Golem Reflection

The movie takes place in a Lithuanian Jewish community where people were very religious. The first theme that pops up is the idea of gender discrimination as only men were allowed to attend the lessons given by the Rabbi because women were considered unable to comprehend religious content. The main character, Hannah, refused this idea and kept going to those lessons secretly without anyone watching and she appeared to have a deeper understanding of the concepts than most men. Hannah was also studying books concerning the Kabbalah which is a group of sacred texts that contain writing similar to enchantments that deal with the mystical parts in Judaism. Hannah had lost her son, Joseph, and was not intending on giving birth again because of the effect his loss had on her. The village’s community was peaceful and even though the plague was rampant at that time, the villagers were all healthy which attracted barbaric invaders to the village. The invaders took control of the village and forced lock downs every night and Hannah was not willing to give in. She had been read a lot of Kabbalah books and she was finally able to create a Golem. She constructed the Golem’s body with mud and with some religious words, she was able to give him the breath of life. The Golem resembled her son very much and she immediately felt attached to it. The power of the Golem and the connection between it and Hannah became clear when it murdered a lady who was constantly flirting with Hannah’s husband the night after Hannah saw her doing so. Hannah used the Golem to fight the invaders and kick them out of the village. Everyone in the village saw the Golem. The Rabbi and Hannah’s mother warned Hannah that the Golem is not as good as it seems. Hannah’s mother tried to kill the Golem but it was able to kill her first. The religious men of the village decided also on killing it using words from Kabbalah books as well but they weren’t able to since the invaders came back and were torching the village. The Golem heard Hannah screaming and here we can sense the deep connection between it and Hannah. It was able to fight the effect of the spell and go save her from the invaders. After witnessing its monstrosity, Hannah decides to kill the Golem in a rather emotional scene as if she was killing her son.The idea of people getting emotionally attached with their creations like Laodamia with her wax statue of her husband, is very prevalent here since Hannah got attached to the golem because it looked exactly like a human being and not any human being but her dead son. She played with the golem, showered it and treated it like her real son regardless of the barbaric things he did which was very troubling to watch. Another idea comes up which is that our creations might actually backfire as the golem was supposed to protect the village and its residents when in fact, it killed hannah’s mother and the other lady. This tells us that we should think wisely before creating something that is that powerful.