After hard years in exile for a crime he didn’t commit, Benjamin Barker, now Sweeney Todd, returns to London to find his wife dead and his daughter in the hands of the evil Judge Turpin. Todd wants his revenge on the man who has now adopted his daughter and works with Mrs. Lovett on an evil plan.

Sweeney Todd made his first literary appearance in 1846, in a story by Thomas Peckett Prest. Titled “The String of Pearls: A Romance,” Prest’s bestselling story was adapted from a French short story and ran in installments in a Edward Lloyd’s The People’s Periodical and Family Library, a penny dreadful.

Evil Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) lusts for the beautiful wife of a London barber (Johnny Depp) and transports him to Australia for a crime he did not commit. Returning after 15 years and calling himself Sweeney Todd, the now-mad man vows revenge, applying his razor to unlucky customers and shuttling the bodies down to Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), who uses them in her meat-pie shop. Though many fall to his blade, he will not be satisfied until he slits Turpin’s throat.

Enraged, Todd vows to kill as many people as he can while waiting for another chance to kill Turpin, reasoning that he would be punishing the wicked and putting everyone else out of their misery. He offers Turpin a free shave, reveals his true identity, and stabs Turpin to death, finally getting his revenge.

Lucy Barker

Lovett lied to him, to which Mrs. Lovett then confesses her love for him, and promises she would be a better wife than Lucy ever was. Todd pretends to forgive her, but later throws her into the furnace, burning her alive as retribution for her lies.

Having secured Todd’s assistance, he leaves. Mrs. Lovett suggests that Sweeney kill Anthony and keep Johanna with him.

Turpin eventually falls in love with the beautiful Johanna and 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.

Anthony does this and then rescues Johanna, bringing her (disguised as a young lad) back to Sweeney Todd’s shop as he fetches a coach. Though the ending of Anthony’s story is never revealed in the play, it is implied that he and Johanna left London, got married in France and are now living happily ever after.

She is nearly murdered by her father when he discovers her, as he does not recognize her as his daughter (seeing as he had never met her since infancy and because she is disguised as a young man). She survives when Mrs. Lovett screams in the basement bakehouse, distracting Todd and allowing her to escape.

Horrified, Tobias tries to escape but realizes that he is locked in. Todd and Mrs. Lovett later search the cellars for Toby, who by then has vanished into the catacombs. At the end, Todd realizes that he has murdered his own wife Lucy, whom he did not recognize, as she appeared to be a mad beggar woman.

Lucy was murdered by mistake by her husband Sweeney Todd “Benjamin Barker” in which he shows extreme remorse and in rage Sweeney Todd kills Mrs. Lovett for lying to him by throwing her in the oven and is last seen dead holding Lucy. She was portrayed by Laurasia Michelle Kelly in the 2007 film adaptation.

Toby is taken in by Mrs. Lovett after Todd kills Pirelli, who threatened to blackmail him. Toby becomes deeply attached to Mrs. Lovett, thinking of her as a surrogate mother.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street

Nellie Lovett (also known as Mrs. Lovett) is the secondary antagonist of the 1846-1847 story The String of Pearls, and the deuteragonist of the 1979 musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and the 2007 live-action film of the same name.