Religious teachings?
	When it came to religious teachings, on the other hand, there was a clear power dichotomy between the genders. Puritans believed in Predestination -- that is, salvation or damnation was determined by God and only God knows whether that person -- no matter the gender -- would be going to heaven or hell. However, this did not stop religious teachings from trying to find a sign about a person’s destiny, and these teachings were centered around the anxiety and dread of the devil’s influence. While women and men were seen as equal in the eyes of God, they were not seen as equal in the eyes of the devil. In other words, women were seen as carrying moral depravity that while present in men, was much more uncontrollable and impulsive. Men would be more likely to repent for their sins, while women would mull over the essential immorality of their souls. (Reis 1999: 1-2) In the first few minutes of The VVitch, we see Thomasin praying about how she had committed sins in thought, crying, and begging for forgiveness. Puritans never explicitly talked about this concept of the “damned woman”, but the impact of the teachings is linked to the creation and fear of the witch -- a monstrous transformation of an already damned woman who accepts her moral depravity and makes a covenant with the devil instead of God. (Reis 1999: 2) The woman’s weak morality made her vulnerable to the acts of the devil thus becoming a witch by signing the devil’s book -- the devil’s book in the movie had been offered in two instances, the first one where the devilish hallucination of the son Caleb offers Katherine to sign the book of the devil. Katherine delays the signage of the book by feeding her lost son Samuel, namely performing the motherly, womanly moral ideal so as to not fall under the spell of the devil and become a witch. The second instance, however, is at the near end of the movie where Thomasin is offered to sign the book of the devil after the rest of the family is killed or missing. Analyzing this through the prism of the family being the fabric of Puritan New England society, a young woman with “budding” sexuality and body has just lost the building block of the community consequently losing her covenant with God and making a deal with the devil. The last few scenes of the movie represent the anxiety around a woman failing to uphold the “damned soul” mentality -- Thomasin accepts the offer to live deliciously, disrobes her sinful body, and joins the circle of witches in experiencing her evil sexuality.

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