The Witch: A Tale of Empowerment, or the Dire Lack of Choice? Anonymous College

In modern popular culture and visual media, there has been an evolution in the representation of witches and witchcraft. What was once regarded as grotesque, evil, and a threat to society, are now often presented as symbols of female power and agency, free from the confines of tradition and patriarchy. Robert Eggers’ film The Witch combines the two different portrayals of witches. The film is set in the 1630’s set in a Puritan village in New England, where the society is dictated by male hegemony. Women were perceived as subordinate to men, and gender roles were stringent and traditional. Yet, the film presents a contemporary reworking of witches through radical feminist ideas that ultimately involve Thomasin rejecting her role within society to finally become what her family had already deemed her as– a witch. On one hand, the film offers a radical idea of empowerment– a woman escaping the confines of a patriarchal society by rejecting the traditional bonds of “womanhood”, and embracing the barbaric, sexually deviant women that were considered a threat to the balance of Puritan society. Yet on the other hand, the film poses the disturbing and dark question– what other choice did Thomasin have? In a society that would blindly...