Browsing by Subject "17th century"

The center focus of my thesis is displaying the real-life elements of witches and witchcraft in three Jacobean era plays: Macbeth, The Witch and The Witch of Edmonton by employing late 16th century and early 17th century secondary material from works such as: Reginald Scot’s The Discouerie of Witchcraft (1584), Henry Goodcole’s The Wonderful discovery of Elizabeth Sawyer (1621), Holinshed’s Chronicles (1587), King James’s Daemonologie (1597) and Newes from Scotland (1592). The theoretical background of the thesis consists of close reading and new historicism, from which this thesis derives its theoretical inspiration. By cross-referencing these primary and secondary sources with one another, the beliefs and reality of witches and witchcraft of the Jacobean masses will come to light from a modern-day perspective. Each chapter in this thesis is divided into two categories: one that focuses on highlighting the realistic historical aspects within these plays, while the other focuses on analyzing the plays relying more on general discussion and scholarly sources in which real elements of witches and their craft can be seen. My thesis brings forth various witch/craft-related topics from various sources that are alike reflected in these plays. Notions such as general spellcasting, familiars, the Devil, clerical presence, witch-beliefs and the powers of the witches are especially significant in this thesis as they are prominent in all three plays. My thesis shows that the examination of these three Jacobean witchcraft plays, and their corresponding historical sources, can change the perception that contemporary audiences have of historical witches and witchcraft. The witches depicted in the plays were not merely fantastical figures, but fictionalized representations of the realities of the 17th-century people.