The Making of a Witch: Witchcraft, Economic Crisis and the Materialistic Culture in William Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford's Play, The Witch of Edmonton

The Witch of Edmonton, a 17th-century Jacobean play unlike the plays on witchcraft of the preceding era, presents a familiar figure of early modern English rural communities at its centre. The play offers neither a threatening image nor a theatrical spectacle of a witch. Instead, it focuses on the ramifications of a titular character embedded in the socio-economic, cultural, socio-political, and legal contexts. Contrary to the mystifying supernatural abilities, this play allows an examination of the societal role and function in the construction of a figure of a witch. This article examines how the rise of materialism, amid growing tension over a radically transforming economy, contributed to the identity formation of a witch. It additionally addresses the extent to which Elizabeth Sawyer, the eponymous character, has succeeded and failed in resisting this enforced role under societal pressure, especially in an era when socio-economic grievances attained the stringency of legal statutes.