The Realities Of Puritan Life With M. Night Shyamalan s...

In order to compare the realities of Puritan life with M. Night Shyamalan’s theatrical interpretation, The Village, it is important to understand who Puritans were and what kinds of beliefs they had. Puritans, different from Pilgrims, attempted to â€Å"purify† the Church of England in the seventeenth century as they felt it had been insufficiently reformed. Their idea of reformation consisted of a Calvinistic approach to society; believing in the absolute sovereignty of God, absolute dependence on divine grace for salvation, and the importance of personal religious experience. This meant that not only did they have to cleanse the church of traditional Roman Catholic practices, but also develop a new societal structure that reflected their new†¦show more content†¦The fictional community portrayed in the film disregards some of the social standards that actual Puritans had established, circa the 1600s, in regard to societal gender roles, but does a good job in accurately presenting other social aspects. In The Village, women are portrayed as a more significant element to the Puritan lifestyle as they assume roles as towns elect. This can be spotted when Luscious, the protagonist, delivers his proposal to the town hall members when he wishes to venture out into the â€Å"forbidden† forest. Out of the twelve members at the meeting, five were females; proving to be completely contrary to real Puritan society. Massachusetts Bay Colony, for example, â€Å"was a man’s world† with extreme patriarchal social structures. It was understood among Puritans that women were not to assume positions at town meetings and were excluded from any decision-making in the church. Another good example of the prejudice against women was the Salem Witch Trials, in which  ¾ of all convicted heretics were females. It was believed that women were more susceptible to Satan’s influence, and for that reason should stay out of the affairs of men and government as a whole. While Shyamalan fails to properly represent