Mise-en-scene is very important in creating meaning in Sweeny Todd and through the main character’s costume, we can tell a lot about him. At the very beginning, his outfit is quite a lot more clean and looks slightly better quality than others on the street that he is walking down. Straight away, we can infer that he is of a higher class, but not rich due to the more rough look to his clothes. Later on, we usually see Sweeny Todd with a white shirt on and long puffy sleeves. White indicates innocence and purity, so we could assume that he is a good man, further supported by his performance when he gives money to the children in the prison or when he helps the girl on the street. This can make the audience trust the main character, sympathise with him as he seems to be a good man, someone who is helpful and generous. However, when he kills the first person, that white is covered in blood, perhaps signifying his sudden lose of purity, his step into a criminal mindset despite his own disgust in what he has done.
This blood covering white is used in many places as well, such as when he kills the second man after he has seen his father, we see blood splattering out of the victim’s blood and contrasting with the white of the shaving foam. Also, when we see blood soaking into the white sheet over the person getting their hair cut. Due to the red colour, which connotes danger, soaking into white, the audience may see this as a change to the whole of Sweeny Todd’s life, a change of character. The setting further emphasises Sweeny Todd’s good nature as his barber shop is right next to a church. This shows how god-fearing he is and that he conforms to society by attending church. However. When he begins to kill people, this setting becomes a contrast. It represents his religion or past belief as he now ‘acts god’ by taking the lives of those who have ‘sinned.’ Costume is important in the case of the girl Sweeny Todd helps in the street. She wears a dirty, blue dress, the light blue connoting innocence but is purposefully misleading. She is trying to put across that she is a sweet innocent girl with long blond hair and quite well dressed, but the red cape she wears over the blue dress gives off the idea of love or lust as that is also what red can indicate. Additionally, the fact that the dress is low cut and her interactions with men or when she stands up for the woman who ran a brothel, we can assume that she is a prostitute. These two woman conform to stereotypes due to the way that they are treated, especially by men- the prostitute being cast aside and the other woman by being carted off to prison- and by the seductive nature of the two. They would have been seen as objects, hence why people ignore or treat them badly.
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