This article is really interesting because it relates the musical Into the Woods to the evolution of a college
student. This can be a helpful tool to help students better understand the world of the play.
Article found by Carmella Nohai
Edited by Lynne Morrow
A major source of textual pleasure is being able to identify with a character as that character matures. That is one
reason that Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Tony award winning play Into the Woods works well in a
college environment. Even though the characters in the play are drawn from fairy tales, their intellectual and ethical
development precisely mirrors the stages described in the most widely cited study of the maturing processes of
college students, William G. Perry Jr.'s “Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years.”
Perry describes three main stages in college students' development:
1 - viewing the world dualistically and relying on authority to provide the right answers;
2 - accepting relativism in a world with no easy answers; and
3 - recognizing that even in a relativistic world, one must still form commitments.
Although Perry acknowledges that students may be deflected by escapism or similar behaviors, he states that
students generally move from dualism, through relativism, and on toward commitment.
Given that Into the Woods starts out with the narrator's words "Once upon a time", it is not surprising that the
characters, like many incoming college students, at first view the world with a childlike, simplistic dualism that
prevents the woods from seeming dark and tangled. In the opening number, the cast sings, "The way is clear I The
light is good, / I have no fear, I Nor no one should. / The woods are just trees, I The trees are just wood".
The characters also fit Perry's definition of dualistic thinkers in their faith that authority will provide right answers.
Authority may be parental, as when Little Red Riding Hood and Jack (of "beanstalk" fame) begin their journeys
because their mothers tell them to, or when Cinderella reacts to a crisis by seeking advice from her mother's ghost. It
may be matrimonial, as when the baker acknowledges that he depends on his wife "for everything". It may be
communal, as when each character states a nugget of folk wisdom that seems to guide his or her conduct. The
way is clear; the light is good.
But these characters, like Perry's college students, must discover the complexity inherent in life's journey.
Confronted by Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood simplistically sings, "Mother said, / 'Come what may, I Follow the path I
And never stray'". But the wolf -- a wonderful symbol for the excitement and danger of increased sophistication -replies, "Just so, little girl -- I Any path. I So many worth exploring. I Just one would be so boring. / And look what
you're ignoring ... ". Little Red Riding Hood is being led toward the labyrinth of relativism. Throughout the first act,
the other major characters undergo similar metamorphoses.
But relativism is not an end in itself. Many students in Perry's study went through a stage in which lack of certainty
made it difficult for them to accept responsibility and take a stand. Similarly, near the end of Act 1, Cinderella sings
about her ambivalence regarding being pursued by the prince; "And then out of the blue I And without any guide, I
You know what your decision is, I Which is not to decide". She and the other characters still have a lot to learn.
Besides supporting inaction, relativism can also justify ethically questionable actions. When Baker and Wife
desperately need Jack's cow but have no money to pay for it, the wife argues that they should lie: "There are rights
and wrongs I And in-betweens/... Everyone tells tiny lies-- / What's important, really, is the size./... If the end is right, / It
justifies /The beans!".
Later, the characters must face the consequences of their actions, as an enraged giant ravages the land. The
characters' moral dilemma is heightened by the legitimacy of the giant's outrage, the complexity of Jack's ethical
situation (he was motivated by extreme poverty to steal), and the fact that all of them have committed unethical or
unwise acts which have contributed to their current crisis. The situation demands immediate, decisive action. But
instead, having passed beyond simplistic dualism, each character uses his or her relativistic viewpoint to argue,
plausibly but spitefully, that another character is to blame for the crisis.
By now, the characters are literally and figuratively lost in the woods. When the bewildered Little Red Riding Hood
says, "The path is straight," Baker replies, "Was straight. Now there is no path". The landmarks of authority have
disappeared and the royal family has proved unworthy of trust, both in crisis facing a giant and, as Cinderella has
learned, in marriage. The characters are now terrifyingly free to make their own decisions, create their own endings.
Perry states that when students lose the comfort of dualistic certainty, they ask such questions as, "And my
enemies? Are they not wholly in the wrong? .. Will no one tell me if I am right? Can I never be sure? Arn I alone?".
He also states that some students attempt to "escape ... to deny responsibility through passive or opportunistic
alienation". Similarly, many of the minor characters in the play desert the others during the crisis, saying, "I'm going
to hide. Everything will work out fine in the end". Even Baker, the character with whom the audience is most likely
to identify, voices a similar urge, in words with which any college student can identify: "No more questions. I
Please. I No more tests. I Cornes the day you say, 'What for?' I Please -- no more". Later, confronted by Jack's
queries about the world's injustice, the baker angrily says, ''Stop asking me questions I can't answer".
Yet finally, Baker and the other major characters reject escapism and seek what Perry calls commitment. First, in a
world of chaos, they commit to each other. Consoling Red Riding Hood, Cinderella sings, "Mother cannot guide
you. I Now you're on your own. I Only me beside you. I Still, you're not alone. I No one is alone". While Cinderella's
words could be criticized as sentimentalism, as the song continues, the idea that "no one is alone" takes on a
more profound meaning: that our actions affect others.
Baker and Cinderella sing, "You move just a finger I Say
the slightest word, I Sornething's bound to linger, I Be heard," and the Baker adds, "No one acts alone. I Careful, I No
one is alone".
Thus the characters understand that although each individual bears responsibility for his or her
decisions, each decision affects everyone on earth.
Besides committing to each other, the four central characters also commit to a course of action -- and they do so
without simplistically dernonizing the enemy. Even as they prepare a trap, to save themselves, the Baker and
Cinderella sing, "Witches can be right, I Giants can be good". And although their plan succeeds, they remain
uncertain of anything beyond the need for responsibility and commitment.
As the play ends, the characters view the woods much differently, singing, 'The way is dark, /The light is dim, I But
now there's you, I Me, her and him". And just as Perry acknowledges that even the most advanced students still
have room for further growth, so the characters acknowledge that their personal journeys are recursive: "Into the
woods, each time you go, /There's more to learn of what you know".
If Perry's study accurately captures the process of intellectual and ethical growth for college students, then despite
the fairy tale background, the situations in Into the Woods should prove powerfully recognizable to college students.