Floundering in the Historical Ocean of Thought

Today is one of those days when I look at the road ahead of me and wonder if I can actually make it through it all. I know what I want to do. I know the direction I need to go in. I'm just not sure my strategy for the obstacle course. Right now, I'm working on doing research for my Thesis and I find myself floundering. What direction to take this Thesis is proving to be very difficult.
I know that Witchcraft in Early Modern England is my basic realm of topic. But the more I read from other historians, the more I fluctuate within that topic sphere. I just keep coming up with more and more interesting directions and questions.

What is reality for these people of Early Modern England? How did they view their own world? How did that factor into the question of Witchcraft? Everything from gender questions? Power? Religion? Identity- both of the country and the individual? Crisis on the Domestic and Foreign levels? Monarchical power? Henry, Mary, Edward, and Elizabeth?

On the very basic level I can see a swirling, mingled whirlpool of how all this interacts and intersects into the question of Witchcraft, but how do I nail it down? How do I take all of this and find evidence in primary sources to back some sort of argument? This is where I am struggling.

I thought I had this idea about how Witchcraft was determined by the the dominant religious force's decisions based upon what was 'good' and what was 'evil'. This was usually based upon saying that magic that was associated with the religion itself, ie miracles, was good and all other forms of 'magic' where 'otherized' and therefor bad. This further was influenced by other religious ideas based on power structures within the society. Therefore, women in the society who stood out and didn't follow the social norms where lumped into the same 'otherized' category as the 'magic.'

This still feels like a very valid point in my mind, but there are so many other ideas rolling in my head concerning so many other questions. Is it possible to take all these ideas and mold them into some sort of Frankenstein historical argument that works?   

Discourse and gender in today's society

In light of various discussions with several people, I have put a lot of thought into the subject of discourse. That is, the way of thinking that has permeated society, in music, literature, tv, etc to the point that the society believe it to be the norm. For example, (and the example that many have argued with me recently) we can look at the status of women in today's society. The discourse is one that is complex, with many overlapping layers that many of us have been exposed to, despite different upbringings and life situations, that lead us to believe that even in 2012, women are viewed as second class to men in society. Women are portrayed in commercials, music, television shows, literature, and blockbuster movies, as being domestic, taking care of the kids, cleaning, cooking, etc. For example, how many commercials do you see that portray women as the primary buyers of cleaning products? Case in point, the swiffer commercials that imply that without that product, a woman has no time to do anything else, and when her time is freed up by the product, she reads, drinks coffee, or pampers herself with spa products. Never do we see men cleaning. More than often, it is the woman who is taking kids to soccer practice, or picking kids up from school in these commercials. Reinforcing the idea that this is the place for women.
Even when women are portrayed as strong and in the workplace in television or movies, she is still faced with opposition from men. Jokes run rampant over the internet that imply that a woman's place is in the kitchen. At the same time, women are taught not to go out alone at night because men will assault, kidnap, and rape them. Instead of teaching men not to do such things, we are teaching women to be afraid. And the discourse is so ingrained in our society that this seems normal to us. So much so that men often blame women for their own behavior. It is the 'feminists' fault that 'chivalry' is dead. Instead of taking responsibility for not treating women with respect, they blame women for wanting equality and respect. We live in an interesting world where men and women continue to participate in a discourse which maintains a patriarchal hierarchy and most don't even acknowledge it.

All of this came from a question about discourse. Our society is permeated with it. From gender, to race, to ageism, from politics to social media. I can't help but wonder what the future generations will look back on this time and say. What will the historians say about the early 21st century?