Shakespeare's supernatural skepticism: A study of Shakespeare's skeptical and transversal engagement with the supernatural

In this dissertation I argue that Shakespeare's allusions to the Denham exorcisms and to Samuel Harsnett's Declaration of Egregious Popish Imposters in Othello constituted an expression of empathy with an English public confused and distressed by the Church's attacks on the legitimacy of exorcism. I argue that Shakespeare's ambiguous portrayal of Iago in Othello, as either a man operating with the motives and assistance of the demonic, or, merely as a man, expressed a deep ambivalence about the official culture's shift towards excluding the demonic as a means of explaining evil. I argue that the bleak world presented in King Lear constitutes an unsettling portrayal of what might be wrought by the disenchanted world towards which the policies and practices of the state were drawing England. And I have further argued that the exorcism of Gloucester represents an alternative vision -- one in which the capacity of supernatural beliefs and practices to be a force for good in the world, and even to lead to healing and positive change, is explored. I have argued that Shakespeare radically re-conceptualized fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream, portraying them and their relations with humans, including with cunning folk and children, as a positive and life-giving thing. And finally, I have argued that in The Winter's Tale , Shakespeare, while still leaving open the skeptical possibility that magic and miracles are not real, nevertheless presented them as both beautiful and good. Furthermore, I argue that Shakespeare's portrayal of the supernatural in the plays that I have discussed was transversal, in that it resisted the closed dogma of the state machinery and the coercive efforts of the state's various power conductors to instantiate its dogma in its subjects.