Caminhos da Floresta: when light and darkness walk together |

The film “Into the Woods” (Into the Woods/2014) is an adaptation of a Broadway musical that brings together several fairy tale characters, such as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Jack and the Beanstalk. All these stories intertwine around a baker, his wife and the evil witch.

I’ll start the movie review with a brief explanation of these classic characters.

Classic characters are humanized, with flaws and internal conflicts

Cinderella has already been analyzed more deeply in this article. Her story brings a lesson in maturity and humility, showing how she manages to strengthen her personality in the midst of mistreatment, thus becoming a princess.

Little Red Riding Hood is a naive girl. She is raised in a family composed only of women (mother and grandmother) and, therefore, has an image of the male as devouring and evil (the wolf) – an image that is passed down from generation to generation, from woman to woman. . In the film, however, Little Red Riding Hood is not so naive. She gets to be very disobedient and spoiled, being portrayed in a more three-dimensional way, with qualities and defects.

Rapunzel, the girl trapped in a tower without doors by a witch who just wanted to have her daughter all to herself, portrays the harrowing problem of the mother who cloisters her daughter with the excuse of protecting her from the world. The mother’s aspirations, dreams, and unlived life are deposited in that new being. The tale shows that an overprotective and too good mother can lead her daughter to a lot of suffering, including an early pregnancy (a fact that is in the original tale and which was omitted in the film).

Jack and the Beanstalk is a tale aimed at boys, which shows coming of age. João is a fatherless boy, attached to a critical mother, who ascends to heaven and steals the giant’s treasures. He faces his laziness through megalomania (giant) and manages to return unharmed to reality, able to earn his own livelihood.

Hero or anti-hero?

Well, none of these characters are the true hero of the saga. These are all subplots that revolve around the Baker, who is the true hero of the film. Unlike the other characters, the Baker is unnamed (as are his wife and the witch). This means that it is an impersonal figure, which is found in the collective unconscious. Which is not very good, because not having a name, we are not personally connected to it, that is, the lessons and learning that it brings are not yet being fully assimilated by the collective conscience.

I see there, then, a criticism of the author of the work to our society. Everyone expects the film’s hero to be manly, to defeat monsters and villains and not to be a simple baker. human beings have an impulse to seek their inner treasures.

human beings have an impulse to seek their inner treasures.

However, in order to achieve this fullness, we must not deny and forget our other side – the shadow. Our less beautiful facet and our ills, which in the film are represented by the dark forest.

Excessive self-confidence covers up weaknesses and leaves us unprepared

Well, the Baker and his wife get all the objects, and all the other characters find their happy endings. But it looks like something is left behind. Unbeknownst to the characters, a bean falls to the ground, growing and bearing the wife of the giant that Jack killed. This is very interesting, because in our life, when we resolve a conflict and everything seems to have an eternal happy ending, a new challenge arises in our unconscious. Life is cyclical – if we don’t have conflicts and challenges to resolve, we don’t grow or leave our comfort zone.

When we come out of a conflict situation, we tend to overvalue ourselves, which is important, since this self-confidence makes us move. But staying in that state is dangerous.

When we come out of a conflict situation, we tend to overvalue ourselves, which is important, since this self-confidence makes us move. But staying in that state is dangerous.

This megalomania is confronted by the giant who seeks revenge – it’s revenge against human megalomania! The characters were so self-confident and ego-inflated that they forgot their own fragility.

Recognize failures to achieve integrity

In the second part of the film, the repressed megalomania appears in full force and the characters show their dark side. As they witness their own defects and the plot approaches its conclusion, we can see the film’s great lesson: there is no way to find a happy ending and become more complete and human if we don’t look honestly at ourselves, at our aspects. shadows, our pettiness, greed and vanity. As long as we don’t do that, we won’t be aware of what we’ve planted and we’ll always be taken by surprise by vengeful monsters.

To continue reflecting on the topic

Learning from your mistakes

Accept your excesses and shortcomings

Is it always someone else’s fault?

Cinderella is a lesson in maturity and humility