Female sexuality in three Jacobean witchcraft plays: Sophonisba, the Witch and the Witch of Edmonton

This study aims to explain the clear link between witchcraft and female sexuality with a special focus on the dramatic representation of the witch figure in three Jacobean witchcraft plays: John Marston's The Wonder of Women or The Tragedy of Sophonisba, Thomas Middleton's The Witch, and the collaborated work of William Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford, entitled The Witch of Edmonton. Concerning the perception about woman as the weaker sex among the educated elite in the early modern period, these plays mirror the misogynistic attitude towards marginalized females as the devil's partners. The witch figure is presented as a sexually perverted female that transgresses the boundaries put by the male authorities. Perceived as a threat to male power and authority, the witch's uncontrollable nature and unruly sexual activities are reflected as the sources of her maleficium, which means to do harm by practising dark magic. With her dark magic and unruly behaviours, the witch acts against nature and God and so she becomes a heretic that overthrows the male authority. From this point of view, this thesis evaluates the witch figure that uses witchcraft as an expression of her insatiable sexuality, which threatens the male power in the mentioned plays. Erictho in Sophonisba, as a terrifying classical witch, represents the horror of female lust. She emasculates male power with her carnal lust and so weakens male authority in connection with her magical abilities. In The Witch, Hecate and her sister witches point the danger of sexually satisfied women and the perversion of sexual standards. They are sexually experienced and independent women; they also emasculate male power through their spells and charms. The last play, The Witch of Edmonton dramatizes the horror of the female body that is distorted and demonized through the body of Mother Sawyer. Her body is the cause of some mischiefs in the community and this unnatural body of the old witch is treated like an infection that contaminates malice as well as a sexual disorder in the Edmonton community. Key Words: witchcraft, female sexuality, a witch, Jacobean drama