- Alms... alms... for a miserable woman... on a miserable chilly... morning... -
Lucy Barker, also called as Beggar Woman, is a major character in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. She is Sweeney Todd's wife and Johanna's mother.
She is portrayed by Laura Michelle Kelly.
Background[]
Personality[]
Lucy appears to be warm, kind, sweet, loving, gentle, caring, and motherly. She is also strong, as she stands up to Judge Turpin, rejecting his attempts to woo her and remaining loyal to her husband, Benjamin Barker, after his exile. However, the incident involving Turpin’s sexual assault of Lucy led to her attempting suicidal poisoning, deteriorating her mental state as a result.
The insane Lucy is hysterical, raving and obsessed with Hell and the Devil; she does have some vague memories regarding her past, as she is seen continuously wandering around her husband’s barbershop.
Physical Appearance[]
In the flashbacks, Lucy is beautiful, glowing and smiling: she's got curly, blonde hair and white, regular teeth. Her skin is rosy and shining and she wears a simple pink dress. As the Beggar Woman, most part of her beauty vanishes because of her illness and she keeps only a trace of beauty lingering upon her face. As such, her visage is disfigured by pimples and sores and her hair becomes faded and discolored. Dirty and hunchbacked, she wears a grey tattered dress with a huge hat which hides her face.
Role in the film[]
Lucy first appears in a flashback, strolling through a marketplace with her husband Benjamin Barker, a barber, and their infant daughter Johanna. The corrupted and wicked Judge Turpin notices her and her beauty as the barber recalls how he was arrested and banished to Australia on false charges. Later, Mrs. Lovett recounts that the young woman became inconsolable following her husband’s arrest, and isolated herself in her flat with the little Johanna as Turpin continued to stalk her. The shady Beadle then escorted Lucy to the Judge’s estate under false pretenses, where she was eventually raped during a masquerade party. Traumatized and humiliated, Lucy poisoned herself, leaving her daughter in Turpin’s care. She survived the attempt at suicide, but was left mentally ill and reduced to begging in the streets.
One day, Lucy, now a beggar, accepts the young and gawky sailor Anthony Hope's moneys and she describes to him the fair and stunning Judge Turpin's ward (aka Johanna, now a teenager who is locked in the Turpin House like a prisoner, because the man fears that Johanna's beauty could attract men): Anthony falls in love with the girl and swears he will save her from Turpin; the insane lady advises him to give up because the Judge is very powerful and cruel.
The Beggar Woman is the first person who understands the ingredient of Mrs. Lovett's pies but no one believes her; one night she enters the shop and she confronts Sweeney Todd in person: he doesn't recognize her and kills her, cutting her throat with his razor. Later, after the murder of Turpin, he sees her face and he understands what he has done. In despair, he kills Mrs. Lovett (who had lied to him) by pushing her into the oven and at the end he cries over Lucy's body before his assistant kills him with the same razor that he had used for Turpin and Lucy.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- She's based on the character with the same name from the musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.