You Can Dream: Into the Woods, Essay Example

Introduction

The film Into the Woods takes the modern trend in entertainment to explore fairy tales into a new dimension, and by virtue of the complexity of the story itself.  For some time, fairy tales have been the basis for movies and television programs, which typically seek to expand on the traditionally simple stories.  These works, however, usually center on one fable only.  Into the Woods, conversely, weaves together a variety of distinct fables, and creates a world wherein interaction between them furthers the individual stories. This same process also permits the film to present several themes dependent upon the interactions, and themes which are not within the separate tales. There are lessons to be given here, just as the combining of the stories adds a complexity that goes beyond the simplicity of the fairy tale, and more echoes the complex challenges of reality. As the following examines, Into the Woods is a monomyth constructed from multiple myths, and it consistently imparts several messages derived from the strangely realistic interactions of the characters.

Discussion

To begin with, and ironically, the ultimate cohesion of Into the Woods is generated by its fragmentation. The film begins by presenting several well-known scenarios from fable: Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and Cinderella.  It then adds a device to connect the stories, and one related to the Rapunzel tale. The witch who cares for the girl seeks to regain her own youth and beauty, and to that end she enlists the aid of the new elements, a baker and his wife who desperately want a child.  This creation of a fairy tale then adds a dialogic quality to the entire film; everything must connect to the known tales, even as those tales are taken in different directions.  The main story relies upon referencing the established fables, and this in turn fuels the core storyline of the baker and his wife, and their mission to help the witch and undo the curse of childlessness placed upon them by her. An ongoing and interactive relationship is then in place, with responses shifting based upon the complex interactions themselves.  The fragmented stories then work together to present a cohesive whole, particularly as the fates of the primary characters move to a single ambition: killing the lady giant and securing their peaceful lives again.

Without question, the writers take liberties with the behaviors of the known characters, but they are also remain true to the natures of those characters. This in turn allows for a series of tropes and recurring themes to be employed, and because all the main characters are in fact engaged in the same sort of effort.  Interestingly, the fragmented Into the Woods suggests monomyth, the differences in the pursuits of the characters notwithstanding.  According to theorist Joseph Campbell, in fact, all Western storytelling centers on one monomyth, that of the hero setting of on a quest of some kind (Daiute, Lightfoot  271). Red Riding Hood seeks her grandmother; Jack wants adventure and wealth; Cinderella is intent on attending the King’s Festival; the witch seeks her former self; and the baker and his wife desperately want a child. The film respects these ambitions as defining the characters, and any other behaviors added to them are then legitimate because the basic identity of each character is maintained. Consequently, the first and perhaps most dominant trope employed is that of the wish.  In plain terms, everyone here hungers for something and goes into the woods to attain it.  At the same time, the film makes it clear from the beginning that a “wish” is never a simple matter. Jack, for example, does not wish to sell his cow, but the need is urgent and he must bow to his mother’s wish that this happen.  More directly, the spirit of Cinderella’s mother has a pertinent question when the girl appeals to her: “Are you certain that what you wish is what you want?” (Into the Woods).  Even Red Riding Hood is conflicted; her wish is to visit her grandmother, but she desires adventure as well.  The trope of “wish” is then given weight and further meaning, and meaning suggesting danger.  The film conveys that to express a wish and affirm a desire brings with it consequences, and not necessarily of wish fulfillment.  More exactly, a wish comes with a warning because the wisher must be very sure about what is wanted.  This then adds to the word the imperative of knowing the self as completely as possible.

The trope of “wish” occurs throughout the entire film, and a different dimension is given to it later.  It is a dimension that also relates to the early sense of danger attached.  Wishes, it is overtly stated, come true, but not free. There are always costs involved, and this may be the primary theme of the film. A Cinderella may gain her wish and attend a royal ball, but this brings with it consequences; she must address the new reality of a prince determined to have her as his wife and this is not necessarily her dream. More overtly, a Jack may climb to the giants’ kingdom and steal gold needed by his mother, but this invites deadly responses from his victims.  Turning to the new fable and adding a modern tone, the baker is in serious conflict about his own quest.  Having been informed of his own father’s poor conduct, he is not at all sure that he should be a father.  If he gains his and his wife’s wish, he faces a life of doubt. Then, a “clash” of wishes exists with the witch and Rapunzel.  The girl wishes to “see the world” while having no idea of it beyond the attentions of the prince visiting her. The witch, determined to keep the girl isolated, must accept that she loses the girl’s love in so restraining her.  In all instances, then, wishes are marked by costs and potentials of damage greater than the reality known prior to the wish.

Another theme explored in the film, and also from early on, goes to the dangers of the world as represented by the woods.  The woods are certainly a metaphor for all unknown experience and/or landscapes; each character enters and is fearful, and moves through the forest with caution.  The metaphor is later expanded, after the lady giant makes her appearance and seeks revenge.  Ordered to return to their village by the prince, all the main characters find themselves lost. They have been through the woods but, somehow, everything is changed. This in turn permits them, or demands of them, to reevaluate their actions, desires, and lives.  Earlier, the strangeness of the environment is hopeful to the baker and his wife, as they rely more upon one another there. Red Riding Hood, while seduced by the wolf into taking new paths, comes to understand the importance of holding to what she knows. Nonetheless, these senses of comfort vanish later, and the woods then represent how the world may never be relied upon as safe, and because its actual form shifts to reflect the true danger facing the characters.

This aspect of the woods as metaphor relates to a theme in the film nearly as dominant as that of wishes.  It is also one very much based on psychology and an understanding of human nature in more profound terms than fairy tales generally offer.  The theme is introduced with the wolf and Red Riding Hood, and his efforts to charm the girl.  After being rescued by the baker, Red Riding Hood’s song clearly expresses that she had mistaken “nice” for good, and that the lesson is not lost on her.  The girl had been completely lured by the wolf’s false attentions, even as she also felt excitement in the suspected danger behind the niceness.  She has learned, however, that “nice” may easily disguise evil. The theme is also present in a variation faced by Cinderella. Her Prince Charming is overjoyed at winning her but, in very little time, seduces the baker’s wife.  Informed of this by her birds, Cinderella confronts her husband, who tells her: “I was raised to be charming, not sincere” (Into the Woods).  The line in comical but the meaning is dark.  “Charming” is like “nice,” in that it has nothing to do with real quality of character, and Cinderella learns this as does Red Riding Hood.  Ultimately reinforcing the theme, however, is the witch’s final moments with the characters. They have been scrambling to assign blame, which the witch knows is meaningless; all that can be done, in her estimation, is sacrificing Jack. The others object and she then isolates their own natures: “You’re so nice. You’re not good, you’re not bad, you’re just nice” (Into the Woods). Later, the baker tells Jack that witches can be right and giants may be good.  The theme is a message, then, and one warning of being taken in by appearances of decency.

Lastly, the motif of children is reinforced from start to end in the film, and with an emphasis on adult responsibility.  It may even be argued that children drive the interactive story as a whole; Jack and Red Riding Hood are children, and the baker’s and his wife’s ambition to have one drive the core story of obtaining the items and undoing the curse, which in turn affects the courses of the other characters.  The motif is as well in sharp focus regarding the witch and her “child,” Rapunzel, and in terms of the duel between a child’s desires to be independent and a parent’s need to protect.  What emerges is that the adult desire for children is by no means enough.  Not only is the world a dangerous place, but parents must ensure that everything they tell their children is true, and because “children will listen” (Into the Woods). This may well be intended to instruct modern audiences, in an era when children have been the object of intense social concern, if not indulgence.  The main point, however, is that words told to children are “spells” in themselves, and adults must comprehend this immense responsibility.

Conclusion

It is very much to the credit of Into the Woods that, through presenting intertwined and fragmented stories, a cohesive whole is created. This is largely accomplished through the introduction of a new fable, that of the baker and his wife, which brings together the separate tales and characters. This in place, the concept of the wish is deeply explored, and with an emphasis on the risks of wishing.  Then, the characters move through a symbolic landscape of a woods that is all the danger of the world. Human nature is also addressed through repeated distinctions between niceness and goodness, and the ultimate motif may be that of the immense obligations involved in raising children correctly.  In the final analysis, Into the Woods is a monomyth constructed from multiple myths or fables, and it consistently delivers several important messages derived from the strangely realistic interactions of the characters.

Works Cited

Daiute, Colette, & Lightfoot, Cynthia.  Narrative Analysis:Studying the Development of Individuals in Society. Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 2004.  Print.

Into the Woods.  Dir. Rob Marshall. Perf. Meryl Streep, James Corden, Emily Blunt, Chris Pine, and Anna Kendrick. Walt Disney Pictures, 2014. Film.