Women, Plague, and Temporal Reality in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal

Abstract

Cinema, presenting the experiences and social realities of different stages of human history on a visual and narrative plane, plays a central role in the construction of individual and collective memory. Through cinema’s power to reach mass audiences, historical events and social issues can be conveyed effectively. Cinema, beyond entertainment, links the past and present, disseminates historical knowledge, and conveys social issues to wide audiences. This study aims to examine the situation of women who were demonized as witches during the 14th-century plague epidemic through Ingmar Bergman’s film The Seventh Seal.” The study examines superstitions that emerged in medieval Europe in response to epidemics. Based on the fact that women were accused of witchcraft and burned, the characters and events in the film have been analyzed in the context of temporal reality. The historical and scientific accuracy of the scenes in the film has been examined using document analysis methods. The study revealed that irrational explanations were sought for events that occurred during the Middle Ages. It was determined that the church and clergy played an active role in the emergence of these irrational phenomena. In addition, it has been assessed that, in line with the class interests of religious leaders and nobles, accusations were leveled against disadvantaged individuals, particularly women, and that they were subjected to torture. The findings also include allegations that women collaborated with the devil, practiced witchcraft, and were responsible for social disasters. During this process, the fact that society adopted irrational justifications under the influence of propaganda, which in turn fuelled witch hunts and violence against women, was also among the important findings of the analysis.