Sarroca, Charisse S.

IV 2 BSE English

Archetypes in Into the Woods

Archetypes are patterns in the characters, settings, and situations that frequently occur in
literary works regardless of the culture they came from. Such archetypes could found in the film
Into the Woods, which combines some of the most famous fairytales using an original story about
a baker and his wife. Into the Woods takes on some of the most famous fairytales and retains the
most important archetypes already used in their original form while at the same time gives the
stories a new twist that redefines the characters and makes them different from their previous
images.
In the film, Cinderella is no longer depicted as a passive fair maiden or the damsel in
distress. When her mother helps her to go to the kings festival by giving her golden clothes and
shoes, nothing is mentioned of her having to be back before midnight. Cinderella does not run
away from the ball and from the prince because she was told to go back before midnight; it was
her own decision. She was worried whether the prince would still want to pursue her if he found
out that she was not who she seemed to be at the ball. She leaves her golden shoe on the palace
steps as a clue and as a test the princeto see if he really would pursue her and accept her if he
found out her true situation. The prince does and they get married, but when Cinderella finds out
that her prince has been unfaithful to her, she makes the decision to leave him as she also realizes
that the life of opulence was not what she really wanted. Cinderella is no longer a miserable
maiden who is rescued from a poor life by the prince. She has become the heroine of her story
a woman who makes her own decisions wisely.
Jack and the Little Red Riding Hood are similar in terms of their age. Although aware of
the dangers in the world, they are still innocent in a lot of ways, and their journeys lead to their
maturation. The baker and his wife can both be considered as heroes of their story since they
achieve their quest by helping each other and working together. Initially, the baker wants his wife
to stay at home and wait for him while he fulfills the quest alone. However, although he wants to
be the hero, his wifes personality fits the hero archetype more than his. She is more certain with
her actions as compared to her husband who seems unsure and cowardly most of the time. Their
personalities are not what one would have expected since, usually, it is the man who sets of on
the adventure while the woman waits to be rescued or waits for the mans return. In their case,
they soon realize that they need each other in order to triumph in the quest.
The stepmother and stepsisters are the obvious villains in Cinderellas story. Her
stepmother constantly humiliates Cinderella because of her position as their maid and because of
how dirty she looks compared to her and her daughters. This shows how she is focused only on
outer appearance. Her stepmother orders Cinderella to do all of the house chores. When
Cinderella expressed her wish to go to the ball, her stepmother gave her a pointless and highly
impossible taskto collect the lentils she had thrown into the asheswhich Cinderella has to
finish in a short period of time. Even when Cinderella has done what she was asked to do, her
stepmother still did not allow her to go to the ball. The darker side of the stepmother is also
revealed when the prince was looking for the owner of the golden shoe that Cinderella has left
behind. She was so determined to marry either of her daughters off to the prince that she cuts off
parts of their feet just so the shoe will fit them. This signifies how greedy the stepmother is, how
she is willing to do literally anything just to get what she wants. She is willing to cheat and
deceive in order to achieve her goal.
Meanwhile, in Little Red Riding Hoods story, it is the wolf who is the villain. He
distracts the young girl from her journey to her grandmothers house and plots to kill and eat
both Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother. The wolf does not seem like a villain when
Little Red Riding Hood first encounters him. He disguises his true intentions and acts nice in
front of her which effectively gains her trust. The wolf uses this trust to trick Little Red Riding
Hood into telling him exactly where she is headed to so that he can go on with his plan to devour
the young girl and her grandmother.
In Jacks story, the giant who followed him down the beanstalk is the villain. He threatens
that he will kill Jack, the hero. However, in the giants perspective, it is Jack who is the villain.
Jack stole things from his home in the skyfirst, the golden coins, then the golden egg, and
finally, the golden harp. It is this villain the giantwho does not see himself as a villain. In his
point-of-view, his wish to harm Jack is justified since Jack has stolen things from himand, in a
way, he is right. He did not bother or threaten Jack in any way before. It is only until after
finding out that Jack has been stealing from him that he became enraged and became the villain.
Another giant, a woman, also becomes the villain for all of the characters in the last part of the
film. Again, this woman giant does not really see herself as a bad person. She seeks revenge for
the death of her husband; since her husband died because of Jack, she believes that Jack deserved
death as well.
The witch that cast the spell of barrenness on the bakers family is, obviously, the one
who fits the witch or the shrew archetype. Like the giant, the witch does not really see herself as
a villain. To an extent, she even sees herself as a victim and thinks that whatever wrongdoing she
has done to the other characters are vindicated because of what they have done towards her. The
bakers father was persuaded by his wife to steal the greensincluding the rampion, a European
vegetable used in saladsfrom the witchs garden. When he is caught, the witch allows him to
have the rampion, but makes a deal with himthat in exchange for the greens that he has stolen,
he must give the child that his wife is bearing to the witch. Since the bakers father agreed to this
condition, the witch does not see the wrongness in taking the child from the parents. Even after
letting him have the rampion, the bakers father even had the audacity to steal more from the
witch (her magic beans). When she cast the spell off childlessness on him and his family, the
witch only thinks that it is a deserved consequence for such selfish behavior (stealing from her
just to satisfy his wifes cravings and stealing even more even after the witch has let him take the
rampion). Perhaps the reason why she was still not placated after taking the child from them was
because a curse of ugliness was cast upon her because she had lost the beans to him. It is the
bakers fathers fault that she was cursed; therefore, in her eyes, putting a curse on him was
something that he deserved. The witch also plays the villain in Rapunzel and her princes love
story. Upon finding out that they have been meeting secretly, she causes the prince to be blinded
by thorns. As for Rapunzel, the witch cuts her hair off and banishes her as punishment for
disobeying her. Again, in the witchs point-of-view, these actions were well-deserved and thus,
she felt little to no remorse in doing them.
 Aside from the basic hero and villain characters, a lot of other character archetypes could
also be observed in the film. Rapunzel is the character who fits the damsel in distress archetype.
She is trapped for years in a tower with no doors and does not have any contact with other people
aside from the witch. She does not have any experience in the world outside; all she knows is
what the witch tells her.
The most evident character in Into the Woods who fits the caring mother or earth mother
archetype is Cinderellas mother. We are able to know that her true mother was a caring and
loving one because of how much Cinderella had mourned for her death. She planted a twig of the
willow tree and cried so much that her tears watered it. Cinderellas mother, represented by the
willow tree, continues to be the caring mother even after she passed away by granting
Cinderellas wish to go to the ball. In this case, she is both a caring mother (because she
continues to look out for her daughter) and an actual earth mother (because of her being
represented by a willow tree).
The stern father archetype could be found in the personality of Jacks mother. Her mother
is concerned mainly on practicalityhow she and Jack will be able to live in spite of their
poverty. Unlike Jack, she did not feel any unhappy sentiment in selling Milky White off; it just
had to be done because they had to live. When Jack came home with five ordinary-looking beans
and without the cow, his mother punishes him by sending him to bed without eating supper
because she expected much from Jacks trip to sell Milky White off and was not expecting that
he would return with only beans. However, she is not labeled as a villain in Jacks life because
despite the sternness and tough manner, Jacks mother loves him nonetheless, as can be seen
when she refused to give Jack to the woman giant.
The main purpose of the herald archetype is to mark the beginning of the heros
adventure by bringing about a change in the heros normal life that compels him or her to go on a
journey. The herald does not necessarily need to be a person; it could be a piece of information or
an event as well. In Into the Woods, the herald that announces the heros need for a journey is
usually not an actual person. Cinderellas herald is in the form of her wish to go to the ball
despite being hindered by her stepmother. Jacks herald is his familys poverty which pushes his
mother to force him to sell their cow, Milky White. The baker and his wifes herald is the
knowledge that the reason why they are not able to have a child is because the witch put a curse
on bakers family. This information drives them to go on a journey to undo that curse. Little Red
Riding Hoods herald comes in the form of her task to bring bread and sweets to her grandmother
who lives in the forest. The herald for all of the main characters, in the last part of the film, is the
woman giant whose aim is to take revenge on Jack for killing her husband. This pushes the main
characters to all take on the role of heroes to defeat the woman giant together.
Aside from archetypal characters, archetypal events and situations are also evident in the
film. The main setting of the story, as seen on the title, is in the woods or the forest. The forest is
commonly used in other works of literatureespecially those concerned with adventure and
journeyas a setting where most of the important events that contribute to the development of
the hero occur. The forest also symbolizes mystery or the unknown. When the heroes of the story
start with their journey and enter the woods, they had no idea of what lies ahead and what
challenges they will be facing.
 The story of the baker and his wife fits the quest archetype wherein the hero has to
accomplish something to achieve their ultimate goal. In their case, they have to obtain different
objects for the witch within a given time so that she will undo the curse of barrenness that she
cast upon their family. Jacks and Little Red Riding Hoods stories, on the other hand, are more
of the loss of innocence situational archetype. Jacks loss of innocence is not shown much in
the film as it happens after he climbs the beanstalk and finds giants in the sky. Little Red Riding
Hoods loss of innocence is shown more. She is determined to follow her mothers ordersnot
to stray from the pathuntil the wolf comes along. She trusted the wolf too much and allowed
herself to be distracted. She loses her innocence completely when she finds out that the wolf ate
her grandmother. Trusting the wolf too much led to her downfall. Although she and her
grandmother are rescued by the baker, her innocence is already lost. Changing her hood from the
red one into a wolf-skin one is representative of the change in her view on the world after
surviving the incident with the wolf. She becomes more aggressive, brandishing her knife at just
about anyone.
The movie ended with a scene where the baker was telling their story to his baby and it
pans out to show the sunrise over the kingdom. The sunrisethe start of a new dayis symbolic
of a fresh start for the remaining characters. The baby represents the innocent character archetype
in the film. The child is not yet aware of all the trouble, destruction, and death surrounding him.
It is innocent because, unlike the other characters, the child is not marred by any flaw in
personality. After overcoming their personal challenges, the heroes worked together to defeat a
common enemy (the woman giant). In the end, the child symbolizes hope for the triumphant
heroes in the story and the sunrise marks a new beginning for them.