“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” -Jeremiah 17:9, NKJV
“Careful the wish you make, Wishes are children. Careful the path they take— Wishes come true Not free.” -Into the Woods
C.S. Lewis, the creative storyteller behind the beloved Chronicles of Narnia, once said, “Someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” The consummate composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim brings these wise words to life through his well-known musical Into the Woods. While many are familiar with the more saccharine versions of fairy tales brought to the public by Walt Disney, the original Grimm Brothers’ stories were not quite so simple and sweet. Many of the original fairy tales featured violence, kidnapping, and other horrors that have since faded. Sondheim seeks to bring to life the visceral nature of these beloved stories. In other words, Into the Woods is not simply an amalgamation of fairy tales meant for the young, but rather the musical is meant to speak to the young at heart as well.
The themes woven throughout Into the Woods concern many ideas that adults struggle with as well as children. One such theme includes the consequences for pursuing the desires of one’s heart. Whether like The Baker and The Baker’s Wife one desires a family or like Cinderella one desires a profound relationship or like Jack one desires the security of wealth, the things we wish for the most often come with the most unforeseen consequences. After the seemingly cheery way in which the good are rewarded and the evil punished at the end of Into the Woods’ first act, the second act reveals the dangers of following one’s heart. In fact, Sondheim’s musical displays the folly of creating one’s own truth. More of this to come as we unfold the story of some the musical’s most important characters.
While Sondheim and Disney may laud the practice of creating one’s own truth or following one’s own heart, the Bible and Christian theology have much to say against this cultural milieu. In Jeremiah 17:9, the prophet warns against the deceiving nature of the heart: “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (ESV). Desire is not evil in and of itself, but rather the twist of sin wrecks otherwise wholesome desire. Is Cinderella wrong for wishing to go to the prince’s ball? No, but her sinful nature twists this desire into becoming the solution to all her woes. Are The Baker and The Baker’s Wife wrong for wishing so desperately for a child? No, but their sinful natures lie to them in saying that having a child will fulfill them completely. We can know the desires of our hearts, but we cannot know the outcome of those desires. Act I of Into the Woods shows the fairy tale characters pursuing and achieving their desires. Act II demonstrates the consequences of allowing ourselves to be duped into believing there are no consequences to our actions.
Saint Augustine rightly names the only person who can fulfill our desires and restless natures: God Himself. In one of his most quoted writings, Saint Augustine bears out this truth: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You." Whether he intended to do so or not, Sondheim’s Into the Woods points to biblical truth and theological virtue.
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