Sondheim's Childhood: Children Will Listen

Even prior to their divorce, Stephen Sondheim had experienced neglect at the hands of his parents, though it didn't actively affect him at the time. "I was what they call an institutionalized child, meaning one who has no contact with any kind of family...I was popular and accomplished, eighty percent of my waking hours I was being supported. I. didn't know that I was missing my parents" (Secrest 21).

Herbert Sondheim left his wife and son in 1940 for Alicia Babé, whom he had fallen in love with on a business trip. The divorce itself was messy and difficult to finalize because of New York divorce laws, and though Stephen's mother "Foxy" had eventually won full custody, she became a "very vindictive woman" and began to slander Herbert and Alicia in front of Stephen; Foxy even had someone trail her son so she would know if he was visiting his father and step-mother (29).

***Trigger Warning: Inappropriate maternal behavior

During Stephen’s teenage years, Foxy acquired another abusive trait in addition to her constant tantrums and vice-grip control on Stephen's life. Slowly, he began to understand that his mother was trying to seduce him, as he was now the man of the house. "What she did for five years was treat me like dirt, but come on to me at the same time" (31). From a psychological perspective, this type of incestual abuse often occurs between mothers and their adolescent sons after the father unexpectedly leaves. Quoting Evelyn S. Bassoff, Secrest writes that this kind of relationship causes the son to "thereby lose the separateness and individuality...that he has struggled since early childhood to achieve," effectively destroying his sense of trust. Stephen was highly effected in this way, and kept his distance from any woman around him for years to come (31-32).

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Following Foxy and Stephen's move to rural Pennsylvania beside neighbors Oscar Hammerstein II and his wife Dorothy, Stephen simultaneously found himself a surrogate family and grew farther apart from his demanding mother. Foxy eventually told him that he was "not to go to the Hammersteins any more; I'm suing them for alienation of affection"; of course, she never followed through. The Hammersteins took Stephen in whenever he needed them, and would often comfort him after Foxy had a go at him (33-35). The family already had a habit of taking in children who had gone through trauma, and Oscar grew to see the incredibly intelligent Stephen as a beloved protege as he watched the boy thrive in this new, loving, and intellectually stimulating environment.

This idea of chosen families born out of trauma (as previously discussed in regards to the Aids epidemic) is depicted in Act II of Into the Woods in how the characters slowly come together to protect each other in the midst of the Giantess's attacks. Though stances and opinions quickly change before the denouement, after all of the turmoil subsides the characters find solidarity in surviving the woods, even though the sacrifice was costly.

Additionally, Sondheim showed a fascination with maternal relationships in his work. These are potentially some of the most complex relationships that he shows, and perhaps that can be attributed to his own struggle in understanding the past. The Baker's Wife has selfish tendencies and succumbs to her fantasies with the Prince rather than immediately returning to her husband and child that she worked so hard for. There are fundamental flaws in her character, but does this mean she is ultimately irredeemable as a person, or that maternal figures are not just defined by their relationship to their children?

In either case, Sondheim himself has admitted that his past has affected how he views female roles, but not necessarily in a negative way. Stephen himself states that the confusion surrounding his parents is the reason he has always loved puzzles, games, and complexity. "The puzzle was a metaphor, a reassurance he desperately needed that there really was a path through the maze...that a world in fragments could be reassembled, however painfully..." (43).

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Secrest, Meryle. Stephen Sondheim: A Life. 1998. New York, Vintage Books, 2011.