Alternate forms of Expression in the context of "Sweeney Todd" by Stephen Sondheim

Essay by Anonymous UserHigh School, 12th gradeA-, November 1995

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A really well done essay about the theater- very sophisticated

When I was young, my mother always advised me to feel free to express my love to others. I took this advice and told all others to do so. And others did, I noticed as I grew up. As I grew up I also became quite the theatre buff. but as I was soon to learn, love in shows was expressed in many ways.. MURDER being one of them.

In Sweeney Todd, written by Stephen Sondheim, a barber escapes from a place where he was wrongly jailed by a judge; a judge who locked him up simply to have his wife. The barber comes back and hears from a woman, Mrs. Lovett, that his wife is dead. Mrs. Lovett likes Sweeney though. To avenge the death of his wife, Sweeney goes on a murder spree to satisfy his lust for the blood of the judge, which eventually he gets.

Later Sweeney finds that one person he killed was his wife, who had never died. Sweeney in turn kills Mrs. Lovett, and the kid who had a crush on Mrs. Lovett kills Sweeney, showing that murder can express love and love can drive you to murder, but murder is NOT the answer.

In The Phantom of the Opera, one of my personal favorites, the Phantom kills a bunch of people to make the woman he loves a star. In the end, he realizes that murder was not the answer, because when love is returned, you don't need murder or riches or anything like that. You just need love.

Finally, in Chicago, Roxie murders her lover because of lack of love. He's leaving her. We learn about other women who have done the same. We learn that sometimes we...