At this point, we are about two weeks into the new year, and if you haven’t heard this tired cliché yet, allow me to be the first one to profess “New year, new me!”
Additionally, allow me to say that in the past I have always completely botched my New Years resolutions, so in reality it’s probably going to be the same old me by the time next year rolls around.
Yet, regardless of this lack of huge changes in my life, it always feels like each year is a new start because I have emerged out of the old one. So, as that thought fermented in my mind, it got me thinking about Into the Woods, where the characters change because of what happens to them in the woods. Maybe it’s because the new season of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival has announced that they are doing the musical Into the Woods, or maybe it’s that inert theatre kid energy that makes it so I can’t go five minutes without associating something with a piece of music, but this idea of emerging into a new year got me thinking about the symbolic nature of “the woods” in stories.
Of course, like someone proclaiming, “New Year, new me,” using the woods as a trope in novels, plays, or folklore is basically a cliché, but things are a cliché for a reason. They work.
The woods are an otherworldly place where you don’t know who or what is lurking around every tree. Time seems to stand still as the light is blocked by the canopy above, and you wander to and fro trying to make sense of where you are and how to get out. Like they say in act two of Into the Woods…anything can happen in the woods. Plus, even if you do make it out of the woods – as the characters do in Act 1 – when you inevitably find yourself back in the woods again it’s different. It’s ever-changing and unpredictable. So, with this image in mind, I find that it is reasonable to feel that the woods represent a sense of anxiety and fear of the unknown. One such example that comes to mind that really highlights this feeling is from the song Out of the Woods by the lyricist Taylor Swift; the moments when she thinks to herself over and over, “Are we out of the woods yet,” almost begging for a calm in the tumultuous relationship she found herself in, one where she knows they “build to fall apart”.
But there is more than just spooky scary ambience that feels threatening or scary about the woods. There are the things that make the woods their home. Little Red finds this out firsthand in the musical. She proudly proclaims in the prologue that she has “no fear nor no one should” since the “woods are just trees, the trees are just wood,” and inevitably she still finds herself swallowed by the wolf. Beyond the scientifically proven creatures, there are still fae creatures Seelie and Unseelie, who are hiding ready for mischief. Personally, once we bring in consideration of the fae, this reminds me a lot of the horror genre, especially when you consider the concept of “the other.” Where Dracula can been seen as a depiction of the frailty and figurative bloodsucking nature of the aristocracy, the woods could be a symbol of the unpredictability and wild nature of the world. To survive you must adapt.
Naturally, if you are forced to adapt within the confines of the trees, you could also view the woods as symbolizing a force to change or a place of maturity. There is a plethora of examples of this within the context of the musical, like when the witch makes her little brew with the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, the slipper as pure as gold and transforms back to her former beauty. Or, if you would like to look at something a little less literal as that, the maturity of the baker as he admits to needing the help of his wife to help him in the quest to fetch said items. Outside of the show, this is a concept also seen in the video game Night in the Woods, where after an interesting and harrowing tale in the woods (that I will avoid spoiling for you), the characters realize that in the end they are all going to have to adapt and change at some point. However, one thing that the characters all agree on is that even if they are forced to change, they can enjoy the time that they have together right now.
So here we are again, freshly into the new year and looking at the symbolic woods that we just left, only to be face to face with another series of trees. Which is to say that if we are the players in this show, that the plot is circular. Much like Sondheim’s work, every act begins with an entrance into the woods, but we can only hope that by the end we emerge.
Maybe that’s why it’s comforting to say, “New year, new me” and hope that we’ll enact big changes in our life. The woods may be unpredictable and eerie, but we’re going to trek through the metaphorical forest and make the best of it. Plus, you don’t have to do it in pure silence, since the library has audiobooks, video games, and physical books to fuel the journey. I’ve even put together a list here that features some of the titles I mentioned previously and some other media that takes you “into the woods and out of the woods and home before dark.”
I’ll leave you with one last musical reference as we venture forth. The show If/Then says, “I’ll make you one last vow, to start over, and over, and over somehow. My new life starts right now.”
Happy New Year.