Shakespeare's magic: Gender-based occult value in 'Midsummer Night's Dream', 'I Henry VI' and 'Macbeth'

Despite recent critical endeavors, we still can learn a lot about England during Shakespeare's lifetime if we study the way in which he develops issues of occulta in his plays. This two-part study, then, seeks to expose the inadequacy of traditional 'black magic' and 'white magic' categorization by illustrating the way in which Shakespeare dramatized the Renaissance's more urgent need to define occult-value according to the gender of occult practitioners. We will see that gender, and not the traditional 'black/white' binary, separated what was acceptable from what was intolerable occult practice.;Part Two explores my belief that Shakespeare translates the contemporary occult based gender hierarchy onto the stage and attempts, whether intentional or not, to enact and to frustrate within the limits of the drama certain problematic social, political and religious conditions threatening to destabilize patriarchal rule in England. Specifically, in Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare establishes a gender-based occult-value system that works to uphold the principle of continuous regeneration by defusing anti-patriarchal passion. In I Henry VI, Shakespeare's use of occult theory and practice works to generate Elizabethan patriotism by promoting Henry VI's saintly image against the demonic picture of Joan de Pucelle. Finally, in Macbeth, Shakespeare relies on gender-based occult values to reconcile the Weird Sisters' prophecy with James' abhorrence of witchcraft.;Since Shakespeare's representation of his society's notions of occult theory and practice are my primary focus, Part One contextualizes Shakespeare's evolving discourse of occulta within Renaissance England's socio-cultural history. After a brief discussion on the Renaissance witch herself, I examine what I see to be specific ways in which Renaissance England distinguished between the magus (male, healing, acceptable) and the witch (female, demonic, unacceptable). For this purpose, I focus on certain political, religious and social conditions familiar to Shakespeare and his audience but perhaps unfamiliar to modern readers.