JESS CAMPBELL
The Virgin, the Vessel and the Mother: Exploring the Morality of the Immaculate Conception and the Effects It Had on the New World
May 2025
Fine Art BA Hons Dissertation
DOI 10.20933/100001379
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Abstract
The Virgin Mary was the first of many women to be used as a vessel for a unique man to be born. This concept has been constantly repeated; this is shown in women’s lives and portrayed through countless works of art and media. This Research project aims to bring to light Mary's realistic experience during the Immaculate Conception and how it may have harmed her and damaged other women who followed in her footsteps. Additionally, this project aims to explore the portrayal of this effect on women through Art and media, specifically through the films “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Hereditary.” The information for this project was collected by examining multiple works of art that focus on the Virgin Mother, which include Sandro Botticelli’s painting “The Nativity”, Herrad of Landsburg’s illustration of “Hell” in the Hortus Deliciarum and Francisco Ramero Zafras head bust “Busto De Virgen Dolorosa.” Information was also taken through films with themes of motherhood and through different books critiquing the cult of Mary. The data in this project shows that the Virgin Mary was indoctrinated into obeying God's will through her upbringing, similar to different religious cults It shows the way women have been affected by the concept of a virginal mother through the misogynistic beliefs constructed by the church, who would use Mary as a guide for this misogyny. Other themes include the horror of forced motherhood through rape and coercion. These findings indicate the need for education of the female body and a distancing of using the same reasoning from thousands of years ago as we do today.
Introduction
Over two thousand years ago, in a small town in the Palestinian Galilee, a young girl waits alone after being given the most important mission of her lifetime. The girl, known as Maryam in her original Aramaic language1, now known as Mary, was to become the vessel for the holy spirit so that the baby Jesus could be born. This would come to be known as the “Immaculate Conception.” Mary would conceive Jesus without the use of sex, and the story of the Virgin Mary would soon be a guideline for all Christian women to follow. The teaching of this story would further affect women of all religious beliefs or lack thereof in the future, causing a battle between the idea of being a virgin girl and a mother.
This Dissertation intends to examine the story of the Virgin Mary and the use of her body as a vessel for God's child The matter of her age, the intimidating beings who tell her she will do this without asking her and the weight of her people's salvation on her shoulders will be questioned in the morality of this conception. This paper will discuss how Mary being praised for her suffering and made into an idol as a mother affects the women who come after her and the way our society expects them to ignore or mask their pain as mothers. It will further investigate this through film and art, specifically the horror films “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Hereditary”, and will focus on the mothers in each film. Women further down the line who are forced into having children, whether through coercion, physical force or anti-abortion laws, will also be discussed and how these topics come as an aftermath to the immaculate conception. This essay will discuss how many women throughout history have been reduced to living baby machines and how this is portrayed through many different forms of art and media, especially through horror as a form of art to truly grasp the gravity of these situations and the horror women so often feel when experiencing these traumas.
Three chapters will be included in this dissertation. The first discusses the immaculate conception, the morality of Mary’s situation and how her story has affected men and women alike in the Christian church
1 Philip Kosloki, What was the Virgin Mary’s real name? Aletia (2019)
over the centuries. The second chapter will explore the film “Rosemary’s Baby,” her dealings with her Christian faith, the comparison between her pregnancy and Mary’s and how being used as a vessel for a male higher power has negative consequences. The third chapter will study the film “Hereditary” and the character Annie, an opposing figure to Rosemary. Although they have different values and traditions, they are taken advantage of against their will in a similar way. This chapter will further discuss modern motherhood, how mothers are often taken for granted, and what happens when a mother goes against this ideal. The findings of this paper will suggest that using Mary’s body as a vessel for the birth of Jesus was not only immoral, but it also had a lasting effect on the modern world, specifically for women
The Virgin Mary and the Immaculate Conception
The concept of the Virgin Mary and her pregnancy has created a double-edged sword for centuries of women who follow in her graceful footsteps of motherhood. The Faith in the Virgin Mother has imposed harm on these women due to their inability to achieve her sexless motherhood. The story of the Virgin Mary holds a particularly powerful clasp over her Christian followers and other onlookers. She is a young peasant girl chosen to become the gateway for God's child to come into the world. Her story sparks visions of bravery and sacrifice. She brings forth glory made from her suffering and the ability to persevere.
In many different theologian writings, it is said that Mary was a descendant of the tribe of Judah, which made her a young Jewish woman She grew up in the Palestinian Galilee and was educated by the writings of the Torah. During this time, a Jewish girl was considered a minor until she turned twelve, when she came of age for marriage.2 Mary was raised to be subservient and completely loyal to her parents, which meant she would have to marry whichever older man they chose 3 She would have to respect this betrothal for her family's sake In the Gospel of Mathew, we learn that Mary was to be betrothed to Joseph. Scholars such as Joshua Schachterle4 have debated the age of Joseph, some believing he could have been between his late teens and early twenties. Others suggest he could have been between his thirties and forties5 and possibly a widower, which would clarify why the New Testament talks about Jesus having siblings.6 Mary was believed to be between the ages of twelve and sixteen when she was betrothed to Joseph because Jewish girls were eligible to be wed from the age of twelve.7 Joseph, being from a noble lineage, meant that their betrothal would be highly beneficial for her family and self. She was already
2 Sebastian Brock, The Genealogy of the Virgin Mary In Sinai Sir.16 (2006)p2
3 Sister M. Daniel Peters, Jewish Identity of Mary, University of Dayton(2002)
4 Joshua Schachterle, Mary and Joseph: Ages, Marriage, and Travel to Bethlehem, (2023)
5 Michael Pakaluk, St. Joseph’s Not-Untimely Death, The Catholic Thing (2021)
6 Brit Mooney, How Old Was Joseph When He Married Mary?, Christianity.com(2023)
7 Vivian Bricker, How old was Mary when she gave birth to Jesus?, Christianity.com(2024)
sitting in a vulnerable position with few available options for how she could live out her life. Like any other girl her age, she would have to rely on an older man to take care of her; she would be given from her father to her husband, who would provide for her and her family. Mary knew the importance of obeying her God and her father, and to strive to be pure and holy, to marry respectably and never to sin. The annunciation of Mary's mission to give birth to Jesus was given during the time of their betrothal
During the period of Mary and Joseph's betrothal, God sent down the angel Gabriel as his ambassador to speak to Mary and to tell her God's plan. Gabriel states, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.” 8 Mary, undeniably perplexed, questions this plan due to her virginity. The angel tells her that the Holy Spirit will overshadow her, allowing a child to form in her womb, meaning the child will be the son of God. Gabrial then proves the power of God by telling Mary that God has already given the gift of pregnancy to Mary's elder relative, Elizabeth, who in her old age would never have been able to bear children without the aid of God, thus proving nothing is impossible when it comes to his power. Mary replies by stating, “I am the Lord's servant. Let everything you’ve said happen to me.”9
When Joseph discovered Mary to be pregnant out of wedlock, he initially intended to divorce her quietly so as not to force her into the shame of the public. During the time of Old Testament law, a man with an unfaithful wife would either quietly divorce her or she would be stoned to death in a public spectacle.10
As an honourable man, Joseph would not allow this harm to come to Mary. This further shows the tense nature of Mary’s situation; she allowed the possibility of harm and blasphemy to be thrown upon her.
There was the chance of marrying a man who would not believe her, someone who could have the power to send her to her doom. Shortly after this, Joseph was visited by an angel in his dream who told him that Mary was pregnant with the son of God and that he would be the world's saviour 11 We see here the first of many self-sacrifices Mary would have to make as the vessel of the holy spirit.
8 Luke 1:30-33 God's Word Translation
9 Luke 1:34-38 God's Word Translation
10 Deuteronomy 22:21 New International Version
11 Matthew 1:18-21 New International Version
Whether religious or not, one can read this story and understand the bravery and sacrifice Mary has shown as a follower of God. However, like many stories of a person sacrificing themselves or their livelihoods for the greater good, one must be able to delve deeper than the simplicity of the glory they may receive from the onlooker. There is a troubling wonder around the consent given by Mary to be used as this vessel. By reading these different excerpts from the bible, specifically when Gabriel visits Mary, there is a use of language that suggests there is no choice in the matter; more so, she is expected to be grateful. In Gabriel's message, they consistently state “you will” do this or that At no point does Gabriel ask Mary if it is her wish to help God and his plan When she questions this statement, Gabriel tells her that the power of the most high will overshadow her 12 There is a relevant line of questioning in this meeting, raising alarms about the amount of servitude expected from her and the query of whether Mary is even old enough to consent to this proposal. It is understandable that through modern-day feminism, there are clear issues with meeting an angel, seeing the vision of the heavenly divine as a young girl and being told, not asked to conceive a son of God using the power of the holy spirit. One may say that this is a misuse of the power that God holds over Mary. Even after this preliminary flaunting of unimaginable power, Gabriel continues to boast of God's supreme power Telling Mary that God has already caused her old relative to become six months pregnant even though previously her body physically would not allow it. “nothing is impossible to God ”13 This proclamation has an eerie tone. There is a wonderous incredibility of God's power. No problem is unsolvable to him. He can create life and death. He holds divine creation. This means he can put a baby in Mary’s womb whether she wishes it or not. Although Mary understands her mission and allows it, the flaunting of God's will is not forgotten, and a clear power imbalance is made.
There has been an ongoing debate about whether Mary could truly consent to God's wishes. In his essay “Mary, Did You Consent?” Blake Hereth discusses God's extreme power and its effect, specifically on Mary. What would happen if Mary denied God's request? There was the possibility of God seeking out another young girl at her own expense, which could create a risk for the saviours coming. Mary was confronted with the choice to save her people or gamble their lives in the hands of another. Mary, a good,
12
self-sacrificing girl, would not have allowed this.14 For Such a huge idol whom she had been taught to obey and listen to her entire life to ask her to become pregnant with his child, it raises the question of whether she would ever allow herself to disobey him. Mary's reply to Gabriel suggests she feels positive about her new mission: “My Soul praises the Lord's greatness! My spirit finds its joy in God, my Savior because he has looked favourably on me, his humble servant ”15 Mary seems overjoyed, which suggests readers of the bible should feel this too. However, Mary perceives herself as a subservient being to God; She is completely humbled by him and the power that comes with him. From the moment of birth, Mary was taught to give all her devotion to God and, when given her sacred mission, to give up her bodily autonomy. She knows she must obey his commands no matter the fear or suffering. Mary’s situation is similar to the way many young girls are brought up within religious cults, especially when there is a male leader involved, such as Warren Jeffs, who was the leader of The FLD cult. Jeff himself had seventeen wives and officiated countless illegal underaged marriages 16
Mary had been indoctrinated into this belief system her whole life and much like in these cult systems, rewards will follow from serving this higher person to keep said follower in a constant state of wishing to please. Mary states “From now on, all people will call me blessed, because the almighty has done great things to me.”17 She receives the reward of holiness and is seen as sacred and blessed by the people around her. She ascends to a level higher than her peers in holiness. She becomes the mother of mothers, the sacred virgin never tainted, and praised for allowing herself to be used as God's vessel. The idea of the perfect mother spawned from this. In her book “Alone of all her sex”, Marina Warner discusses the desire for this form of purity from its Christian followers: “The idea that virginity confers power operates on two different planes. First, the father of the church taught that the virginal life reduced the special penalties of the fall in women and was, therefore, holy. Second, the image of the virgin body was the supreme image of wholeness, and wholeness was equated to holiness.” 18 Christians like St Augustine taught other believers that it was a sin to have sexual intercourse for only pleasure's sake19 and so women were taught to follow in the footsteps of the sacred Virgin Mary. In her essay “Stabat Mater,” Julia Kristeva
14 Blake Hereth, Mary, did you consent?, Cambridge University press(2021) p1-24
15 Luke 1:46-48 God’s Word Translation
16 Grace Handy, The twisted world of Warren Jeffs: Former FLDS members speak out, ABC News(2024)
17 Luke 1:48-49 God's Word translation
18 Marina Warner, Alone of all her sex(1976) p72
19 Theo Kuleuven, Augustine on sexual ethics, Christian Ethics(2011)
observes this issue by suggesting that Mary is completely separated from the rest of Humanity because she was granted a sinless existence.20 The church, while in a time with already relevant prejudice and misogyny, idolised Mary and her ability to be a mother without being tainted by the sin of sexual pleasure She was to be an aspiration for her female followers; she was the epitome of holiness, purity and femineity Indubitably, no woman has the ability to attain Mary’s level of purity; sexual desire is a natural and wanted feeling when one is about to have intercourse, so the conflict can never be won; a woman cannot have children and stay truly pure.
There are two outcomes from Mary's story that I wish to pursue; the first is that due to her exceptional situation that no other woman would be able to replicate, women would be constantly scrutinised for their lack of virginity as a mother, but also their lack of motherhood as a virgin. The second is that because of this famous scripture, the use of a woman as a vessel for a higher power would be exploited, whether, in fiction or reality, the use of a pure, virginal and presumably young girl would be used time and time again for the benefit of others. Throughout history, the “young virgin” has been used in different forms of sacrifice. The idea is that because one is untouched by sin, one can fight against all evil. This is prevalent in the manuscript “Hortus Deliciarum,” created by the Nun Herrad of Landsburg between 1167 and 1185.21 The women who followed her teachings understood that their virginity held the key to the salvation of the earth as they were the existing symbol of the Virgin Mother herself.22 Within her texts, there is a multitude of illustrations of beasts and monsters performing terrible acts on humans. The virginal women are painted out to be the cure for these monstrous evils, because of their wholeness and holiness. The illustration “Hell” by Herrad of Landsburg displays all the souls lost to their sin and the punishment of Satan.23 This illustration is an example of the countless warnings given to those who may give in to their sins, especially sexual desire.
20 Julia Kristeva, Stabat Mater (1985) p134
21 Herrad of Landsburg, Hortus Deliciarum(1185)
22 ibid, Hortus Deliciarum
23 The World History Archive and Compendium, Depiction of Hell From The Hortus Deliciarum(2019)
Herrad of Landsburg, (1185) Hell
The story of the Virgin Mary set an impossible goal for all women to follow; this became furthermore prevalent when the followers of Christ continued to exaggerate and overstress the importance of virginity for women. Thus, a worldwide distribution of the belief that virginity equated to purity was able to spread. The patriarchy was pushed further through these religious beliefs. They disallowed women the right to their autonomy while also convincing women that they should be happy to be subservient to their male counterparts and allow themselves to be used, whether in virtue or as a vessel themselves This view of a woman's virginity is still prevalent today, especially in conservative upper-class areas such as the royal family. King Charles was able to sleep with whomever he chose but was not allowed to marry Camilla because she was not a virgin.24 The idea of the temptress and the virginly mother is commonly pushed upon women, even in today’s media, such as Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, with Kate often portrayed as a virgin mother. In contrast, Meghan is portrayed as a temptress who stole Prince Harry away from his family. This form of sexism is used as an attempt to make women compete with one another for the male gaze. This religious patriarchal indoctrination of women is evident in hundreds of works of art, film and media Many horror films have explored motherhood as a whole, looking at the negative aspects that may come with motherhood. Whether that being the overwhelming stress of motherhood, women coerced into becoming mothers or their children being some form of the anti-Christ. The dark nature of motherhood has always been a topic of interest within our society, and many horror films allow a larger artistic expression of these women's feelings, emphasising their turmoil and the suffering they often experience against their will.
24 Sara Kettler, Why Camilla Parker Bowles Was Considered Unsuitable for Prince Charles(2020)
“Rosemary’s
Baby” and Patriarchal Cults
“Rosemary’s Baby,”25 directed by Roman Polanski in 1968, is the tale of Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and Guy Woodhouse. (John Cassavetes)The couple, recently married, purchase their new home. We learn that Guy is an actor obsessed with becoming a Hollywood star, and Rosemary yearns to become a traditional at-home wife with the prospect of having children together. After they move into their new home, Rosemary meets the young Terry Gionoffrio (Victoria Vetri), who is a recovering drug addict and lives under the care of Minnie and Roman Castevet (Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer), Rosemary’s neighbours. Rosemary and Guy first meet the Castevet’s after they arrive at their home to find Terry dead after a supposed suicide where they are invited to dinner. Guy becomes considerably close with Roman after learning of his heavy influence within the theatrical world and begins to ignore how the couple imposes on him and Rosemary’s life. Guy dismisses Rosemary's wariness of the never-ending visits from the Castevet’s. When Guy gets the big acting break he has been searching for, he suggests they start trying for a baby in celebration. On the night of the planned conception, during dinner, Minnie drops off a desert. After being guilted into eating the food, Rosemary becomes quickly dizzy. Guy blaming it on the wine, takes her to bed. She experiences hallucinatory dreams of herself on a yacht surrounded by the people who live in her building; then, as her dreams unfold, she watches as she begins to be raped by a demonic being. When Rosemary becomes pregnant, the Castevet’s immediately start interfering with her pregnancy. Giving her medicinal drinks, steering her into the arms of their doctor and never allowing her a moment to herself. She becomes weaker and sicker as the months pass, becoming a ghoulish figure, the opposite of a healthy mother. Everyone around her dismisses her and becomes exceedingly isolated. Even a different doctor betrays her when she expresses her concern, believing her conniving husband over her. She is forced to do an at-home birth, waking up to be told her baby died during the birth. After hearing a baby cry, she sneaks into her neighbour's house to find her stolen baby in a demonic cradle surrounded by her neighbours. All her fears are confirmed as we learn that her husband allowed this
25 Roman Polanski, Rosemary’s Baby(1968)
satanic cult leader (Satan) to rape Rosemary so she could give birth to the antichrist. She had been used as a vessel against her will for their beliefs of the higher power i.e. Satan. Her cries and suffering are pushed aside as the cult praises her for her glory of bringing the antichrist into the world.
Rosemary personifies the neat domestic lifestyle. She is portrayed as submissive towards her husband and her peers. Even her clothes suggest a form of submission to the societal expectations of the 60s. She wears feminine but conservative clothes; she is fashionable but traditional. Her clothing colour palette is full of whites, light blues and yellows, the same as the way she decorates and paints her home, subtly associating herself with possession and objectification. Rosemary wishes to resemble purity; this is evident by the way she presents herself and is emphasised when she mentions her catholic upbringing. She assumes the role of the good docile housewife patiently waiting for her husband to come home from work, which was the fashionable outlook at the time for many postwar housewives during this period.26
Even today, the traditional housewife has had a resurgence through certain Christian and Mormon mothers such as Nara Smith and Hannah Neelman, influencers who post their daily lives as young mothers who enjoy the “traditional” housewife and motherhood style. Although this way of living was wildly spread due to the effects of the war, these mothers tend to pick out the things they enjoy from this way of living to show their millions of followers, which includes cooking and cleaning, while also looking beautiful for their husband.27
As the film continues, there are clear signs indicating Rosemary’s fears of losing her purity, and when this is taken away from her, we begin to watch her unravel. The rape scene that occurs after Rosemary is drugged by her neighbours and husband is one of the most brutally disturbing scenes in the film.
Rosemary’s autonomy is completely stripped from her by trusting hands. Guy uses different manipulation tactics to coerce Rosemary into doing what the cult wants. When Minnie drops off the desert on the night of conception, Rosemary refuses to eat it as it tastes strange. Guy persistently tries to get her to finish the food angrily, saying, “Come on, the old bat slaved all day, now eat it!” Guy uses the fact that Rosemary is already submissive towards him to get her to do things, even if it will harm her in the process. He shows obvious signs of malignant narcissism throughout the film, which at the time would not have been
26 The Remedial Herstory Project, Post-War Woman(2024)
27 Mischa Anouk Smith, The unstoppable rise of Tradwives, Marie Claire(2024)
considered anything other than a dominant husband.28 To soothe Guy's temper, Rosemary eats some of the desert, hiding the rest in her lap, choosing to hide her disobedience towards her husband. She quickly becomes dizzy and falls to the floor, and we realise she has been drugged Guy blaming Rosemary and suggesting she drank too much alcohol is a clear moment of victim blaming to ensure Rosemary won't suspect being drugged by Guy and the cult. As Guy lays her down on the bed, he begins to undress her, and we watch as the film switches from dream to reality. She dreams of herself on a yacht being captained by John F. Kennedy, who transforms into Roman Castevet. Rosemary covers herself in shame as she appears naked in the dream, grasping for her innocence. She begins to float through the Sistine Chapel and gazes at Michelangelo's “Birth of Man.” The cult surrounds the bed where she lies; they, too, are all naked, suggesting the connotation of an orgy about to begin. Guy begins to have sex with her while her limbs are tied down. He transforms into a demonic being with claws that caress and scratch her body As she looks into the eyes of the devil, the reality of the situation hits her, and she exclaims, “This is no dream, this is really happening!”29 As she continues to be raped, the pope approaches her, and she apologises for being unable to see him when he visited. She asks, “Am I forgiven, Father?”30 all while the devil continues to thrust upon her, creating a horrific scene filled with ambiguity.
She has been utterly betrayed by her husband, who permitted the rape and forced insemination against her and by her neighbours, who assisted it. During her dream, Rosemary is brutalised with the perversions that oppose her entire being. Her purity and innocence are ripped from her, and her guilt shines through. This is shown with the opposing symbols in her dreams, Kennedy being the first catholic president, then transformed into Roman, the Satanist cult leader. The Sistine Chapel is followed by a church burning in the background and the pope appearing as she is being raped while she asks for forgiveness. All the untainted things in Rosemary's life are transformed into something sinful and evil. Rosemary is being infiltrated by sin; her body and mind have become polluted. The scene is like a satanic version of the immaculate conception of Christ; everything Rosemary believes in is twisted before her eyes. We begin to understand that Rosemary is extremely fearful of being seen as impure, to others and by herself. Not only does she fear this, but because of the guilt she experiences, she subconsciously
28 Elizabeth Scott, Are You Dealing With a Malignant Narcissist?, Very Well Mind(2023)
29 Rosemary’s Baby (0:48:11)
30 Rosemary’s Baby (0:43:35)
blames herself. Asking the pope to forgive her while she is in the middle of being brutally raped, her hands and legs tied down, unable even to fight back, yet she still asks for forgiveness. The two images below show the darkness of this scene. Physically shrouded by darkness with only Rosemary’s face and a portion of the Devil's head visible, Polanski wishes to highlight the evil forming around her mentally and physically through his choice of lighting. As she asks for the Pope's forgiveness, we see him, too, surrounded by darkness. This suggests that Rosemary is seeking out the last of her faith as this horrible act is done to her while also associating the Pope with her own internal darkness and guilt that she is experiencing.
Rosemary’s Baby, (dir) Roman Polanski. (0:43:35) (1968)
Rosemary’s Baby, (dir) Roman Polanski. (0:43:35) (1968)
Rosemary has a profound fear of losing her purity, which is made clear in her dreamscape. She has had her ideal, traditional way of having a baby taken from her. Her positive notion of motherhood has been squashed due to it being consummated through the Violation of her body. In her essay, Hsu remarks, “Her fear is founded in the contradiction between cultural portrayals of motherhood and lived experiences of pregnancy.”31 Rosemary's Catholicism portrays her purity and desire to become a mother, which ties her to the Virgin Mary. Mary is the epitome of sacredness; she is revered within Catholicism as the untainted mother. Rosemary is unable to experience the beginning of motherhood in a way that equates to her faith and values. She is forcefully entered by something dirty, and she is made to feel unclean by everything that opposes her faith.
Through this rape, we see the coercive control Guy holds over her and the religious guilt that forces Rosemary into submission each time she is pressured into something. She must be the obedient housewife even when it destroys her. Even after she wakes, what has been done to her is immediately disregarded. Guy tells her to get up to make him breakfast, with the full knowledge that she has just been drugged and raped. He chuckles cheerfully as he describes how he had sex with her unconscious body; there is an immediate chill in the air as Rosemary, in a dissociated state, repeats, “You- while I was out?”32 Guy continues to poke fun at the situation suggesting that it was fun in a necrophiliac way. Before Rosemary is allowed a moment to despair, she is quickly dismissed. This display of abuse towards Rosemary is unsurprising due to the film being released in 1969. In the United States, rape within a marriage was not seen as a crime until 1993 due to the marital rape or spousal exemption.33 Eleanor Johnson comments, “In pretending he was the one who scratched her, he gaslights her; he controls and delimits her perception of reality.”34 The initial horror in Rosemary's baby is the idea of being raped by the devil. However, an even harsher reality is understanding that the man she loves and trusts allowed this without a seeming hesitation. This initial attack against Rosemary begins the snowballing of further abuse towards her. Guy can further control and trap her as she loses her grasp on reality. He isolates her from her old friends and only allows her to be in the company of the cult.
31 Leina Hsu, The Sanctity and Disgust of the Female Body in Rosemary’s Baby(2020)
32 Rosemary’s Baby (0:49:49)
33 Raquel Kennedy Bergen, An Overview of Marital Rape Research in the United States: Limitations and Implications for CrossCultural Research(2016)
34 Eleanor Johnson, Guy Horror: Rosemary’s Baby and Coercive Control(2023)
There are multiple moments when Rosemary mirrors the Virgin Mary through actions and imagery, even their names align with one another. Throughout the film, Rosemary is nicknamed “Rose” by her husband; unknowingly, he strips her of her ties to Mary. Even in the most subtle ways, her faith is violated. The herb Rosemary is also mentioned in the bible, symbolising fidelity and remembrance and is used in weddings and funerals. It is also said that the once-white flower was turned blue by the Virgin Mary’s cloak 35 There is an imagery of this as the film progresses: Rosemary’s white, peachy dresses become longer and blue, and by the end of the film, when she comes across her baby, she is wearing a long blue nightie As she rocks her child’s cradle, she is the spitting image of the virgin mother. As her torment worsens, she becomes more like the image of Mary; she becomes a tragic martyr. Polanski deliberately shows the ending scene as a darkened version of the nativity scene. Rosemary is surrounded by cult members looking lovingly at her and her baby Roman Castevet tells her to go to her baby and rock his cradle, and in a final act of submission, she does 36 This scene resembles the Italian painter Sandro Botticelli’s “The Nativity,”37 made between 1473 and 1475. The blue cloak covering Mary as she looks over her newborn baby remarkably resembles Rosemary at her baby's cradle. The way the curtains drape like an arch over the cot also reminds one of the arched shelter covering Mary and her baby, the people that look over the baby Jesus also tie towards the cult members looking down upon their new satanic saviour. Polanski purposely uses different scenes from Mary’s life as inspiration in his film to express how Rosemary's faith and purity are taken from her so she can be used as a vessel like Mary herself. Both mothers are praised for their suffering, except the horror of their situation is only truly shown in Rosemary’s Baby.
35 The Herb Society of America, Bible Herbs(2024)
36 Rosemary’s Baby (2:15:32)
37 Sandro Botticelli, The Nativity, Columbia Museum of Art (1475)
Rosemary’s Baby, (dir) Roman Polanski (2:15:32) (1968)
Sandro Botticelli, (1475) The Nativity, Fresco transferred on canvas
Hereditary and Modern Mothers
“Hereditary” directed by Ari Aster in 2018,38 is the fable of Annie Graham (Toni Collete) and her family's experience with the fallout of the supernatural. We find that Annie's mother has recently passed away, and there is an understanding that the two had a strenuous relationship, which is often reflected in Annie's relationship with her son Peter. (Alex Wolff) during a dreaded scene, where Peter is made to take his sister Charlie(Milly Shapiro) to a house party, Charlie is told to eat a cake and, unbeknownst to her, is filled with nuts, which she is deathly allergic to. Peter rushes Charlie to the hospital in excruciating urgency. Charlie tries to stick her head out the window to get some air, and as the car flies by a telephone post, she is quickly decapitated. The gut-wrenching horror of the situation sends Peter home in a dissociated state, driving himself home and going to bed, leaving Charlie's headless body to be found by his mother the next morning. After this event, their family begins to fall apart, and Annie meets a woman from a support group, Joan. (Anne Dowd) They immediately connect after Joan mentions losing her son and grandson. Later in the film, Annie “accidentally” bumps into Joan at the supermarket. Joan is in hysterics as she explains that she was able to contact her son from beyond the grave. She shows Annie, planting the idea of attempting to contact Charlie too. She tries to contact Charlie at home, and when it works, she wakes her husband Steve(Gabriel Byrn) and Peter to show them. Understandably terrified, Peter begins to sob; Annie disregards this, ignoring his cries, and she continues to call on Charlie. Steve is distressed by this, believing Annie has truly lost her mind. He feels contempt towards her and her coldness towards her last living child, knowing she blames Peter for Charlie’s death. After they contact Charlie, the real supernatural chain of events begins.
Peter experiences moments of possession, slamming his head on his school desk and breaking his nose. Annie starts to research different cults, realising that this whole time, her mother was part of a cult that worshipped the god “Paimon.” Aster based this cult on the real-life Aleister Crowley and his cult and 38 Ari Aster, Hereditary (2018)
philosophy “Thelema ”39 Annie realises that whatever she allowed to come into her home was not Charlie but a malicious spirit and that this whole time, Annie's mother had been using her as a vessel so they could use her children to resurrect Paimon. She tries to convince Steve, but he believes she has succumbed to a severe mental breakdown, ignoring her motherly instincts While trying to stop the spirit, she burns Charlie’s notebook, thinking it will sever the link and save her family. Instead, it causes Steve to burst into flames as if to punish her. In this moment, the spirit allows itself into Annie, possessing her entire body as if she is a passive vehicle watching as her body is controlled. She chases Peter into the attic, banging her head against the door in a terrifying state as he screams in fear. Peter inspects the attic and turns around to see his mother floating above him, staring into his eyes as she saws off her head, an aggressive reminder of her feelings towards him and the blame for Charlie’s death. He turns to spot naked cult members and, in a terrified state, jumps out the window, killing himself. He then slowly rises as King Paimon and walks to the family's tree house. He enters, and we see the cult naked, praying to an effigy of Paimon that has Charlie's severed head placed on its shoulders. The chain of events for this moment has been accomplished, and as he turns to see his headless mother and grandmother also praying to the effigy, Joan places a crown on his head; in a soothing voice, she says, “Charlie, You’re all right now, You are Paimon” followed by “we have corrected your first female body and give you now this healthy male host ”40 From these comments mixed with the realisations from Annie, we see that Annie was used as a vessel to birth a male host for Paimon, but Peter was not the right pick; Charlie was, except she lacked a male body The cult had to destroy her body to allow her to move into Peter's male body and then to enable Paimon to take over completely.
Annie's character does not take on the doting wife and motherly role like Rosemary. She is a hard worker and enjoys her craft as a form of therapy. Throughout the film, Annie is seemingly ridiculed as a mother, whether through her husband's growing resentment towards her or the cult's magic, which makes all her motherly instincts work into their power, causing pain instead of healing. Annie and Rosemary appear as stark opposites to one another. Rosemary's doe-eyed appearance is a glaring contrast to Annie's highstrung, modern-day mother look. Annie often appears in dull-coloured pantsuits and blazers; her clothes
39 Alan Kelly, The True Story Behind ‘Hereditary’s Occult Themes (2023).
40 Hereditary (2:01:33)
are for practicality and comfort; they suggest she is a hardworking mother with little time to think about her appearance, especially to appease others. Annie seems to take on the more paternal role by working in her office while her husband tends to their children, but Annie is still constantly disrupted in her work. From the living or the dead, these interruptions agitate Annie and are constant reminders that she has other duties as a mother outside her studio. Kathrine Fusco writes, “By linking Annie’s craft directly to the eventual dissolution of her family, Hereditary suggests that art is something better set aside when the baby comes.” 41 She is never truly allowed to be alone with her work. Her hobbies, work, and private life are no longer her own and will forever be shared with these disturbances. This becomes clear when Annie makes a miniature scene of the car accident to work through her grief. Steve angrily tells Annie how much this piece would upset Peter, and although he is right, we see Annie battle between being her artistic self and being a responsible mother.
There are moments through Hereditary when we acknowledge Annie's disinterest in being a mother. Although she cares deeply for her children, she often cannot use controlled language toward them, whether in her words or body. She has big emotions and is incapable of keeping them inside, an interesting contrast to mothers who are often praised for their suffering and able to do so in silence. After losing her daughter, this comes into full effect, especially towards Peter.
In multiple instances, Annie is reduced to a frozen state, unable to do anything but stare like a statue as her family members are left suffering in front of her. The first example of this is when, during a dream sequence, she happens upon Peter in his bed covered in ants, suggesting his body is being eaten away at. Unable to move, Annie stares in horror, her mouth agape; she resembles an exaggerated statue entombed in fear. She snaps out of this as Peter asks why she is scared of him, to which she replies, “I never wanted to be your mother.”42 Annie, unable to be dishonest with her son, even when it hurts him most, explains she was forced to keep him even though she tried to get rid of him before he was born. The scene changes as Annie and Peter become suddenly soaked all over while Peter cries, “Why did you try to kill me?” Annie replies, “I didn’t! I was trying to save you!”43 This scene refers back to a childhood memory,
41 Kathrine Fusco, ‘Hereditary’ and the Monstrousness of Creative Moms(2018)
42 Hereditary (1:11:48)
43 Hereditary (1:12:36)
where while sleepwalking Annie poured paint thinner on Charlie and Peter, only waking a second before she lit a match over them. When Annie says she was trying to save her children we understand that although it may have been subconscious, Annie believed that she was protecting her children from the powers of her mother’s cult and in her twisted way, she would rather see them be destroyed than to suffer the horrors they would have to endure from the cult. For Annie, protecting her loved ones is a liability, and she would rather never have had children than suffer from her fears and worry for them. Simone De Beauvoir commented on forced motherhood in her book the second sex, stating, “Forced motherhood results in bringing miserable children into the world, children whose parents cannot feed them, who become victims of public assistance or "martyr children."44 Annie was forced into motherhood by her mother, which resulted in a complicated, resentful relationship between herself and her children, specifically Peter. Beauvoir believed that women were often forced to give up their own lives for their children, creating a destructive bond between child and mother.
In the scenes where Annie is frozen in fear, we see her appear as a statue suffering from her family's pain. Her motionless emotional state is similar to the statues and busts made of the Virgin Mary crying. Both women are paused in their agony, Mary being made into a scene of her ultimate strife and mourning for her son and Annie in a trance state, forced to watch her family be violated and killed. The scene of Annie gaping at her son's body is similar to the bust made of The Virgin Mary by Francisco Romero Zafra named “Busto De Virgen Dolorosa.” Both women are frozen in time to suffer the tragedy of a mother with a dead child. Both women are cut off below the shoulders as if both are busts created as a relational art piece.
44 Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, (1949)
Hereditary, (dir) Ari Aster(1:11:40) (2018)
Francisco Romero Zafra (2001) Busto De Virgen Dolorosa. [Bust head statue]
Rosemary and Annie are mothers at two ends of the spectrum used for the same outcome. The loved ones they trust disregard their wants and needs. They both have their values stripped from them:
Rosemary's purity and idealist fantasy of motherhood are taken from her, and Annie's independence and freedom are taken from her, all of which is done for a higher male power. They are women exploited by the Christian patriarchal idea that a woman's ideal goal should be to follow in the Virgin Mary’s footsteps and be a willing vessel. Mary, Rosemary and Annie are three women who were never given a choice in the matter, they were never asked, they were told or forced to be this vessel. The baby for these women was always the main priority to the people in their lives, even before it had been conceived. The women in these films are extreme opposites yet are both disregarded and treated unfairly by the men in their lives, thus suggesting that whether one is a devoted holy woman or a “selfish” nonbeliever, both are capable of being exploited by a religious patriarchy.
Mary, Rosemary and Annie all become isolated through their stories. God allows Mary a virginal birth; she is then separated from all women and their natural births. Annie is forced to have children she never wanted, separating her from the ideal mother she is expected to be. Rosemary has her faith and idealistic motherhood stolen from her, dividing her from other mothers who experienced normal motherhood. The church, praising the story of the Virgin Mary, passed on the idea that women should happily sacrifice their lives for the good of their unborn and even unconceived children. In her book “The Book of Mary” Nicola Slee writes “When church fathers such as Augustine opined that Mary conceived without pleasure and gave birth without pain, they removed her absolutely from the condition of every other woman and elevated her piety at the cost of her bodiliness.”45 She continues by suggesting that because of this, Christian women are forced to look upon two unfair options: to either live like Eve, defined by her sexual nature and sin, or like Mary, defined by her virginity, excluding any sexual desire from themselves. This ideology is still prevalent today; the control over women’s bodies and lack of care for their wellbeing is clear through the current abortion laws. In 2022 a ten-year-old girl was forced to travel from state to state
45 Nicola Slee, The Book of Mary (2007)p52
to get an abortion after she had been raped.46 A woman’s body has constantly been perceived as a vessel, and even children themselves are not safe from this gross, misogynistic view.
46 Edward Helmore, 10-year-old rape victim forced to travel from Ohio to Indiana for abortion, The Guardian(2022)
Conclusion
This chapter will conclude the study by reviewing the important research findings relative to the original research claims and discussing the significant contributions. This study aimed to investigate the immaculate conception through the use of Mary’s body, how this affected her and how it further affected women who followed in her footsteps. This paper's results indicate that God gave Mary a mission at a very young age that would be impossible to refute due to her age, her class, the weight of her people’s salvation and the power imbalance between herself and God. This study further shows that the concept of the Virgin Mary created an unattainable goal for all Christian women; eventually, all women would be held to the same standard as her. This is shown consistently through art and media, which has been highlighted in this paper through the films “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Hereditary” by studying the portrayal of the female characters that are used as vessels for a higher powers child to be born, similarly to the virgin Mary. This paper's research has also shown through news and journal articles that the improvement of society's treatment towards women and their rights to decide whether or not they wish to have children is vastly unfinished.
However, the study’s limitations, such as its specific sample size and time restrictions, make it difficult to explore all these findings in depth. Further research is needed to investigate the effects of the “immaculate conception” through an unbiased study from both arguing sides. In the final analysis, We as a society tend to believe we are far superior to those before us; with constantly growing technology, studies of the body are forever increasing, allowing us to discover the correct way of helping someone depending on their physical condition. However, we will never be able to truly surpass our predecessors if we continue to follow the old ways of living or, worse, revert completely. There must be a shift of mentality towards the idea of controlling women as a whole. In a period where we can have any piece of knowledge at our fingertips, we cannot begin to cloud our heads with a misogynistic mindset, as it will lead to the ultimate tragedy for both men and women.
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