devour others. Barker dies in “Epiphany,” and becomes completely replaced by the vengeful deity of Sweeney Todd, a self-fulfilling prophecy first made in Mrs. Lovetty’s parlor before the “My Friends” sequence.
Todd collapses after his revelation, and as Mrs. Lovett escorts him downstairs, and the two begin to worry what will be done with Signor Pirelli’s remains. The first thing that comes into Mrs. Lovett’s mind is the use of the bodies Todd will harvest for her meat pies. The song “A Little Priest,” while quite macabrely cheery and laced with some genuinely good puns, also shows the next stage of Todd’s development. As Todd leaves “Epiphany,” now fully become the god he serves, he finds a worshipper very quickly. Mrs. Lovett quickly thinks of a solution to the problem of corpse disposal that will mutually beneficial. Mrs. Lovett will be able to serve meat pies with plenty of real meat (a rarity in the economically depressed England of the time) and Todd will have his sacrifices. The business of one will attract customers for the other. Likewise, “Priest” reveals the fully humanist views of Todd and Lovett. “For what’s the sound of the world out there? Those crunching noises pervading the air? It’s man devouring man my dear, and who are we to deny it in here?” The England at the time, about to plunge into the heart of the Victorian era, was placing a man’s value on how much power/influence he had. Todd and Lovett are merely taking this to its logical conclusion. Todd is stronger than other men, and can kill them. He can exercise his power as he pleases, and so he can therefore devour them, or allow them to be devoured. Once a God of absolute ethics has been taken out of the equation, how can anyone argue that what Todd is doing is wrong? It is his right as the stronger man to do what he might with his victims.
After the intermission Toby, Pirelli’s old assistant now in the employ of Todd and Lovett, sing about the succulence of Mrs. Lovett’s meat pies. Everyone in London is eating Mrs. Lovett’s pies, much to the humor and disgust of the audience. Todd receives another “friend,” the only other thing in the play he addresses as such besides his razors, a mechanical chair that will deliver his victims to Mrs. Lovett’s basement. After the festivities are over, the screen goes dark, and Westminster Chimes are heard. Anthony Hope walks through London, singing for his beloved Johanna. As he does so, Todd welcomes customers to his shop. As Anthony sings about the Johanna he knows while searching for her, Todd sings to the daughter he will never know, while simultaneously cutting his customer’s throats. Throughout the song, Todd speculates as to what his daughter looks like, wondering if she looks like his departed wife. As it progresses, Todd seems to decide that he does not miss Johanna so much, and will be able to say farewell to her, possibly meaning allowing Johanna to run away with Anthony. Critics have debated the meaning of this scene since the play’s inception. Depending on actor, the meaning of this song can change. However, with the original lyrics and actors picked by the author, it would seem that Todd is genuine in his desire to let Johanna go. However the reason is not as “nice” as it might seem. Todd is not allowing her to marry Anthony out of affection, but because his god has provided him with another means of satisfying his revenge. Instead of wanting to try to pick up the pieces of his life and take Johanna back, or even to allow her to start her own life, Todd simply does not care because his satisfaction comes through the blood of his victims. The logic and planning of Todd’s original vengeance is giving way to a simple thirst for blood. There is no hypostatic union in Todd’s becoming one with his god. Todd is not fully god and fully man, like the Christian savior, his human emotion and feeling are gone, replaced only by the hunger and vengefulness of his god. As Anthony finds Johanna, Todd bids her a final unheard farewell over the dead body of one of his victims, and Todd disappears from the stage.
After the scene of Anthony’s discovery, Todd reappears in Mrs. Lovett’s parlor, looking quite incredibly bored as Mrs. Lovett plays her harmonium and sings along. She sings of the future she sees for herself and Todd, a marriage and a life down by the seaside. Todd only looks up occasionally and mutters “Anything you say.” He is still brooding on the wrongs done to him. Mrs. Lovett seeks to dissuade him, though not for the obvious reason. She doesn’t care about Todd’s murderous rampage; in fact she prefers it. She simply doesn’t want him to do it for his wife, she wants Todd for herself. Todd however, will not be dissuaded. Anthony bursts in on the scene, revealing his having discovered Johanna in the local madhouse. Todd immediately figures a way to gain his revenge through the situation. He sets Anthony up as a wigmaker, making him able to infiltrate the asylum and rescue Johanna. Meanwhile, Todd writes a letter to Turpin, telling Turpin what is going to occur, and telling him to come to Todd’s shop, where Todd will keep Johanna. Once more Todd’s god comes to the surface, unable to do anything without personal gain towards vengeance. Todd delivers the letter and the scene closes. Meanwhile Toby, the assistant, is beginning to suspect Todd’s murderous ways. He does not suspect Mrs. Lovett, who he loves as his own mother, and confesses his doubts to her. She locks him in the cellar, tricking him into believing he will be helping her in making the pies. As Mrs. Lovett goes upstairs, Beadle Bamford has come around to inspect Mrs. Lovett’s bakehouse, due to public complaints of the stink of the smoke from it. Todd walks in to hear this, and he offers Bamford a free shave, haircut, and facial rub. Meanwhile, Toby in the bakehouse discovers a hair and a fingernail in the pie he is eating, and it even more alarmed as the beadle’s body falls into the cellar, throat slashed. He escapes into the sewers, and Mrs. Lovett and Todd go after him, fully intent to kill him, despite Mrs. Lovett’s promise in the previous song “Nothing’s gonna harm you, not while I’m around.” As Anthony successfully rescues Johanna, Todd and Lovett search all over for Toby in the sewers. Anthony brings Johanna to Todd’s shop as a beggar woman who has made appearances throughout the play sings for Beadle Bamford, whom she saw enter Todd’s shop, to beware Mrs. Lovett. Johanna, now disguised as a sailor, enters the shop. However, the beggar woman is in pursuit, singing for the beadle. Johanna hides in a trunk in the corner of Todd’s shop as the beggar woman enters the shop. Singing to herself, the woman reveals herself to be quite insane, scrabbling about and singing to the air. Todd enters the shop and tries to get the woman to leave. She will not, and as the judge outside calls for Todd, Todd pushes the woman into the chair and cuts her throat. The Judge comes in and Todd once more pampers him, telling the judge that Johanna has seen the error of her ways and no longer seeks to marry Anthony, only to be with Turpin. Turpin and Todd sing “Pretty Women” once more. Turpin admits that he considers Todd to be a “fellow spirit” and Todd replies “With fellow taste in women.” Turpin is made uneasy, and looks to Todd in bemusment. Todd snarls out the truth about himself. “No doubt the years have changed me. But then again I suppose the face of a barber, the face of a prisoner on the dock, is not particularly memorable.” As the judge screams Todd’s real name in horror, Todd replies in kind. Yelling his true name as a war cry, Todd slashes Turpin’s throat and drops his body into the cellar. Todd then croons to his razor, telling it to rest and “sleep,” the god of vengeance finally sated with the deaths of those responsible for Barker’s misfortune. However, he glimpses Johanna peeking out of the chest. He quickly takes up the razor and quips “Everyone needs a good shave.” About to cut Johanna’s throat, Mrs. Lovett screams from the cellars, and Todd is distracted, giving Johanna time to escape. Todd races downstairs to find the dying Turpin clutching onto Mrs. Lovett’s skirts. Turpin expires and Todd laughs. Todd tells Mrs. Lovett to open the doors of her huge bake oven, where they will incinerate the bodies. As she does so, Todd looks over the corpse of the beggar woman he killed. As the firelight hits her face, he drops his razor and shrieks in horror, ironically, “Oh my god!” One wonders which god he might be calling on. The beggar woman is Lucy Barker. Todd falls to his knees and cradles his wife’s body, sobbing apologies to Lucy and screaming to Mrs. Lovett that she has deceived and betrayed him from the beginning. Mrs. Lovett denies this, saying she never lied, merely withheld some of the truth. Lucy Barker did poison herself, but the poison only drove her mad, it did not kill her. Mrs. Lovett claims she refrained from telling Todd this because she loves him and “[Mrs. Lovett] would be twice the wife she was, I love you, could that thing have cared for you like me?” Todd suddenly calms and rises to his feet. He assures Mrs. Lovett “The history of the world, my pet, is learning forgiveness and try to forget. And life is for the alive my dear, so let’s keep living it, just keep living it, really living it!” He waltzes her along and then suddenly hurls her into the fire of the oven, ignoring her screaming and slamming the doors. He goes over to Lucy’s body and cradles it once more in his arms, singing the same lines from the beginning of the play. “There was a barber and his wife, and she was beautiful. A foolish barber and his wife, she was his reason and his life, and she was beautiful, and she was virtuous, and he was.” He loses the rest of his verse in tears. The deity of Sweeney Todd has failed to give Barker what he truly desired, even if it did give him what he wanted. The thirst of that god was all-encompassing, and turned Todd’s words from “Epiphany” into prophecy, and turning Todd into the exact thing he sought to destroy. Toby enters the room, having been driven mad by the realization of what has occurred. Todd unbuttons his collar and leans back, exposing his throat. Toby picks up Todd’s discarded razor and slashes Todd’s throat with it. Todd bleeds to death quietly, still holding the body of his dead wife in his arms. Todd has been betrayed by everyone. He was betrayed by the law he believed in, he was betrayed by Mrs. Lovett, he was betrayed by the god he created to serve, and now even his “friend” is betraying him in the hands of Toby by taking Todd’s life. The play concludes with Toby going into delirium as Anthony, Johanna, and two constables enter the room, recoiling in horror at what they see. A final rendition of “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd,” heard throughout the play, begins, finishing with the ghosts of Todd and Lovett arising from the floor and warning the audience “Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd. He served a dark and a hungry god. To seek revenge may lead to hell but everyone does it and seldom as well as Sweeney, as Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”
The character of Sweeney Todd is hard to define in classical terms. He is certainly tragic, calling to mind such characters as Edmond Dantes or Ben Hur. He stands alongside the tragic hero in his circumstance and his desire to seek justice against those who put him in those circumstances. However, Todd would also seem to bear a kinship with Hamlet, seeking revenge to the point of self-destruction. Unlike Dantes or Ben-Hur, however, Todd has no mercy, and does not finish his story a hero. He finds no redemption, and he kills more than “the bad guys,” quite intentionally. He is a mass-murderer and a psychopath. He is an anti-hero, who we hope to succeed and yet also criticize and are meant to despise. Todd is not an allegory, but rather a type for what is found in the heart of every man. He is a personification of the human desire for revenge. He cannot fulfill his desires on his own, and he needs the help of another. Rather than seek actual help, Barker creates his own deity in the form of Sweeney Todd, a demon who destroys all indiscriminately, not discerning the difference between friend and foe, and abandoning reason and logic for instinctual revenge. The play as a whole stands as much a tragedy as Hamlet, with as much wit and skill as ever Shakespeare invented, and characters more complex than ever came from the Bard’s pen, and none more complex than the titular anti-hero, Sweeney Todd.