Motherhood and the Devil's Pact

Rating: Null/10 (10 January 2016)

Motherhood plays a crucial role in the emergence of the Devil, and the Devil's Pact. Eve is the first ambitious human to be discontent with her station and strive for more knowledge. She is the prototype of the Faustian legends. She wanted to be like God, having the same knowledge as Him. In biblical terms, the Fall represents the introduction of evil and the beginning of history or temporality. This temporality introduces a line of ancestry, and the creation of humankind, who will intrinsically strive as their mother had. Maternity should play an important role in any story involving the Devil because of the concurrence of motherhood in the creation of history and the introduction of evil. Although Devil's Pact stories have typically only dealt with male striving, Rosemary's Baby highlights the importance of motherhood in the Devils' mythology.
Rosemary is depicted as a figure similar to Mary, mother of Jesus. They both mother a savior who has come to redeem the world. Mary births the son of God, and Rosemary births one of Satan. While Rosemary is juxtaposed in name and motherhood to Mary, whose son would reverse the effects of the Fall, it is evident that the son of the Devil would continue the effects. This film replicates the occurrence of the Fall. Eve eats of the apple and leads Adam to eat also. Here Rosemary leads her husband to eat with the Castevets, serving as the serpent's temptation of which he bites.
The presence of the Devil and evil are as plain upon her as a piece of jewelry. The necklace that Rosemary receives indirectly through Satan contains Tannis root, later referred to as Devil's pepper. This has a bad odor that Rosemary, Hutch, Sapirstein's nurse, and Guy notice and comment on. As Mephistopheles says, "a whiff of anything makes plain whether it's holy or profane." Motherhood is clearly linked to the jewelry since Rosemary puts the necklace on the first night she finds out she is pregnant.
The nativity scene of Mary alone in the stable becomes important in viewing motherhood in this work of art. Motherhood as it relates to the Devil is very much an individual endeavor. Minnie tells her to go home when she spies her waiting for Hutch. Dr. Sapirstein advises her not to speak to any friends, or her Aunt "Fanny". Satan only rapes her once her wedding ring is taken off, and from the first day she knows she is pregnant, her body language in the bed makes her an isolated mother figure talking to her unborn baby, while the unresponsive Guy sleeps. The mother is always a solitary figure.
And she is an ugly, insane solitary figure. None of the typically beautiful descriptions of motherhood apply when related to the Devil. After Rosemary becomes pregnant, everyone she meets tells her how awful she looks. Guy thinks it is her haircut, which was the "worst mistake (she) ever made." Hutch asks in shock, "My God what's wrong with you?" and tells her she looks terrible. Her friends at the party tell her that she looks like chalk and that she looks tired. The party takes place at the time of her greatest pain, and the uglier she gets the more she desires the "day's brilliant light." She is also depicted in a negative light when seen as insane. According to Guy, she has the "prepartum crazies."
The Pact is strongly linked to motherhood because the striving male sacrifices the woman he loves to attain his goals. Guy is not satisfied, and in order to attain his dream of acting fame and fortune, he sacrifices his wife to the Devil. Literally having life's blood painted on her for the rape ceremony very clearly depicts the connection between the role of motherhood, the striving male and the Devil's Pact. It is the ambitious male who sacrifices the woman, thereby aligning himself with the Devil. Woman is left to breed more males to continue the process.
In relation to the Devil, the mother's only role becomes that of breeder of evil. She initially begins the Fall, and she continues the evil through her offspring. A drinking metaphor is one that emerges with the mother and Devil theme, played out with all of Rosemary's drinks, morning pills, and Adrian's drinking her milk. Instead of the nurturing role motherhood has typically embodied, here the mother is reduced to a very physical base level of need. The Tannis root drinks keep Rosemary unconscious so Satan can rape her, and the morning pills keep her unconscious so the coven can raise Adrian without her interference. All that remains for her is to give birth to him, and provide his milk. The Devil's work is to swell the ranks, and motherhood fits in by breeding the evil through each generation.
A sense of impending doom arises with the arrival of each progressive generation being born. Adrian Marcado conjures up the Devil, bears a son Roman, and he lives on to consort with the Devil just like his father. Roman Castavet aids the begetting of a mortal son of Satan to reap vengeance on the world. The inevitability of creating the Devil again is central in the maternal theme. Woman is inextricably linked to the Devil and the Devil's Pact. She created it and she will continue it.