Title:

Rosemary’s baby.

Author:

Ira Levin.

First year of publication:

This book is publiced in 1965

Number of pages:

243

Characters:

Rosemary Woodhouse: She’s 25 years old and married. She loves her husband, and wants children with him. She’s a naiif person, because she won’t believe that her husband is lying to her, and believes everything what the doctor or neighbours give her or tell her. She’s the most important character in this book.

Guy Woodhouse/Sherman Peden: he’s 34 year’s old. He’s an handsome actor from Baltimore. He lies to Rosemary and does not take good care for her.

Minnie and Roman Castevet: leaders os a witch group. They are the neighbours from Rosemary and Guy in Bramford. They looks like old nosy people and are a sort of parents for guy. Rosermary don’t like them but becaus of guy she like them.

Setting:

The story is set in New York City, at an appartement-complex calles the Bramford. It’s very dark and a sad place. They live at number 7E and Minnie and Roman at 7A.
The story takes place in 1965.

Duration:

The story is about 10 months. The story begins when she isn’t pregnant yet. Alittle before her pregnance. And it ends a few days after the birth of her child.

Perspective:

The book is writen in the third person. This hasn’t got much influence on the book.

Chronology:

The story is chronological with some flashbacks to the past, but thye haven’t got much influence on the book.

Title:

The title refers to the baby that Rosemary bears at the and of the book. There are three parts in the book: part one discribes the relationship between Rosemary and guy, and Rosermary’s wish of a baby. At the end of this part Rosemary is pregnant.
Part two is all about her pregnancy. And in part thre she bears and delivers the baby.

Theme:

The theme of this book is evil and witchkraft. Hutch warns rosemary and guy when they want to live in an apartment where had happened soms strange things. He thinks it’s a sign there might happen some more strange things. And then it turns out Rosemary’s living next to witches, and her husband is one of those.

Structure:

The book is divided into three parts.

Summary:

Rosemary and Guy are a young married couple when they move into the Bramford, a very nice apartment block in New York City. Rosemary wants to start a family there, but Guy wants to wait a little while. It doesn’t take them long to meet their new neighbours. Minnie and Roman Castevet are very kind old people, but Rosemary thinks they are too nosy. Guy really likes them and visits them a lot. Rosemary worries about the neighbourhood they now live in, because Hutch, her best friend, warned them that there seemed to be many suicides in the building. And more strange things happened there. In the apartment where Rosemary and Guy now live, the Trench sisters used to live and they used to eat children. Guy tells her not to worry and promises her that nothing will happen. One day Minnie gives Rosemary a good luck charm with a bit of tannis root inside it which turns out to be Devil’s fungus, but Rosemary is not aware of this evil herb. Guy who’s doing loads of screenings for various shows isn’t chosen to play the lead in a very important play, which could probably have made him a very famous actor. Donald Baumgart, his opponent, gets this part. Guy is beyond hope and joins the witch club, Minnie and Roman lead, and they promise him a brilliant future. In return he has to make Rosemary pregnant of Satan’s child. Guy agrees and Donald Baumgart becomes blind. (The club did it) So Guy now gets the lead and he tells Rosemary he wants to have children now. Rosemary is thrilled and prepares a lovely meal and hopes to have a nice romantic evening. Minnie turns up towards the end of the evening with a strange tasting chocolate mousse as a desert. Rosemary eats the desert and passes out sometime later. In a condition between awake and asleep Rosemary dreams she is at a Satan service where she is marked with blood by Roman and finally raped by a man who’s is not Guy. When she wakes up the next morning she has scratches everywhere and Guy tells her he made love to her while she was asleep. She is really angry at first but when she finds out that she is pregnant, she is happy about it! Minnie and Roman are very interested in Rosemary’s pregnancy and they supply an obstetrician for her. Dr Sapirstein is a very good friend of the Castevets and he shows an extraordinary interest in Rosemary’s baby. He sees her almost every week and gives her all kinds of weird advice, such as not to read in books or listen to other pregnant women. When Rosemary suffers enormous pains in the first six months of her pregnancy he only tells her it is normal. When Hutch comes to visit her, he tries to convince her there’s something wrong. Rosemary shows him her charm with tannis root and Hutch is suspicious. He never heard of tannis root and promises her to look it up. He calls her that evening and tells her he want to meet her the next day because he has something to tell her, which is very important. But he never shows up. Roman and the club had put him into a coma and a couple of months later he dies. Rosemary received Hutch’s book, called All Of Them Witches, and finds out the truth. She finds out that Roman is in fact Steven Marcato, the father of a famous witch. She tells Guy this, not knowing he is one of them too, but when she finds out he is part of the coven too, she runs away. The Castevets go after her with Guy and Dr. Sapirstein, who is a witch too, and they get her back home. When she had delivered the baby, she has been told that her baby is dead. But she doesn’t believe that. She is going to look for it. When she finds him in the Castevets’ apartment she sees that he has yellow/black eyes, claws as hands and a tail too. The entire witch club is there and they convince her not to tell anyone of Adrian’s birth and they ask her to be a mother to the child if she wants too. It is weird but Rosemary decides to go ahead with this and is allowed to take care of Adrian, now being called Andrew John if he can serve Satan later.

Personal comment:

The most important person is Rosermary, because it’s all about her and the baby.
Almost everything that happend in the book has something to do with rosemary, and sometime is has to do with her baby. She also is the one who isn’t a member of the witchery club.
The most important happening in the book is that guy made her pregnant. The rest of the book is going abou Rodemary and her pregnance.
I think the boolk is very nice, because it was exciting till the end. You don’t know what was going to happen. You don’t know till the end witch people are at the whitchery club and you didn’t expect it from some people. It surprise you. That is what I think it’s nice to read.
The book hasn’t learned me anything. But I liked to read this.