“How crisis can be instructive”: Into the Woods as Allegory
Into the Woods was Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s second venture into the world of musical theatre as a collaborative pair. The musical, which opened on Broadway at the Martin
Beck Theatre in November of 1987, concerns itself with a variety of characters and plot structures from Brothers Grimm fairy tales, all of which revolve around and are tied into a story
Sondheim and Lapine concocted themselves – a baker and his wife wish for a child, but a curse is placed upon them inhibiting their fertility, requiring them to venture into the woods to find a list of items which will allow the curse to be reversed. Into the Woods ran for 765 performances and is easily Sondheim’s most performed
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The threat for the characters of Into the Woods begins when the beanstalks grow – Jack climbs up the first beanstalk, and playing a child’s game, he steals a golden harp from a giant.
Seeking the thief, the giant climbs down the beanstalk, but on his way down, Jack chops the beanstalk at its base and the giant falls to his death. The dead giant’s wife comes down the second beanstalk, which was unintentionally planted when Cinderella threw the magic bean that the Baker’s Wife tried to offer her in exchange for her slipper, and characters begin dying rapidly, regardless of their involvement with or understanding of the situation that occurred with the giantess and her husband. Though resting intrinsically in fairy tale, the sheer terror that the characters are facing in the second act as the giantess kills massive numbers of people is
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It can be argued that the very nature of the material, fairy tales carrying strict moral guidelines, resonates in all ages and eras because of the ways in which they are passed down from parents to children. However, the themes upheld throughout the second act of Into the Woods are Sondheim and Lapine’s, and those are the themes which resonate profoundly and carry the heaviest impact. The thematic narrative of Into the Woods is applicable beyond the confines of any given production, and when Cinderella reassures Little Red in her darkest hour that “no one is alone,” it is not merely one fictional character singing to the next –
Sondheim and Lapine are behind that lyric, offering the sentiment behind the language they’ve used to give voice to their characters to their audience. Even further, they are offering the wisdom that every individual in every community needs to reflect on, question, bargain for, accept the consequences of, and persevere through the deadliest epidemics, the largest crises, and the deepest personal turmoil one can experience in the wake of it
In “The Classic Fairy Tales” by Maria Tator and “Mad Shadows” by Marie-Claire Blais, both texts deal with the idea that suffering and understanding are deeply connected. The authors aim to prove that suffering and understanding go hand in hand in order for change to occur. In “The Classic Fairy Tales”, Beauty and the beast, Snow White and Cinderella, will explore the relation between understanding suffering via transformation, desire, and physical injuries, when compared and contrasted with Mad Shadows.
...ot be killed. Fastened to the tree she is vulnerable to the creatures of the woods and the Shadowbrute.
and Jack are in the forest and they see the pig for the first time Jack does not
The novel of The Hobbit is the story of Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who lives in the town of Hobbiton. He lives a subdued, quiet life in his sophisticated home. Until one day, a knock on his door from the wizard, Gandalf, changes everything. Gandalf invites himself to tea and arrives with 13 dwarves, led by their leader, Thorin. They plan a voyage to recover treasure stolen from the dwarves by, Smaug, the dragon who now protects the loot inside of the Lonely Mountain. Gandalf claims Bilbo should fill the role of their burglar, for he is small and intelligent.
Louis Women’ had a strong score written by Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen but it wasn’t successful. The show wasn’t successful because of the confluence of events, trends, ad bad luck that was harsh even by the standards of the Broadway musical. The show was mostly undone by its attempts to force a complex and unwieldy story into the form of a conventual musical.
The Hobbit is the story of Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who lives in a hole in a hill. He enjoys a quiet life but it is interrupted by a surprise visit by the wizard Gandalf. Gandalf comes with a company of dwarves led by Thorin. They were searching to recover a lost treasure that was being guarded by a dragon named Smaug, at the Lonely Mountain. Gandalf decided Bilbo would be helpful to the team as a burglar.
Little did he know that the bean was gonna bring him wonders. When he got home he showed his mom the bean. They decided
real reason he got blind. He knows that seeing the eclipse without protection wasn't the
The theme of the play has to do with the way that life is an endless cycle. You're born, you have some happy times, you have some bad times, and then you die. As the years pass by, everything seems to change. But all in all there is little change. The sun always rises in the early morning, and sets in the evening. The seasons always rotate like they always have. The birds are always chirping. And there is always somebody that has life a little bit worse than your own.
Anne Sexton’s poem “Cinderella” is filled with literary elements that emphasize her overall purpose and meaning behind this satirical poem. Through the combination of enjambment stanzas, hyperboles, satire, and the overall mocking tone of the poem, Sexton brings to light the impractical nature of the story “Cinderella”. Not only does the author mock every aspect of this fairy tale, Sexton addresses the reader and adds dark, cynical elements throughout. Sexton’s manipulation of the well-known fairy tale “Cinderella” reminds readers that happily ever after’s are meant for storybooks and not real life.
The next day Bagley went to the pond and he saw the fish and they talked about bagleys patch. he got it when he was watching his dad make the tunnel. a owl came and got his dad and took his eye out. Bagley told the striped fish how he felt about her and she said they cant be together. She came back and then she said he shouldn’t come back to the pond. He kept his promise and didn’t come back, but he dropped bugs in the stream that led to the pond hoping she got them.
The forest additionally symbolizes the relationship in which native serves as a place of empowerment for individuals. This also adds to those the themes. The forest is a symbol of Prynne and Dimmesdale’s empowerment in the truth, hope and love. Upon their meeting in the forest, both feel positively changed as qu...
will soon turn into a leader of savages. On the mountain, Jack hunts but does
Lapine’s off-Broadway experienced definitely helped him create his style of writing, which in turn rubbed off on Sondheim even after their time as collaborators was over. Lapine felt that he championed visual theater with less reliance on text to tell the story (Stempel, ...
Jack and the Beanstalk is an original 1807 fantasy story. This story was first mentioned in a British folktale written by Benjamin Tabart called “Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean”. This story was the start of the “Jack and the Beanstalk”. Although this was not a huge hit. Jack and the beanstalks biggest sell was in 1890 written by Joseph Jacobs. This story was about a young boy who's family was extremely poor. One morning his mom told him to take there cow to the market to get some money for food. On his way jack met a man with what he said were magical beans. Jack was intrigued by these “magical” beans, so he gave the cow away in trade for the beans. When Jack comes home with no money, and just three beans his mom is extremely angry. She snatches the beans and tosses them out the window. The next morning there is a ginormous beanstalks outside there house. Jack is said to have climbed the beanstalk high into the clouds. At the top of the clouds, in some versions, jack reaches a castle. Jack creeps in the castle where he spots a giant. In some stories this giant has a name and ...