The ending of The Red Virgin is chilling, which predominantly is credited to Alba Planas and Najwa Nimri (Holy Family, Insiders, Money Heist), who navigate this eerie tale of motherhood, control, and ideology incredibly well. In a moment of ideological madness, Aurora grabs her gun, which she has kept by her side at various points of the movie, and shoots her daughter, Hildegart, multiple times. This is all based on real events – Aurora was tried and sentenced to prison in 1935.
However, I sensed that some viewers may question the ending. Why did Aurora decide to murder her daughter in cold blood? What were her reasons?
Before Aurora pulled the trigger, Hildegart expressed disappointment in her mother after learning that she set up her lover, Abel Vilella, for murder and siding with the Anarchists when it was, in fact, Macarena’s partner who committed the crimes.
Bewildered by how much her mother had controlled her all her life, Hildegart accuses her of “hating women” and becoming the very thing she hates. She believed her mother had taken her progressivism and utopian socialism ideas too far via her, as the convoy, to the point she had become an anarchist and dictator.
At this point, Hildegart announces she is traveling to London with Abel to meet the author H.G. Wells. She remarks that she now has freedom.
When Hildegart walks off, a slight smile is seen on Aurora’s face. This smile is up for interpretation, but I felt like she was proud that her daughter stood up for herself as a woman – she created her as a protege, after all, but she never expected her daughter to stand up to her when she had all the control up to this point.
History will tell you that Aurora killed her daughter Hildegart for a multitude of reasons, and the film alludes to several of them, which I will list here.
Aurora Felt That The Science Experiment Had Failed
Aurora saw her daughter as a science experiment to create a leader of women of the future, but when Hildegart’s fame as a political activist grew, she felt outside forces manipulated her experiment.
This would support the hypothesis that she conceived Hildegart as a eugenics experiment, and once it failed, she felt she had no use for her anymore. The mother thought she had the right to end her project, especially when her daughter had announced herself as “free.”
Strangely enough, during the end scenes of The Red Virgin, Aurora sees her daughter as a young girl again, which supports the notion that she missed the time she could mold her into an older woman.
Aurora saw her daughter Hildegart as a science experiment. Left: Hildegart as a baby. Right: Aurora, the mother.
Hildegart’s Political Parameters Shifted Too Much
Aurora’s paranoia led her to believe Hildegart had become politically militant and outside her ideology and parameters. This is supported in the later scenes when Hildegart and her lover, Abel, announce they are leaving the Socialist Party for the Federalists, which she does not support.
This is why Aurora framed Abel, and then when she realized that Hildegart was not going to bend to her will once he was imprisoned, she decided she had to be killed, looping back to the failed experiment again.
Aurora wanted her daughter to be a feminist and intellectual leader in her envisioned revolution. Once that vision had been manipulated, she probably felt like her daughter lost her value in her mission. Hildegart finding love did not help; as Aurora thought, for a great feminist leader to manifest, her daughter had to be completely pure, which meant not lending herself to any man or divulging feelings or pleasures.
Aurora Thought There Was An International Conspiracy To Take Away Her Daughter
Hildegart was brilliant at writing because her mother taught her to be an excellent writer, and this naturally attracted international acclaim. The film is not explicit about this. It only shows that Aurora was against Hildegart traveling to London to meet H. G. Wells.
The court transcripts reveal that Aurora claimed that a Catalan lawyer, Antonio Villena, H.G. Wells, and Havelock Ellis, were part of an international conspiracy to have her daughter leave Spain so she could serve the Intelligence Services.
This alludes to the historical examination that Aurora was diagnosed with paranoia and schizophrenia.
In Conclusion…
Regardless, Aurora felt like she had full ownership of her daughter, Hildegart, and when she considered her “life work” had failed, she felt like she had the right to kill her. While The Red Virgin does not explain this, it is reported that Aurora never regretted Hildegart’s murder.
The end of The Red Virgin can bring many interpretations, but whether Aurora was mentally insane or not, either way, she felt like she had every right to kill Hildegart, which makes the final scenes even more chilling.
Rest in Peace, Hildegart Rodríguez Carballeira.
