Film Analysis: Sweeney Todd, Who is the Hero?

(Warning, this contains spoilers)

So a song (specifically "Johanna") from the movie/musical Sweeney Todd popped into my head and I couldn't get it out of my head, nor could I stop thinking about how multifaceted it is.  The story written is a magnificent one and gives me more appreciation for Stephen Sondheim who already is my favorite Broadway composer.  I've always liked him because after a while, I got tired of the same old kind of Broadway show with the sparkles and big cast numbers, basically most of Andrew Lloyd Webber's work.  I like something dark, something that is edgy, something that makes me think and Sonheim's work is almost always all three of those things and at minimum, just taking everything from a different, interesting viewpoint (such as Into the Woods).  But back to the big question, who is the hero of Sweeney Todd?




Is It Sweeney himself?  For the casual viewer of Sweeney Todd, it may seem so.  However, Sweeney is driven to madness in his lust for vengeance.  He is the protagonist, but he loses his heroic-ness by the end of the story.  He starts off as your classic, flawed anti-hero but eventually you just can't root for him anymore and he becomes the villain.  In this way, his character is similar to that of the title character in Shakespeare's macbeth.  Both are driven mad by their desires and its their thirst for what they desire that leads them to the acts that lead to their eventual demises.


What about the Judge?  Beedle?  Pirelli?  None of these guys are the hero.  These are the villains of the story and there is little redeeming about them.  Beedle and Pirelli do not have an honest and kind moment on screen.  While the Judge is selfish, sadistic, and corrupt, he has good qualities.  He truly loved Johanna and in the end died to save her.  If anything, he is more hero than Todd because Todd is ready to kill anyone, even his own wife and daughter, just because they got in his way.

Now its not Anthony, just because his character is so flat.  Its honestly not worth trying to analyze it because he is not a developed character so the complex emotions and desires to crown someone a "hero" aren't there.

mrs. Lovett?  Her sin is Greed.  She ignores everything bad Sweeney does because she has a desire to be needed by him.  She ignores the immoral things Sweeney does in order to earn a quick buck and see her storefront full.  She needs to be needed by Sweeney so much that she concealed the identity of his wife, and like the rest of the characters her sin led to her demise.


The real hero is Tobias "Toby" Ragg.  A great hero of a story is very often dynamic and changing.  Tobias is changing all the time.  He has also very heroic qualities.  Although he is poor, he is noble and loyal throughout the story.  He changes however from being the dancing goon of Pirelli to the protector of Lovett.  The relationship has an Oedipal quality to it (in that it is a mother/son dynamic but the son acts like husband in a way) but the relationship is strictly platonic, even in intent.  Its more that Tobias is a loyal dog who is like the "son" of Lovett, but also her "protector" and "partner".  He transforms from a boy who is complicit in Pirelli's swindling of the common folk to the hero who destroys a man gone mad by his own desires in Todd.


There are a lot of fun themes in Sweeney that I only found when doing this.  First of all, throughout different characters, all of the deadly sins except sloth are very clearly referenced.  Sweeney lusts after his wife and the thought of revenge, the rich he kills are gluttons (and you can argue the people below eating the rich are gluttonous too), Lovett is greedy (and so is Turpin), Sweeney's lust turns into wrath, the Judge is also envious of who has Johanna's heart, and both the Judge and Pirelli are prideful.  I don't think its coincidence that the characters who exhibited deadly sins ended up dying in the play.


Sweeney Todd shares many similarities in plot and character development with macbeth.  Both Sweeney and macbeth come back home with an intense desire, a desire which eventually leads them down a dark path. Lovett is like Lady macbeth and sticks by Sweeney's side and helps him paln.  Pirelli is the "king of the barbers" in London that Sweeney must kill.  Tobias is macduff and subtly expected foul play in the death of "the king" and eventually kills Sweeney.