"Wouldst thou like the taste of butter" The Witch and the Simplicity of Temptation

5/17/2017

"Wouldst thou like the taste of butter . . . wouldst thou like to live deliciously?"

This is the climactic scene in the film The Witch (2015) where the eldest daughter of the pilgrim outcast family. Tomasin, demands Black Philip, a goat--also an incarnation of the devil (?), speak to her. All movie long, her younger siblings had claimed that Black Philip speaks to them and told them that Tomasin was the witch, which of course, she wasn't. On the contrary, she seemed to be the sweetest and most grounded of all them all. So embrace of the devil is unexpected and disturbing.

The sequence of the interaction is interesting. The devil never initiates or coerces. At each point, the choice is hers.

She follows Black Philip into the barn. She "conjures" him to speak to her. He asks what she wants, to which she replies, "What dost thou offer?"

Now, here is where Satan makes his pitch. Of all the things that could be offered, of all the things that the mighty Lucifer could present, the first thing he says, "Wouldst thou like the taste of butter?" Fascinating writing. He goes for a very simple sensation, butter, and then extends the offer to a delicious life. One thing missing here is the offer of power.

In two biblical scenes, Eve and Jesus' temptation, Jesus is tempted through food. Probably something like "Wouldst thou like the taste of hot, warm, chewy bread?" When Jesus declines the hot, warm, chewy bread, Satan ramps it up and eventually offers power, the kingdoms of this world. In Eve's case, the fruit appealed to the eye and looked good to eat. But the clincher it seems was that it "was desired to make one wise," or be like God--clear offer of power.

What was different in the biblical scenes and in The Witch? Many things, but with Eve and Christ, both had a lot to lose. Warm, chewy bread was just not enough to give up obedience to God. For Eve, she had everything she wanted in the Garden of Eden. But Eve and Tomasin are seduced by Satan because in both cases, he offers what is seemingly otherwise unattainable. Tomasin had no where else to go and the offer of a delicious life was far more generous than she could have hoped for. Eve and Adam are an interesting case. They could have been content, but the very presence of God on a daily basis only serve to reveal to them what they were not, regardless of what they did possess.

The simplicity of the temptation, butter or a delicious apple, was really a complex symbol representing power, the power to attain the unattainable.

With Satan, it's never just butter.

19 Comments

Ella

7/3/2020 11:48:16 pm

Love it.

Thomas Raven

9/15/2021 02:14:43 pm

Sorry, but the snake in the book of Genesis isn't Satan. In fact, most of what Christians think they know about Satan comes from Dante's Inferno, not the Bible.

Theducciano

10/14/2020 09:05:47 am

Um, in your post above, you never mention God's conspicuous absence while the family is being torn apart; and, you never explain Thomasin actually flying at the end, indicating that Satan GAVE her special abilities: she could finally transcend the natural world and it's cruelty to her because of her theological dissociation from God. So, from my standpoint, as a woman living in New England during the 16/17th century and dominated by a patriarchal society which would blame women for all manner of misfortune, Thomasin, whose innocence has been abandoned by God, is clearly better off living deliciously with Satan.

Or, tell me just how wonderfully joyous and utterly delightful your existence has been as a Christian; rhapsodize for us how God has not abandoned you and has given you the means of transcending your plight so that you too find yourself living deliciously.

Steven Miller

11/24/2020 10:12:53 pm

Chill, dude. It's not that deep.

Theducciano

11/25/2020 02:57:30 am

Your comment that I should "chill [because] it's not that deep" may be intellectually dishonest. The entire blog post is an effort to abstract a pointed theological truth about temptation from what is essentially a horror movie:

"The simplicity of the temptation, butter or a delicious apple, was really a complex symbol representing power, the power to attain the unattainable. With Satan, it's never just butter."

In the film's logic, Satan rescues Thomasin from God's abandoning of her family; she pays for this rescue with giving ol' Lucifer her soul - a fair exchange, some could argue. Well, what's the difference between that and what Christ offers his followers? Christ promises to rescue people from their sin but only if they give him their soul - a fair exchange that I am sure even you would argue for. In my opinion, Thomasin is better off cavorting with the Prince of Darkness (and other women) than she is with the Abandoning God she worshipped in the beginning for obvious reasons.

But, make no mistake about it: the likely reason why you're here is because you were intrigued by the headline as much as I was which means all of this has some meaning for you. Yet, for you to now indirectly question, in the face of encountering an opposition that you did not expect, it's overall validity contradicts why you're even here at Ekeh's unfettered ruminative blog site in the first place! You're being a phony, in other words. You're better off just saying something like: "Boy, you ask really good, thoughtful questions" or "You're wrong!" all of which would be more honest than telling me to chill because it's not that deep. Yet, because you did not say what you said to me to Ono Ekeh first, I am allowed to think that you're being intellectually dishonest.

Ultimately, I think what happened here was that you read my thoughts and then suddenly realized that you were a Christian with limited apologetic skills, so you attacked me by minimizing my contribution instead of responding honestly to them. Or, you simply cannot recognize the stakes here because Steven Miller - it IS that deep, bro . . .

9/22/2022 03:04:28 pm

It absolutely is that deep. Thomasin gets treated like crap and her puritanical religion destroys her family. The entire point of the movie is that she turns to Satan because Christianity failed her on every level.

Busk

10/7/2022 06:47:01 pm

Theducciano fucken nailed it shut with his summarization of the creepy and awesome AF climax to the VVitch. And as for "chill bro"...This little play out between Thomasin and Black Phillip is, THE classic ever ongoing battle between God and Satan. The scene and the consequences of choice, are as deep as the ocean.

But of course, it's all just fairytale boogeyman vs fairytale savior and it all should'nt be considered as anything but a story.
Mind you, one that's been used to shape humanity.
(I say for the worse)

Helraiser

11/30/2020 06:02:52 am

La única diferencia entre entregarle el alma a Jesús o a Satanás es que Jesús es el hijo preferido de Dios y Satanás no es Dios. Por ende, cualquier cosa que satanás pueda ofrecer es temporal, luego de eso sólo queda el vacío eterno a la sombra de la Luz de Dios. Postdata: no soy religioso, solo estoy analizando. Y si no entiendes Español, usa Google translate.

Qwerty

2/26/2021 11:34:44 pm

Brian, you're a clever man, but even today your heart is full of anger just as it's been for some time. You call yourself a Christian, but do you really know Christ? How can one who truly does relish the act of hoisting their contemptuous vitriol onto others in response to the slightest provocation as you so often have done? How would the clients who look up to you feel if they knew what really went on in your mind?

Brian, you're brilliant, but you're a sad and lonely man. I hope that changes for you someday. This will be my only post to this forum, so you can save whatever reprisal is undoubtedly forming in your mind. You will never know who I am, but you should know that there are those of us who see you for what you are. Needless to say, we're disappointed.

Bill Theodore

5/7/2021 12:40:06 pm

Lol whoa...we have an evangelical atheist over here. What a f##king door knob

Daphne

3/12/2022 10:31:37 pm

Yes, exactly this! I thought it was a beautiful ending of a young woman finding freedom in the most unexpected of places.

LoDolce

5/2/2022 09:16:17 am

"a young woman finding freedom"? LOL:
- Immediately given orders ... by a male
-- "take off you clothes"
-- "sign your life over to me"
-- "go where I tell you to go"
- Lied to ... by a male
-- there is no butter
-- there is no dress
-- there is no seeing the world
- Enslaved ... by a male
-- She will always be naked for him
-- She will live in a cave for him
-- She will kidnap and murder babies for him
--

LoDolce

5/2/2022 10:13:05 am

Um, "Thomasin ... could finally transcend the natural world ... is clearly better off living deliciously with Satan". Really? Well, "You're wrong!"

This is what "living deliciously" will look like for Thomasin:
- Never allowed to wear clothes, living alone in a mud hut
- Murdering and mashing up abducted babies, then shmeer the entrails over oneself to keep the special ability Satan supposedly "GAVE" her for free
- Becoming physically deformed and visually repugnant, relying on illusion for any outside contact
- Having to drink from an unwashed teet like a starving beast...where's the Butter?
- Isolated to a small, remote group of similarly naked, starving, enslaved women waiting for the misogynistic scraps of their patriarchal master

... or, she could make her way back to the plantation where real butter, a real dress and the real opportunity to see the world awaits.

Hermes

9/18/2022 09:05:47 am

You forget one thing: she murdered her mother. Doubtful she’s gonna wanna go back to the real world and make it on her own from the shame she bears of that act even if it was in self-defense.

And it could be argued that the ability to fly and the illusion of being a gorgeous woman in a pretty dress is no different than the reality. How you present to someone is how people perceive you. There are many “beautiful” women with “ugly” souls. doesn’t seem to stop them from getting what they want.
Thomasin was trapped between a rock and a hard place and was made to feel like she was increasingly worthless, worse than useless, actually, actually made to feel like sue was harmful and awful by her own “God-fearing” family- she did nothing wrong, and yet her parents decided to use her as a scapegoat (no pun intended) for their own existential fears and projection and defense mechanisms against their own personal failures to help the family survive .
This is what happens to Black sheep of dysfunctional families- again, no pun intended.

Literal and metaphorical symbols about black sheep in the film abound. They are caught between a rock and a hard place.

There’s no salvation for her in the present day that she lived in. In the 1600s, Women are chattel. Women are less than human in that time. Their Puritan idea of God is completely evil.

Her transgressive lifestyle, while not great, is no better than the hypocritical “Christian” life of her day. She’s trapped either way.

Do you think her life is going to be roses and candy bars if she somehow finds her way back to civilization? At least she will be kin with women like herself.

The conceptualization of evil was taken in this movie from literal documents of the 1600s of what the dangers were of being a single, self-contained woman. This is what they thought all single, self-contained women were: witches.

Aside from that 17th century construct, brought about by white, straight, fake Christian men who were using religion for power and control purposes over the masses , aside from them creating a completely fictional reality (which is what the writing of this movie was based on, they completely misogynistic and also I think antisemitic hate tract Malleus Maleficorium, a 15th century account written by a German male clergymen who is basically just making shit up as he goes along about witchcraft and demonology , and was then used and Weaponized by These incredibly powerful, incredibly political religious leaders to control women, to control taxes, to control land, to control people.

Aside from the obviously awful act the witches were doing in the film/ reenacting these completely fabricated accounts of witchcraft by clergy , which was murdering babies and smearing the entrails all over themselves, Aside from that nonsensical account, they’re pretty liberated and free from the constraints of a society in a time that hates them anyway.

Hermes

9/18/2022 09:23:14 am

Link about Malleus Maleficarium : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleus_Maleficarum

Richard Green

11/3/2022 12:00:14 pm

You're clearly unhappy. You should go to church. That's where I've found happiness.

Hermes

11/3/2022 05:22:37 pm

Opioids like your religion tend to make everything warm and cozy, don’t they? I don’t need your patronization or your religion to find anything. I already have what I want.

Marcos

9/7/2022 04:00:06 pm

O filme termina num momento de êxtase de uma moça acossada pela vida. Aquele momento é brevíssimo e por isso o filme termina ali, pois dali para a frente não há mais vida, somente a agonia de um destino dedicado à perversidade.

Billy Bones

11/3/2022 04:34:37 pm

Whoa! There’s a ton of rage here! I wish this movie evoked a reaction as strong as any of these comments, but it didn’t for me. Pretty boring in my opinion (you gotta bring it now a days). Everyone kinda got the shaft in this flick and most all of that Chopin’ wood probably went unused. I guess “ living deliciously” will look different for different people, but I can definitely see what the author is talking about here, and I agree with it. Flying around in the woods, eating chickens and offing the young probably gets old after a while. I also suppose that you can’t really tap out after you’ve “had enough.” What I think is waaaay more interesting is how people are reacting here in the comments. Some people have something(s?) happen to them that just never get resolved and it rots in there somewhere and they start to see it in everything. I hope that gets worked out for those of you here that applies to.

"Wouldst thou like the taste of butter" The Witch and the Simplicity of Temptation

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