Feminist Movement in Literature

Originally published in 1971, The Exorcist consistently remains one of the most controversial novels to ever be written and has gone on to become both a literary and film classic. This insane account of an exorcism is based partly on actual events. When young Regan starts acting out of the ordinary; levitating and speaking in tongues — her concerned mother seeks out medical attention, only to hit a brick wall. Seemingly, doctors believed she suffered from schizophrenia. However, local priest Father Joseph Karras thinks Regan may have been detained by a demon.

Father Karras makes a request to carry out an exorcism. Throughout this short essay, I will review The Exorcist through both a gender lens and a historical lens. Determining, whether the role of women was connected to the rights movement that occurred in the same decade.

The novel and likewise the film made debut at a time when the women’s rights movement was gaining immense attention throughout the country via media outlets.

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For example, in 1960 birth control became reachable, allowing women to pursue professional careers without being deterred off course by an unexpected pregnancy. The pill made the sexual revolution possible because it helped to fight the misogynistic view that women could not have sex before marriage, while men could without even a whisper being said. Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique in 1963, challenging the idea that persuading women to question their inferior social role as meager homemakers. The pinnacle of the feminist movement was roughly the same time, The Exorcist was released.

In the first part of the novel, Regan and Chris are discussing director, Burke Dennings. Regan inquires to her mother if she is into Burke, Chris answers “Of course I like him. I like pizzas too, but I’m not gonna marry one” (Blatty, 46).

The interaction is pure enough that it is easily squandered over, still it holds incredible weight when we realize what it anticipates. Chris is a single mother with an ex no longer in the picture, and she seems in no rush to settle down. She retains her self sufficiency, which results in her inability to maintain a “conventional” family structure. Which causes us to question, Did Beatty write the exorcist with Chris’ character development in mind because he himself believes that women need men to center their lives? Is the absence of a man in their lives intended to correspond the horrors they undergo throughout the novel?

The defiance of the women’s movement is built into The Exorcist where men need to lend a hand to return structure. Touching off that, why is there an absence of female figures who could aide in suppressing the demon? In a time of such progress, The Exorcist is refusing to adjust with the modernity that began to develop in the 1970s. In the passage it states, “Friday, April 29. While Chris waited in the hall outside the bedroom, Dr. Klein and a noted neuropsychiatrist were examining Regan” (Blatty, 137). No doubt the noted neuropsychiatrist was also a man. The occupations of the men who attempt to save the women in the film are extremely important. They are doctors and priests. Medicine and religion continue to be common systems of oppression over women since their existence. While a vast amount of religions have some component of masculine governing, The Exorcist deals with Catholicism. In Catholicism, women have historically been discriminated against regarding basic rights such as; divorce, sex before marriage, religious office, and many other inequalities that the feminist groups fought for.

It is the hope of mankind that men and women should be treated equally in social, economic and all other integral parts of society, and to not be discriminated against on the basis of their gender. William Blatty, author of The Exorcist essentially disregards the growth of women when writing this piece. He could have added a women as a priest, or even a police officer as a replacement for Detective Kinderman instead he neglected the progress and further put women in a position to feel like they can’t solve an issue a man can. All in all, I firmly believe that this piece shows key evidence of a power struggle between genders in history.