The finale of Into the Woods, Children Will Listen is the only song that seems to have been just slotted in without having any bearing on the story. It is however a reflection on one of the major themes, and points out that parents' behaviour is a major factor in the development of their children. It is sung by the witch as the baker starts to take responsibility for the upbringing of his son, but it is interesting to look at it from the perspective of many of the relationships within the piece. The pertinent words are "Careful the things you say; children will listen. Careful the things you do; childen will see and learn."
Little Red Ridinghood is influenced by the conflicting example of two parental figures. Her mother sends her off with good advice. "Mother said straight ahead, not to delay or be misled." She follows this advice at first, but is easily misled by some compelling arguments from the wolf that she has never encountered before. The wolf tells her to explore other paths than her usual one, which would be good advice if not for the pressing need to get food to her granny. Little Red was tricked by a trap, disguised as good advice, that succeeded, because based on her comments to the baker, she had clearly never been warned about wolves before. Her mother probably wanted to have her child be trusting, but erred by ommission of a warning of the threats she would obviously face on her path once in a while.
Little Red's grandmother on the other hand, is a direct bad influence on her granddaughter. Granny exposes Red to some gritty life experiences. It is in total contrast to the upbringing she is getting from her mother, and it leaves Little Red confused when she is ultimately left without a parental figure of any kind.
Jack's mother sends him off with a responsibility, but her manner is constantly indicating she doesn't really trust him to get anything right. She coddles him even as he becomes an adult. It is through a lack of guidance that Jack has the most trouble distinguishing between right and wrong throughout the tale.
Cinderella has the classic fairy tale structure of a good mother and a bad mother. The good mother is always out of the picture, but provides a legacy of beauty and good advice. It is this legacy that Cinderella uses to overcome her challenge of indecisiveness, despite her stepmothers constant slavery and degrading nature. In this example of course the good mother also provides the tangible help of a dress.
The baker eventually gets the message from his deceased wife that honest and open communication is the key to parenthood, but he was initially fearful of his influence on his son. He was worried that he was not a good enough carer or role model, which probably stems back to his relationship with his own father. The baker grew up with a positive but positively ludicrous image of his parents, dying nobaly in a baking accident. He found out that the truth actually involved theft and the giving up of his sister to a witch. This discovery would obviously have a profound effect on his notion of parenthood, and actually led him to considering abandoning his own child.
The baker's sister, Rapunzel, knows no parent or family other than the witch who gives her food, shelter and the occasional company, but nothing else. Even though she is shown a negative picture of the world all her life, she still longs for freedom as any creature does. When she is finally free of the tower, she is left all alone by her "mother", in the world she always said was cruel. No wonder Rapunzel went mad.
Find this theme in other Sondheim songs: