Question 1 - Superstition, Religion and Medicine

SUPERSTITION 

In Shakespearean times, the population had little scientific or medical knowledge, and few travelled out of their home country. Therefore, the people were highly superstitious, which influenced their views on everything, from treating illness to religion.

One superstitious belief which resulted in deaths, injuries and wreaked havoc in villages was the belief in witches. A witch was someone said to have sold their soul to the devil, with powers to cause illness, curse people and animals, and to have other supernatural abilities. The harsh reality was that the idea of witches existing was used to single out and torment harmless women, and as a toxic tool to quash any rebellion or 'unnatural behaviour' in women. The mistreatment of witches resulted in deaths by drowning, burning at the stake and breaking the bones of them, practices that sound inhumane and shocking to a modern day reader but were seen as perfectly valid in Elizabethan times. Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, a play featuring 3 manipulative witches, to appeal to the new King James, a man who was so suspicious of witches that he wrote a book on them.

We still believe in some superstitions today, that originated in Elizabethan times, such as 'bless you', originating as a saying to stop the devil entering your soul through your mouth!

Religion

Almost everyone in Elizabethan times was a Christian, the law stating that you had to go to church each week. Most are said to have believed in Heaven and Hell, and that the devil was a 'specific person'. There was a great tension surrounding the divide of Catholicism and Protestants - if you were from the 'wrong religion' you could be killed or tortured, a belief that heavily marginalised Jews. Shakespeare writes about the prejudice against them in his play, 'The Merchant of Venice' featuring a wealthy moneylender and jew, Shylock.

Medicine

In Elizabethan times, the theory believed was that the body had 4 'humours', blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm. These liquids were believed to affect and alter your personality, and an imbalance was said to cause illness.

The bubonic plague was killing a third of the population, and the root of most medical issues was the lack of sanitation, due to their lack of understanding a connection between disease spreading and unclean conditions.