I have always believed that people's subconsciousness is far stronger than we realize, powerful enough to create a world, powerful enough to pretend to be the voice of a god or devil, and influence people's judgment of the real world. Human material desires are mapped to the devil in consciousness, and some spiritual constraints such as morals will turn into gods to fight against them. Those who can truly get happiness from God must be faithful believers who have cut off their material desires and have pure six roots. And I believe that most believers are actually in an awkward position between the two extremes, suffering from the struggle between reality and the spiritual world from time to time.
The family in the film is a typical example. In order to stick to his beliefs, his father chose to leave the church and lead his family to live independently, as a testament to God's favor. But he was wrong. It is impossible for people to test God from individual independent practice, because the core of religion requires believers to establish a unified value. A group of people who share common beliefs live in harmony under the same law, and their mutual affirmation determines the distance between the individual and the gods. So the family who chose to face reality and abandon the dogma were actually far away from God's favor from the beginning. And the family members are in the same bed with different dreams, and different inner worlds determine that they each explain different gods. Spiritually separated from the support of the church, and materially chose a more severe living environment, the external contradictions continue to intensify, and it is inevitable that they will eventually fall apart in their hearts.
If you speculate on the inner heart of each family member, it is not difficult to see their struggling mental journey. Take the most obvious example of Caleb. At the age of teens, it was just when thinking was formed. On the one hand, he was brainwashed by the deep-rooted concept of original sin in the Puritan family, and on the other hand, he could no longer restrain his sprouting spring heart. It is not difficult to guess that after stealing a glance at his sister's chest, he condemned himself countless times with religious ideas, and the temptation of sex and the fear of sin were deeply implanted in his mind. We don't know what happened on the night he entered the deep forest with a shotgun, but it is conceivable that the extreme fear caused him to fall into insanity. In this state, a plump witch appeared in his hallucinations as the neutral incarnation of his mind. Then there are the evil spirit possession scenes that are often found in traditional horror movies, but this movie is more realistic. The sin he chanted repeatedly when he was unconscious was not an oracle, but a knot in his mind. In an extremely unstable state of mind, he suddenly turned to God and was ecstatic, but this was the reflection of his consciousness. The conceited father, the superstitious mother, and Thomasin who suffered injustice are all suffering such struggles in their hearts. When these two forces fill people's minds, every movement in the real world will be rumbling. The intentions of rabbits and black sheep, which are already rich in religious connotations, have become dark messengers at this time, and they have also encouraged the growth of the power of the devil in Thomasin's heart. The ascent of the last scene implies that she can finally leave behind the repressive religious atmosphere from the Puritan family and enjoy unprecedented freedom.
Looking back at the whole film, if the devil chose Thomasin from the beginning to let her endure all this, it is really untenable. The director did not take a shot to verify this hint in the first half. It is more likely that the inherent nature in everyone's heart is treated as "sin" by religious concepts, but the dark side of nature becomes stronger. I think the image of "witch" is actually the incarnation of the last force in our hearts to resist the "god" and protect our own selfish desires.
Therefore, you must either fully believe in God or not. The existence of religion, on the one hand, turns some people into more pious believers, on the other hand, it pushes people to the other side of God. To say God to atheists may sound too far away. But the same goes for morality: aggressive defenders can push people to the opposite of morality at any time.
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