Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, animal death, and cursing.

“Swing your razor wide, Sweeney!

Hold it to the skies!

Freely flows the blood of those

Who moralize!”

When the play begins, the company deploys an apostrophe to Sweeney Todd, urging his character to act as if he were present on the stage. This summons the character to life, which the Prologue accomplishes by dramatizing his emergence. Furthermore, the apostrophe underscores the vindictive elements of Todd’s character, driving The Revenge of the Working Class as a theme by urging him to kill the hypocritical elements of high society.

“You are young.

Life has been kind to you.

You will learn.”

Todd differentiates himself from Anthony by calling attention to Anthony’s youth and implied naivety. His prediction that Anthony will “learn” foreshadows the naivety that fatally defined Todd (then Benjamin Barker) in his youth. Because of his suffering, however, Todd equates the wisdom of adult age with a cynical worldview. These lines therefore set up a dichotomy between naivety and wisdom, which underpins the character dynamics throughout the play.

“There’s a hole in the world

Like a great black pit

And it’s filled with people

Who are filled with shit

And the vermin of the world

Inhabit it.”

Todd’s assertion that London is a void that holds the world’s moral rot functions as a mantra for his character, reminding him that the suffering he experienced is an everyday experience for so many common people in London. This passage repeats as a lyrical motif throughout the play, most especially in Todd’s