In the film "Into the Woods," an old hag (the Witch) pays a visit to a baker and his wife who are struggling to have a child. She tells the couple that the baker’s father stole from her vegetable garden many years ago, which resulted in her placing a curse on his family. Because of the curse, the baker and his wife will never be able to have children. However, the Witch promises to lift the curse if the baker collects certain ingredients which will allow her to be youthful and beautiful again.
As the film progresses, it can be argued that the actions and beliefs of the Witch reflect the worldview of Buddhism. She has the desire to achieve “enlightenment” by becoming her youthful self once again. She believes she will be happiest once she has transformed into the “best” version of herself. There are also themes of reincarnation and karma which are a central part of Buddhism. After getting what she needs for the spell, the old Witch is “reincarnated” into a young sorceress. The Witch also exhibits the “what goes around, comes around” notion of karma by placing a curse on the baker’s family after his father steals her magic beans. Other areas of the film where her “karma” can be seen are when she banishes Rapunzel to the swamp for falling in love with the prince and stating that Jack should be given to the giants for abusing the power of the magic beans.
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Regarding the story of the film in relation to the Witch’s worldview, it is clear that every other character is affected by her beliefs. Not only that, but the Witch’s actions in "Into the Woods" essentially begin a chain reaction that stops once she finally meets her demise. The main reason for the threat of the giants in the kingdom is because of her magic beans. Although they were stolen from the Witch, the beans led to the growth of giant beanstalks, which allowed giants to enter the kingdom. Along with this, some of the characters that acted immorally had something unfortunate happen to them. For instance, the baker’s wife kissed a prince, which ultimately led to her falling off a cliff, Rapunzel was banished to a swamp for falling in love, and the Wolf was skinned for eating Red Riding Hood. However, good actions are also rewarded as the Witch gifts the baker and his wife with a child once they retrieve what she asked for.
The problem with the Witch’s worldview is that she cannot be consistent in her beliefs without coming off as incredibly hypocritical. If her desire is to have people (mainly the baker’s family) suffer for what was wrongly done to her, shouldn’t she also be punished for cursing others? In essence, she cannot fully live out her worldview. In Buddhism, it would appear that there is no room for error or mercy as the idea of karma states that “whatever energy you put out into the universe, you receive.” This in itself is incredibly unrealistic when it comes to humanity as people are obviously not without error. It seems that the only way to live a noble, happy life is to be nothing but positive and good all the time. But that, of course, is impossible. In the film, karma does eventually catch up to the Witch as she loses her powers before the climax. At the end, the Witch is sucked down into a pit after cursing the remaining characters. Her loss of powers and death are indicative of karma finally catching up to her. The only way for her worldview to be consistent is for her to suffer the consequences of her actions. When the other characters decide that all the horrific events in "Into the Woods" are connected to the Witch, she dies. Overall, there is no way for the Witch to properly live according to her worldview as it is only a matter of time before fate catches up and she is punished. There is also no chance for redemption or reconciliation according to her worldview.
