Dissertation

“Get Out of the House Before It Kills You”: Haunted Housewives and the Feminist Gothic in Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby and the Stepford Wives

Jeffries, Sarah

2023

Overview

Ira Levin’s works Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives have been cultural touchstones since their releases in 1967 and 1972, respectively, with their legacy as iconic American horror stories cemented by successful film adaptations. At the surface level, these stories can be read as tales about unfortunate housewives that face unusual horrors. Rosemary Woodhouse finds herself trapped in a gothic New York City apartment building, the Bramford, where her husband and neighbors collude to force her to carry and birth Satan’s son, like a perverse Virgin Mary. Joanna Ebert is similarly stuck in suburban Stepford, Connecticut where she discovers the town’s men conspire to turn their wives from thinking, feeling human women into robotic “hausfraus” (Levin TSW 22). Though these works function as gothic and gothic-futuristic narratives, truly understanding these novels requires thorough analysis of how Levin strategically employs these literary aesthetics for the purpose of satire. In both Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives, he uses conventions of horror to craft allegories which astutely critique the social and political landscape of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Because these novels primarily focus on women’s experiences and feminist issues, reading them together illuminates the transformative influence of the second wave feminist movement that erupted in the five years between their publishing. While both texts offer commentary on marriage, gender roles, and domesticity, The Stepford Wives’ more direct engagement with feminist ideas reflects the raised consciousness of both Levin and his audience.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: American literature / Creative writing / Womens studies
• ISBN: 9798384059769