In a movie about creating the spawn of Satan it’s hard not to see religious symbolism, and in Rosemary’s Baby, the Catholic religion is highly represented. We’ll start with some historical context for the Catholic Church at this point in history: the 2nd Vatican Council occurred between 1962 and 1965. This council was formed as a response to the decline in popularity of the Catholic Church due many changes happening in the 20th century in regards to science, civil rights movements, and women’s rights movements. This imposed many changes to how Catholicism was to continue into the second half of the 20th century and on. There is a shift in focusing on the New-Testament-forgiveness-God and less emphasis on the Old-Testament-Smitey-God. Many changes were threatening to the strictest of Catholics, especially those who adhered to traditional gender roles. The bible was (and sadly still is) used to impose specific rules for how men and women are to behave both within and outside of marriage. Sex, in particular, is meant to create life; the idea that it could possibly be done within the context of pleasure and not procreation is abhorrent and will grant you a one-way ticket to Hell.
With Rosemary’s Baby, we are presented with a lot of Catholicism. In the first instance, we see how the Catholic Church has lost its popularity when the Pope has come to visit and the characters aren’t particularly excited but instead kind of make fun of his appearance. In her Catholic guilt, Rosemary has to make a defense of the pope not because she is particularly religious, but because she has been conditioned to have respect for the Church and its leader. Unfortunately, she was also taught to be meek and quiet as part of her role as a woman, so once she makes her one-line defense of “well, he is the pope” she lets the Castevets and Guy rag on the pope while maintaining a look of discomfort with the conversation.
Another area where Catholicism pops up is very clearly in Rosemary’s nun dreams. I interpret this as further internalized catholic guilt. The dreams occur after Rosemary and Guy have sex where they’re not planning on having a baby just yet. Although they are husband and wife, the sex they have in their empty apartment is robotic and scripted, like they’re doing what they’re “supposed” to do as a married couple. Where that deviates, however, is the intent. As I said before, in the eyes of the Church, having sex for pleasure is wrong and we are reminded of this fact when the nuns show up in Rosemary’s dreams. The symbolism there is very strong because nuns held a lot of power to children growing up Catholic. You feared the reactions from the nuns for your wrongdoings before you feared your parents’ reactions. They were the ones to tell you that you were going to go to hell when you were being bad, and smacked you across the head, butt, or hands with a ruler.
I would further argue that because Rosemary and Guy have pleasure sex instead of baby-making sex, Rosemary is consequently damned to have Satan’s baby as a result. This is God’s punishment for her; she deviated from what the bible says she is supposed to do and therefore must be taught a lesson. This lesson would very much be one doled out by Old-Testament-Smitey-God as opposed to the newly focused on New-Testament-Forgiveness-God. There is obvious rigidity to maintain the pre-Vatican 2 ideas of a woman’s role in marriage because of this focus on punishment.
Rosemary maintains her role as a Catholic woman by adamantly opposing getting an abortion even though it seems like her pregnancy is killing her. Life is a sacred gift from God and begins at conception. To end her pregnancy is to end her own salvation; there’s no forgiveness for abortion in the eyes of God. She carries out her pregnancy and assumes her role as the mother because she’s supposed to, “the baby needs its mother.” Because she is a woman, she has to accept her lot in life as “God’s plan,” instead of going on the murder spree we all had hoped she would have gone on when she had the knife.
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