Much like the musical The Fantasticks, the first half of the show tells a story that ends in a “happily ever after” type of feeling. In the second half, however, it goes from that happy feeling to a dark one telling of Cinderella’s prince having an affair with the Bakers Wife, and the Giant’s wife coming bake to avenge her husbands’ death. It really gets into detail about the hard decisions the characters are forced to make throughout the rest of the musical, and it does make us ponder the question, “Is there ever really a happily ever after?”

By examining Into The Woods, we get the questions of, what does one do with a dead giant? Does marrying a prince really lead to happiness? Is carving up the wolf the solution in Little red Ridinghood (sondheim.com)? All these are choice that the characters made in their own stories that ended happy, but when you are forced to think about these questions you see that after that happy ending the characters will have to deal with the consequences of their actions. But sometimes dealing with consequences does not end happy either.

So to answer my own question of is the ever really a happily ever after based on the musical Into The Woods, I would say yes. There must be somewhat of a happy ending to make the audience like it, because in real life there a tons of happy endings, such as if I were to die today and someone were to write a story about my life it would be a happy ending, but who knows what tomorrow will bring!

The woods in this story are used as a place that the characters are able to find themselves. It is a place of imagination and normal rules of civilization do not apply, and when the characters come out of the woods they have learned a lesson (miller 113). Almost every one of the characters that went into the woods came out having learned a lesson, and almost every lesson learned came as a result of the characters realizing that there are consequences to ones actions. <

Some topics in this essay:
Nicolas Cage, Wife Giant’s, After” Unlike, Little Mermaid, Sondheim’s Woods, Rapunzel Throughout, , “happily after”, learned lesson, consequences ones actions, characters woods learned, little red ridinghood, woods learned lesson, red ridinghood, gone 60, life happy, consequences actions, real life, consequences ones, little red, woods learned,