Sexism - The True Crime of Sweeney Todd
A Feminist Reading of the Movie Directed by Tim Burton
Jul 22, 2009
The objectification of women in Sweeney Todd and sexism as a whole plays a large part in creating the various crises of the movie and propelling the story forward unto its bitter end. At the surface, Sweeney Todd is a story of a barber who murders people out of a sick need for revenge, but as we look deeper we see that the sickness he suffers from is really a result of sexism. Both he and Judge Turpin dehumanize, violate, exploit and objective the women in the movie and the tragic elements of the story are all a result of that sexism.
"Pretty Women" - But Nothing More
The root cause of the bad deeds committed by the main characters in Sweeney Todd seems to be gender inequality, specifically the objectification of women. Judge Turpin doesn’t seem to feel any love for Lucy - after all, he rapes her - yet he seeks to “possess her”. Likewise, the only words that come out of Sweeney Todd’s mouth concerning his wife are about how beautiful she was.
In the song “No Place Like London” he even seems to make the assumption that Lucy went willingly to the Judge, though he knows nothing about her fate. He treats the idea as if it is inevitable - that a woman unattended by her husband couldn’t help but end up with another man - no different from an object being stolen. The idea that she would refuse the Judge, that she might have an opinion on the matter, doesn’t seem to occur to him.
This leads us to wonder later on if Sweeney is really avenging the supposed death of his wife, or if he instead is avenging his own ego. After all, upon meeting his wife again, now a beggar woman, he doesn’t even recognize her though at this time he doesn’t yet belief that she is dead. Even on a second meeting he doesn’t know her, not even when he kills her. In his mind, she is nothing beyond her beauty and without it she fails to exist to him.
His constant nonchalance about the fate of his still living daughter and his exploitation of his companion, Mrs Lovett, extend this superficiality to women as a whole. It is interesting to note that he kills both Mrs. Lovett and his wife, but spares the life of his daughter, who at the time is disguised as a boy.
The Path Not Taken and a Cycle Still Unbroken
Through the movie there is a definite sense of foreboding, but also a sense of desperation that lingers with the viewer long after. If only Sweeney had bothered to even glance at the beggar woman long enough to recognize her, or forgiven Mrs. Lovett instead of murdering her, a better ending could have been had. But the male characters of this movie, especially Sweeney, are all cursed to blindness, never seeing the women who love them as people and dooming themselves in the process.
It is hard to feel hopeful even for Johanna and Anthony, who manage to escape together. Anthony, a young man who set out to “steal” Johanna from her captor based only upon her physical beauty, seems sure of their future happiness, but Johanna seems to see reality for what it is, and the only future she sees with the young man before her is just as dark as the life she lived before. After all, she’s merely traded one captor for another.
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