New Perspectives of Grief

We are all likely familiar with the Kübler-Ross 5 Stages of Grief, whether it has been experienced first-hand or not. The pattern looks like this:

1. Denial and Isolation

2. Anger

3. Bargaining

4. Depression

5. Acceptance

This famous linear grief model was developed by Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and published in her book On Death and Dying in 1969. It was initially created as a method to help terminally ill patients understand and process their emotions (Kübler-Ross). It has long since become a well-known method that can be applied to anyone who experiences any kind of grief or trauma.

There is now an infinite spectrum of alternate grief models in the modern world, and most of them actually reject Kübler-Ross's idea of a sequential mourning ritual, acknowledging that "grief is not a tidy, orderly process, and there is no single 'right' way to grieve." ("Beyond"). Contemporary grief models are often posed as looser guides toward healing that don't dictate where you should be in your process.

An alternate version of the 5 Stages was written by psychologists Dr. Barbara Okun and Dr. Joseph Nowinski in their book Saying Goodbye: How Families Can Find Renewal Through Loss. Their proposed pattern is primarily focused on a family losing a loved one to a prolonged illness and how they navigate their grief before the loved one passes; however, as with any other grief model, it can be applied to a wide variety of situations:

- Crisis: life is disrupted, by a diagnosis or otherwise

- Unity: rallying to protect the patient or subject of the trauma

- Upheaval: being overwhelmed by these new changes and not communicating effectively

- Resolution: the acceptance that the end is near and the process of making amends

- Renewal: the family readjusts as their loved one has passed on, taking the time necessary to pick up the pieces ("Beyond")

This isn't to say that the Kübler-Ross model doesn't apply to life anymore. Into the Woods actually follows the model's stages in many ways, and it all becomes truly apparent when people are quickly being picked off by the Giantess in Act II. Many characters have been stuck in a sort of grief limbo, where they don't move forward or backward and there is no resolution in sight. The argument between all of the characters on the Last Midnight where blame is thrown where it's convenient and opinions change displays a bit of every one of the 5 Stages colliding against each other.

In the conclusion of the show, there seems to be an overall sense of acceptance between the survivors, or at least a spark of hope for them all. Grief itself is such a powerful theme in Into the Woods and helps to color the complexities of everyday life and the ever present fear surrounding death.

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Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth. On Death and Dying. New York, Macmillan Publishing Co., 1969.

"Beyond the Five Stages of Grief." Harvard Mental Health Letter, vol. 28, no. 6, Dec. 2011, p. 3. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=104640750&site=ehost-live&scope=site.