Supernatural4

=== WHAT WERE COMMONLY HELD BELIEGS ABOUT GHOSTS, WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT, OTHER SUPERNATURAL PHENOMENA, FAIRIES, AND OTHER MYTHICAL CREATURES IN SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND? WHAT WERE JAMES I'S BELIEFS ABOUT SUCH THINGS? HOW ARE THESE BELIEFS REFLECTED IN SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS? answer by Kiran K. === Back in the 1560’s Elizabethans believed all sorts of supernatural beings. They believed in witches, fairies and goblins. Often Shakespeare used supernatural creatures in his plays. Elizabethans believed in witches and witchcraft. According to “Elizabethan-era.org”, many new superstitions arose during this period because of the fear and persecution of witches. People found guilty of witchcraft were hung. Also witches were used as a way to explain unexplainable events, like the plague. There were many common superstitions about witches like that they can fly, they live alone, are old or haggish, may own an animal like a frog or cat, and they brewed their potions in cauldrons. These beliefs brought many people to wrongfully think others were witches. They accused the old, poor, vulnerable, single women or widows who often kept pets for company. As François Laroque said in //The Age of Shakespeare,// witches were “the embodiment of absolute evil.”

Though witches gave the supernatural a bad name, people also believed in other mythical creatures like fairies and goblins. They believed that fairies weren’t necessarily bad but more just harmlessly mischievous. Fairies were said to come out at night, along with goblins, and play tricks on people. If the fairy or goblin was especially mischievous they might make people go crazy, have nightmares, or lead them to Hell, according to Anna Claybourne and Rebecca Treays in the book //The Usborne Internet-Linked World of Shakespeare.// Faries and goblins were just some of the other supernatural creatures Elizabethans believed in.

Shakespeare was a man who was inspired by the beliefs of Elizabethans. He liked to put the supernatural into his plays. Witches were used as “The Weird Sisters” in //Macbeth.// A //Mid Summer Nights Dream// is full of fairies. François Laroque says that Shakespeare often used mythical creatures as a way to quite the crowd so that the words may be said into a stunned silence. Shakespeare’s clever use of the supernatural often added a lot to his plays and Elizabethans enjoyed seeing their illogical beliefs in plays.

Elizabethans believed in many supernatural creatures. Witches, fairies, and goblins are only three of the creatures they believed in. Shakespeare used those beliefs in many of his works.

BOOKS:  Claybourne, Anna, and Rebecca Treays. //The Usborne World of Shakespeare//. London: Usborne Books, 2001. Print.
 * works cited **

Laroque, François. //The Age of Shakespeare//. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1991. 36-37. Print.

Picard, Liza. //Elizabeth's London//. New York: St. Martins Press, 2003. 277-278. Print.

WEB: unknown,. "Elizabethan Periond." //Elizabethan Era//. unknown, 3/21/09. Web. 4 Apr 2010. <[|__http://www.elizabethan-era.org__]>.