Monstrous Women: Exploring Historical Witchcraft and Its Presence in The Witch

I the 1600s, the Puritans were still sailing to the United States— to them, the “New World”—in search of religious freedom and new beginnings; however, in their attempt to leave behind England and its influence, the Puritans brought with them Europe’s archaic views of witchcraft and women as monsters. The Puritans projected these fears of witchcraft onto women in a variety of ways: accusations of maleficarum, or the power “to cause harm to others by supernatural means”; disruptions in domestic processes, such as sudden spoiling of beer; healthcare complications; the obstruction of natural processes, like weather changes and crop yield; and more were used as rationales to prosecute women in their communities (Karlsen 6-8). Witchcraft was also noted as a woman’s crime, with male accusation almost only occurring if the man was married or related to an already accused witch (Karlsen 49). This paranoia, largely due to overbearing religious influence, led to estimates of as many as “110,000 people . . . tortured as alleged witches and between 40,000 and 60,000 people . . . executed” worldwide from 1450 to 1750 (Russell and Brooks 12). Highlighting the consequences of religious persecution and female suppression, Robert Eggers’s The Witch masterfully portrays New England witchcraft as it was perceived in the 1600s, realizing societal oppression as a powerful force with many victims. Exploring a family crumbling from the influence of maleficarum and the strict ABSTRACT Accusations of witchcraft in America were often death sentences for women that society considered as acting outside of the norm; however, in Robert Eggers’s film, The Witch, embodying the role of a witch becomes a powerful tool in fighting Puritanical social expectations with magic, appearance, and behavior. Through the application of monster theory, historical contextualization, and feminist theory, this essay explores the implications of portraying the film’s main villain as a grotesque hag, the meaning behind its use of gory magic, why the protagonist chooses to become a witch herself, and finally, the consequences of othering marginalized groups from society. Noah Patterson, Ball State University