Whos crazier, Sweeney Todd or Mrs. Lovett?
I’ve seen the play, not the movie, and read the playscript… Sweeny kills because of that altered state that came with the destruction of his daughter and family. He’s insane, and killing for rage and grief and revenge. He’s reacting to the social pressures that won’t allow him any recourse through normal social channels. Mrs Lovette, on the other hand, is mostly monitarily motivated. Without Sweeny as a supplier? She’s more akin to someone who robs a corpse, she just takes it further. Is she sociopathic? Could well be, but remember, it’s just in the last 85 years or so that death wasn’t a VERY common event–child mortality was high, lifespan was short, people died at home, in London, corpses were pulled out of the river every day–murders and suicides. Bodies weren’t anything out of the ordinary, and sources of protein were expensive and hard-come by. I think of her not as particularly crazy–not in the way Sweeny is–but a particularly nasty-minded opportunist–for me, she’s more li
