Opinion | Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

“When you're older you'll come to realize that acts of kindness are few and far between in this world of ours.”

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Ira Levin became a horror fiction pioneer by writing the infamous Rosemary’s Baby, in 1967.

Actor Guy Woodhouse and his wife, Rosemary, move in to the Bramford building after a unique opportunity arose. A building that both wanted and never had any apartment available. Rosemary’s gets acquainted with Terry, a young woman that lives with the Castevets. One nights, when Guy and Rosemary approach the building after a night out, they find out that Terry committed suicide. By chance, they run into the Castevets that night and soon they develop a friendship.

Rosemary eventually gets uncomfortable with the excessive and smothering friendship. Guy doesn’t feel the same, because Roman Castevet, considering Guy’s stagnated career, gives him tips and stories about his experience in the business.

Once Guy’s career starts to take off, Guy and Rosemary decide to try to get pregnant and they succeed. It isn’t difficult to come to this conclusion because the book’s name is literally about the freakin’ baby and Satan, because why not?

This book’s main theme is satanism and the occult, with the combination of the women’s due value at that period of time. It’s about the eternal fight between God and Satan, Good and Evil. You know… pretty much like any other horror fiction literature.

In Rosemary’s Baby, one sees it through the satanism and christianism, through Rosemary’s religion. Gradually, as Guy’s behaviour changes, so does Rosemary’s and there she is seen struggling with what’s acceptable and what’s reprehensible. Various subtle bits and pieces show how she can be influenced by each side, like the demon on one should and the angel on the other. For example, her motherly instinct vs. her moral and personal beliefs.

Written in the sixties, one can see the absence of the feminism as we know today. Rosemary is a housewife and she’s a wife that puts her husband’s career and comfort first and her personality, her desires, her dreams in second place. One might say that’s the traditional values at the time, but even in the eighteenth century one can see certain acts of feminism that they’re considered the start of modern-day feminism. Rosemary doesn’t settle but she lacks personality and a spine. Rosemary’s raped and, despite initially having a common reaction considering the situation – anger and disgust, she eventually justifies the rapist and accepts it like it’s not a big deal, I quote “Well that was really an earth-shaking offense, now wasn't it?”. Again, I understand that mentalities change as the decades go by, but considering the present time and the struggle women keep having, it’s revolting.

Through Rosemary’s perspective, a dark and suspense filling world is seen, where everything around Rosemary has some kind of a satanic influence, therefore the setting is very heavy and claustrophobic. It’s quite fascinating to see little details in satanic methods and characteristics that can interpreted as a bad influence on Rosemary and the good influence through moments of Light, usually seen as friendship and family.

Definitely a very intense book, capable of perking up the senses and keeping one at the edge of the seat. I’ve enjoyed it so much that I’m definitely Reading other works written by him including The Boys from Brazil and The Stepford Wives.
Other thing I want to talk about is the movie adaption of this book, directed by Roman Polanski in 1968. Rumour has it that the ones that were involved in the making of Rosemary’s Baby and under some kind of curse.

AS you may well know, Rosemary’s Baby is a cult movie and, as well as the book, became a huge success. However, people started noticing weird situations such as the tragic death of the movie’s composer and the coma of a producer, and linking them to dubious and similar circumstances in the movie. Even Ira Levin wasn’t left out of the curse. The author feels a great deal of guilt for introducing satanism to the world, and become a bad influence at that since the book had become a pioneer in horror fiction, followed by The Exorcist.

Also associated to this alleged curse is Roman Poliski. Polinski’s 8-and-a-half pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate, and her friends, were murdered in their home in Los Angeles by four members of the Manson Family, in 1969, while Polanski was in Europe.

In the seventies, Polanski is accused of drugging and raping a 13-year.old girl. After the trial that sentenced to a 90-day psychiatric evaluation. He underwent for 42 days in prison and agreed to a plea bargain in which the remain of time would be in probation.  After learning that the judge was going to revoke the sentence to 50 years in prison, Polaski fled US to France, where he rarely leaves.
On another note, this book was banned during the Spanish dictatorship under the command of General Francisco Franco. The content that referred to Satan’s worship was censored.

Such an interesting book to read knowing what was involve in real life, even more by its content. Highly recommend it and I’ll give feedback on the other two books by the same author that I plan to read- The Stepford Wives and The Boys from Brazil.

Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars