Delectatio Morosa

Daddy took me to see Sweeney Todd.

There are plenty of storylines to explore within the movie, but the central, and most compelling relationship is between Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett. my interest is in this character, this Mrs. Lovett...

Mrs. Lovett has been harboring an unrequited attraction for the married barber that once lived above her.

i see her whole life. Her family is rotting away in some debtor's prison. She was probably a servant of some sort in the tavern. Her husband,and owner of the tavern, Albert, was no doubt married at the time of her hiring, but his wife soon succumbed to some Victorian disease ...consumption or diphtheria...and then he married the most capable and available female in his sight...then promptly dies.

So, there she is. Alone. A handsome couple living upstairs from her with a new baby, completely in love. And she's in her tiny rooms, off of the store, aching for a taste of what she knows is possible between two people who have passion, affection, and attraction for each other.

Her longing turns to bitterness. Mrs. Lovett has a lingering sympathy for the young woman upstairs. After all, the young bride's never been anything but sweet and friendly to the landlady that occupies the rooms beneath. But Mrs. Lovett grows to resent that kindness...maybe she's sick of the pitiful whining of the forlorn young woman.

Hasn't the unfortunate Mrs. Lovett had her own share of hardships? Is the pale little princess upstairs the only person in the world to ever fall on hard times? Are we all supposed to lock ourselves away in a tower to pout and sulk our days away when the universe deals us a bad hand?

i imagine Mrs. Lovett trying to talk some sense into that lazy, heartsick girl...

Maybe Mrs. Lovett finds herself just wishing that prison widow would just go away, and take that squalling baby with her. Maybe that blonde bitch had more happiness in the few months she was with her husband than Mrs. Lovett could ever hope to have...

This young woman confides in Mrs. Lovett. She's been taken advantage of. She doesn't know where to turn. What if she's brought her bad fortune on herself? What if she's been made undeserving of her husband, her child, her life? Maybe this naive young woman gets herself into a bit of trouble. What if she's been compromised in a way she can't easily hide or recover from?

Women know the solutions to such problems. So, maybe, Mrs. Lovett drops the name of an apothecary who could help. Possibly he's experienced with these types of troubles.

Poor thing, poor thing. Just awful what happened. Poor thing. Took arsenic, she did. The room is haunted, they say. And the child? Well, taken away. Ward now to a wealthy but evil man. Well, just the saddest story you ever heard , isn't it? Just the saddest story...

And then the barber returns. And the most precious objects he owned, the tools of his trade, his "friends", are what Mrs. Lovett presents to him. She's kept them hidden away and safe. She's preserved them for her own reasons...to lie in wait for their owner, her own sentimental hopes, their trade in value if she hits on desperate times...

Mrs. Lovett is a pragmatist. A romantic. An entrepreneur. An enabler. A caregiver. She has a dream, a dream she wants to share...

The tears she sheds, when she finally sheds them, are not for herself alone. She weeps for a boy. She weeps for what has been destroyed; for a veil that's been torn away.

There will be no turning back, and she knows it.