Rosemary's Baby is a very strange book, both in the text and its different interpretations of the text. With how satanic it is supposed to be I find it surprising that Ira Levin's book gained as much popularity as it has over the years. The book itself is about Rosemary Woodhouse who had just moved into an old Gothic apartment building with her husband, Guy, who is supposed to be a struggling actor. The two of them are welcomed into their new home by thier new neighbors, Minnie and Roman Castavet, who Guy starts spending a lot of time with. Guy unexpectedly decides to have a child with Rosemary, something that he has opposed and that she has wanted for a rather long time. Some other stuff happens, such as Rosemary learning Roman is a leader of a satanic cult, and Rosemary has her baby, YAY! But wait, the baby is supposedly dead on arrival and Rosemary believes she's getting drugged by Minnie so that she remains weak and sedate. Rosemary sneakily doesn't take the drugs she's been given, and grabs a knife to go kill the cultists. When she arrives, the cultists disregard her and lead her to her baby, upon which Rosemary's motherly instincts kick in and she decides to raise the baby herself, under her own rules.
The main psychological theory that we developed is that Rosemary has Postpartum Depression. We concluded this because she shows several symptoms, including feeling worthless and withdrawn, loss of concentration, loss of energy, and loss of pleasure or interest in most activities. Even though she was drugged after giving birth, she still shows most of these symptoms. There is also a higher chance of this developing if the mother has had less freedom for herself, changes in her body (weak and frail for the first months), changes in social relationships (no social interaction at all), had mixed feelings about the pregnancy (she was RAPED), had a stressful event occur (learning your neighbors, friends, and spouse are part of a satanic cult. Not to mention that Hutch dies.), a poor relationship with your spouse (do I even need to say it?), and lastly little support from friends, family, or spouse.
So we can easily determine that Rosemary has developed Postpartum Depression, what does this mean for the end of the book? Well, a mother with Postpartum Depression can have intense feelings of worry about their baby, which Rosemary clearly has, even though she's been told the baby is dead. Lastly, a mother with Postpartum Depression may develop negative thoughts about their baby, even going so far as to do harm and plan to kill their child. Rosemary, when she discovers that the baby is still alive, and is with the cultists, develops negative thoughts about suicide and homicide, both of the child and the cultists. She prepares herself to with the cultists, develops negative thoughts about suicide and homicide, both of |
the child and the cultists. She prepares herself to go in and kill the cultists, and when she's done, kill the baby and herself. People with Postpartum Depression can develop deep thoughts of suicide and death, and sadly it's not strange to hear stories about people with severe depression killing themselves and taking the lives of others in the process. Thankfully, or possibly not thankfully saying as it is Satan incarnate, the Cultists are able to save Rosemary from making the headlines of the news for the next year or so about another mass killing.
*On a side note two of our developers (Cory and Nathan) have developed several strange theories about this book while creating the psychological theories for Rosemary. The strangest of these being that Rosemary actually died on the night of the ritual, and that Satan, as he is the one that raped her, is displaying the events of what was supposed to happen, albeit with a disturbing twist that he is her baby's father, as we see in the actual book.
The other theory is much more logical, Rosemary was actually raped on the streets when she was supposed to be returning home, because of this rape, her body goes into comatose. The rest of the story is her distorted view on what happened and her mind attempting to develop a story around what happened. Instead of being drugged, raped by some random person, and left in the hospital on support during the coma, Rosemary thinks she is drugged, raped by Guy (or Satan), and left in their apartment not allowed to leave. Rosemary's body is aware that it is in the hospital, or at least confined somewhere, and is telling her that she's trapped in her apartment by a satanic cult.
**Cory and Nathan also had some other theories, including postpartum psychosis, but none were as developed as these.
The other theory is much more logical, Rosemary was actually raped on the streets when she was supposed to be returning home, because of this rape, her body goes into comatose. The rest of the story is her distorted view on what happened and her mind attempting to develop a story around what happened. Instead of being drugged, raped by some random person, and left in the hospital on support during the coma, Rosemary thinks she is drugged, raped by Guy (or Satan), and left in their apartment not allowed to leave. Rosemary's body is aware that it is in the hospital, or at least confined somewhere, and is telling her that she's trapped in her apartment by a satanic cult.
**Cory and Nathan also had some other theories, including postpartum psychosis, but none were as developed as these.