| Judge Turpin | |
|---|---|
Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin |
|
| Portrayed by | Edmund Lyndeck (Original Broadway production) Ken Howard (1999 Los Angeles production) Paul Plishka (2000 New York production) Timothy Nolen (2001 San Francisco production) Walter Charles (2002 Eisenhower production) Colin Wakefield (2004 England revival) Mark Jacoby (2005 Broadway revival) Alan Rickman (2007 film) |
| Information | |
| Occupation | Judge |
Judge Turpin (also known as Lord Turpin) is a fictional character in the various adaptations of the story Sweeney Todd. He is the main antagonist.
Contents |
In early versions of the Sweeney Todd legend, Todd himself is the primary antagonist, and no character equivalent to Judge Turpin appears. The original story "The String of Pearls" features a "Mr. Lupin," an older man with an eye to marry Johanna "Oakley" with the approval of the girl's mother, but his role is a supporting one and he has no personal connection to Sweeney Todd, who is a murderous thief without any given past. In the Tod Slaughter film, it is Sweeney Todd himself lusting after the young Johanna. It would not be until Christopher Bond wrote his 1973 play Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street that the character of Judge Turpin would emerge.
In Bond's play and its subsequent adaptations by Stephen Sondheim and Tim Burton, Judge Turpin is first seen having Benjamin Barker arrested and exiled to Australia in order to have Barker's wife, Lucy, all to himself. Lucy is heartbroken, and becomes a recluse, never coming down from her house. Judge Turpin continuously pursues her, sending her flowers each day. He sends his henchman, Beadle Bamford, to summon her to his home, "[Blaming] himself for her dreadful plight." He then rapes Lucy, who tries to kill herself by drinking poison; she survives, but is driven insane and reduced to begging in the street.
Turpin then takes Barker's infant daughter, Johanna, and raises her as his ward. He keeps her locked away from the world and spies on her through a peep-hole in her wall. When Johanna turns 16, Turpin offers her his hand in marriage. She refuses, to which he seems baffled. When he spots Anthony Hope "gandering" at Johanna, he has him beaten up and threatens to kill him if he ever returns. We next see Turpin sentencing a child to hang for "repeated" petty crimes, a verdict that the Beadle hoped for as they leave the Old Bailey together.
On Beadle Bamford's advice, he goes for a shave at Sweeney Todd's barber shop, in order to impress Johanna — unaware that Todd is in fact Barker, returned from Australia and hell-bent on revenge. Todd is about to cut Turpin's throat when he is interrupted by Anthony, who reveals Johanna's plan to escape. Turpin promptly leaves, renouncing Todd's business. Turpin returns home and finds Johanna gathering her things, in an attempt to run away. He sends her away until she can "appreciate" what she has. Bamford grabs Johanna and takes her in a carriage to Fogg's Asylum.
Turpin receives a letter claiming that Johanna has repented, unaware that it is part of a trap laid by Todd. He is delighted and, following the direction of the letter, goes to Todd's shop, where he is persuaded to have a shave. Turpin soon realizes Todd's true identity, and Todd savagely stabs him in the neck before slitting his throat and dropping him down a chute leading to Mrs. Lovett's basement. Before bleeding to death, Turpin grabs at Mrs. Lovett's dress.
|
||||||||