Into The Woods ': Symbolism In Into The Woods'

Into The Woods The musical “Into the Woods” by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine is a metaphor for life in many ways, but the most prominent one is the woods symbolizing life itself. The prologue song “Into The Woods” is about each of the character’s dreams and wishes. Cinderella wishes to go to the festival, Little Red Riding Hood wants to deliver bread to Granny, and the Baker and his wife want to have a child, even though the witch cursed their lineage. In order to accomplish and reach for some of these goals, they must go into the “woods” and take some risks. Just as we must take risks in our personal lives to accomplish our goals, being that is the only way to achieve what we aspire to do. They each have a different issue that can only be solved by going out and living their lives or going

Once these characters are in the woods working on accomplishing their goals, they each face challenges that set them back. For example, Red is stopped by the wolf and later eaten, Jack is attacked by the giant, Cinderella is internally struggling with how to tell the prince who she truly is, and the Baker and his wife lose the cow. These challenges they face throughout their journey through the “woods”, all symbolize the obstacles we face everyday when we are working towards our ambitions. To go along with the setbacks, we also watch Red, Cinderella, and the Baker and his wife get lost in the “woods”. This issue of getting lost correlates with the idea that we get distracted or lost along the way while trying to achieve what we wish for. Of course, along their journeys and after facing so many obstacles the characters have learned many lessons, just as I have