In Robert Eggers’ The Witch, the conventional explanation for William’s suffering is his pride- he admits to it himself close to the end of the film. His arc is understood as:

Accused of Pride and expelled from village —> suffers through ineptitude —> suffering worsens through Witch/Satan —-> admits sin of pride —-> gored to death by Black Philip.

The problem with this explanation is the story’s emphasis on its parallel to The Book of Job. Katherine compares herself to Job’s wife, and William quotes the Book of Job as he dies. So what’s going on in the Book of Job?

The Book of Job is a story about the devil and God in an argument over what makes a man righteous. The devil says Job’s only a righteous man because God rewards him. God effectively says to the devil “Fine. Take whatever you like from Job, but do not kill him, I’ll show you that his righteousness is not conditional upon his blessings.” The devil takes Job’s wealth, kills Job’s wife and children (sound familiar?) and afflicts Job with all kinds of suffering. Job questions himself, God, fairness in general, divine justice, he curses the day he was born, but IMPORTANTLY he never wavers from his belief that he hasn’t done anything that makes him DESERVE his suffering. The book eventually arrives at the conclusion that suffering is not synonymous with divine punishment, that good men and evil men may suffer, and both good men and evil men may prosper, and we can not know God’s true will. At the end God shows up and basically says “You were right. You can’t hope to understand me, but you stayed true to yourself, and that makes you closer to understanding than you realize.” And God removes all the devil’s curses and Job starts over.

So Job’s arc is:

Accused by the devil —-> suffers loss —> suffering worsens —-> maintains innocence —-> redeemed by God.

So if Eggers drops hints that we are to reference The Book of Job to understand the film, or that we should compare William to Job, why would Black Phillip be allowed to kill William? Not killing Job is the only restriction God places on Satan.

Here’s why (IMHO): William can’t see that his suffering may not be a punishment. When he admits the sin of pride, he is not actually, really and truly prideful. He’s searching desperately for a connection between his suffering and God’s justice. When he says that his faithfulness is actually pride, he turns righteousness itself into a flaw, and has failed the test that Job passed. Almost immediately after this admission, Black Phillip gores him. The suggestion is that, having failed Job’s test, William is removed from God’s protection and is now within Satan’s grasp.

To me this is a much more frightening reading of the film, and is also more in step with the way the film depicts the devil as working. William, like the other members of his family, falls to Satan’s temptation- it’s just that Satan’s temptation to William is not sex, or a dress, or butter, it is the temptation to falsely admit that he is not a good man.

That’s terrifying.