The Targets of Aggression

By DAVID P. BARASH

"Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd. He served a dark and an angry god." Thus begins Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece, Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a darkly comic tale of multiple murders and unwitting cannibalism. Who is this dark, angry god? And why did Todd serve him?

Set in Dickensian London, Sweeney Todd is the tale...