Analytical Essay: The Baker's Wife

The Baker is a simple man with a barren wife trying to live a simple life, but it is not initially certain whether he is truly in love with her. Throughout the beginning of the show, the Baker constantly exercises his superiority over his wife, instructing her to “go home immediately” and allow him to accept responsibility and execute the Witch’s quest in solitude. As she is the one who must bear their soon-to-come child, he obviously fears for her safety and feels the need to keep her sheltered. Sondheim said, “I think - this is my opinion - that it was a bargain. I think my mother was in love with my father, and he was not in love with her, but he needed a designer” (Secrest 11). This idea is equally represented in the Baker’s character.

When she meets Cinderella and begins to learn of the prince, she unwaveringly discloses her envy. There are only rumors to explain Herbert Sondheim’s reason for leaving Foxy and marrying Alicia Babe but the two most apparent explanations seem to be his dissatisfaction with his first marriage and his newfound love in another woman (Secrest 28). The Baker’s Wife, disappointed with her life and wanting more, commits adultery with Cinderella’s Prince in the woods. Soon after, she falls off of a cliff to her death. In a way, this alludes to Sondheim’s relationship with his mother. After the divorce, his mother goes way off the deep end. She tries to turn Sondheim against his father, begins to emotionally and sexually abuse him, and quite figuratively suffers the same demise as the Baker’s Wife (Secrest 30). “My mother was a difficult lady and I had a difficult time with her,” says Sondheim (Gottfried 13). The once somewhat-stable Foxy Sondheim dies and becomes an entirely different Foxy, one that is broken, hurt, and

“What she did for five years was treat me like dirt, but come on to me at the same time” (Secrest 31). Sondheim says, “At the time I was innocent and didn’t know. Remember, I grew up in a generation in which sex and such matters were not discussed openly, and we were all moderately naive” (Secrest 30). According to Secrest, “Foxy Sondheim’s behavior fits a pattern often found, of women whose husbands have left and who turn to their sons for their emotional and sexual satisfactions” (31). This experience in young Sondheim’s life has significantly influenced the characters of Little Red Ridinghood and Wolf. Little Red resembles young Sondheim in that she is quite naive and easily manipulated. Wolf is very much like Foxy Sondheim post-divorce, wild and sexualized. He is an uncomfortable character in that his appetite for little girls is sexually heightened and parallels that of a