Great Chain of Being, Witches and Ghosts

Great Chain of Being

A hierarchical structure of all matter and life, believed to be decreed by God, where everything has its designated place.

Elizabethan World Picture

The worldview of the Elizabethan era, emphasizing a strict hierarchical order in the universe.

Humours

The four fluids in the human body (blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm) that were believed to influence health and personality.

Sanguine

A temperament characterized as optimistic, jolly, and sociable, associated with the presence of blood.

Choleric

A temperament marked by ambition, short temper, and associated with yellow bile.

Phlegmatic

A temperament that is slow, calm, and lazy, attributed to the presence of phlegm.

Melancholic

A temperament characterized by deep thought and worry, related to black bile.

Doctrine of Correspondences

The belief that there is a relationship between the material and spiritual worlds, with earthly things reflecting spiritual truths.

Ghosts in Hamlet

The characters symbolizing uncertainty about the afterlife and the nature of reality, stirring debate among characters about its authenticity.

Protestant view on ghosts

Protestants typically rejected the existence of ghosts, viewing apparitions as potentially malevolent.

Catholic view on purgatory

Catholics believed in Purgatory, where souls were purified before entering Heaven, and that they could be aided by prayers from the living.

Correspondence of minerals

In the context of the New Testament, brass corresponds to natural goodness, gold to celestial goodness, iron to natural truth, and silver to spiritual truth.