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영어

This essay argues poisoning frequently staged in early modern England resonates anxiety as well as curiosity of the contemporaries toward still mysterious and ungraspable human body. Along with the Reformation, human body posits a battleground for discourses of sacredness and secularity, whereas the poisoning as a technologically skilled and highly intelligent crime boldly challenges human body, a sacred work created by God. Furthermore, the process to solve criminal cases of poisoning intrinsically involves Protestant humanistic urge to seek truth through visual proofs while debunking superstitious and deceptive images produced by Roman Catholic Church. Staging poisoning, thus, is to provide solid narratives largely identifying “invisible” effects of poison and unclear identity of the poisoner and ultimately to relieve the anxiety around the uncertainties poisoning arouses. This essay looks at The White Devil by John Webster, which contains varied representations of poisoning, and discusses visualizing poisoning on stage is basically grounded on anti-Catholic sentiments but also exposes Protestant dilemma on representation, the recurring skepticism of misrepresentation or impossibility to represent what is true.