Victorian Mourning was referred to by many as the “cult of death.” This type of mourning existed as early as 1800, but it was popularized by Queen Victoria in 1861 after the death of Prince Albert (“Victorian Days: Victorian Death and Mourning”). Queen Victoria mourned for her husband until she died, and most of England mourned with her for the whole 40 years (Mitchel 163). If one did not follow mourning customs to a tee, it was seen as an enormous sign of disrespect, and they ran the risk of being ostracized. While Victorians did not fear death, they did fear not being properly mourned (Flanders 378). Most mourning customs were based on primitive superstition, but even as the world advanced, the traditions stuck with families. Although there are some slight similarities between current mourning customs and Victorian mourning customs, Victorian mourning customs were radically different than ours today.
The Victorians had a precise view of the “perfect death” that was similar to societies current view of a good death. Most deaths occurred at home because hospitals would not admit extremely sick or dying patients if they knew medical care couldn’t help (Mitchel 160). The “perfect death” allowed a person to fade into death in the comfort of their own home, surrounded by their loved ones (Cedar Hill Cemetery). A dying person would be visited by all family and friends so they could say goodbye and offer advice for the future. Death was not feared by the Victorians (Cedar Hill Cemetery). This idea parallels most people’s current views of a good death; an unexpected death is feared by most people now as much as it was then. Once the “perfect death” occurred, families kept the body in their home before it was buried.
Unlike modern ...
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...ends who helped plan the funeral (“The Hour of Mourning”).
Even though some don’t realize the distinctiveness of Victorian mourning customs, they were extremely unique. Mourning could last from two years to the rest of your life. Men’s mourning was much less harsh, and they weren’t expected to conform perfectly, yet all women, regardless of social class, were. Mourning clothing was one of the most important aspects of mourning. And it was seen as “the last token of respect and affection which [one] could pay the dead” (“The Hour of Mourning”). Warehouses were even created to keep up with new mourning fashion. Some might consider different kinds of Memento Mori creepy, but at the time it was a prevalent way to memorialize their loved ones. Some might find the so called “cult of death” disturbing, but it was a superstitious society’s way of honoring the dead.
There is probably no one, among people, who has not considered death as a subject to think about or the events, people, and spirits that they would face after death. Also, since we were little kids we were asking our parents what death is and what is going to happen after we die. People have always linked death with fear, darkness, depression, and other negative feelings but not with Emily Dickinson, who was a reclusive poet from Massachusetts who was obsessed with death and dying in her tons of writings. She writes “Because I could not stop for Death” and in this particular poem she delivers a really different idea of death and the life after death. In the purpose of doing that, the speaker encounters death which was personalized to be in a form of gentleman suitor who comes to pick her up with his horse-drawn carriage for a unique death date that will last forever. In fact, she seems completely at ease with the gentleman. Additionally, their journey at the beginning seems pretty peaceful; as they pass through the town, she sees normal events such as children who are playing, fields of grain, and a sunset. After this, dusk takes place and the speakers gets chilly because she was not ready for this journey and she did not wear clothes that would make her feel warm. Consequently, readers get the idea that death is not a choice, so when it comes, that is it. Emily Dickinson, in her poem “Because I could not stop for Death,” uses personification, imagery, and style to deliver her positive and peaceful idea of death and life after death.
“As I Lay Dying, read as the dramatic confrontation of words and actions, presents Faulkner’s allegory of the limits of talent” (Jacobi). William Faulkner uses many different themes that make this novel a great book. Faulkner shows his talent by uses different scenarios, which makes the book not only comedic but informational on the human mind. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is a great book that illustrates great themes and examples. Faulkner illustrates different character and theme dynamics throughout the entire novel, which makes the book a humorous yet emotional roller coaster. Faulkner illustrates the sense of identity, alienation, and the results of physical and mental death to show what he thinks of the human mind.
Death is a controversial and sensitive subject. When discussing death, several questions come to mind about what happens in our afterlife, such as: where do you go and what do you see? Emily Dickinson is a poet who explores her curiosity of death and the afterlife through her creative writing ability. She displays different views on death by writing two contrasting poems: one of a softer side and another of a more ridged and scary side. When looking at dissimilar observations of death it can be seen how private and special it is; it is also understood that death is inevitable so coping with it can be taken in different ways. Emily Dickinson’s poems “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and “I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died” show both parallel and opposing views on death.
“In most human society's death is an extremely important cultural and social phenomenon, sometimes more important than birth” (Ohnuki-Tierney, Angrosino, & Daar et al. 1994). In the United States of America, when a body dies it is cherished, mourned over, and given respect by the ones that knew the person. It is sent to the morgue and from there the family decides how the body should be buried or cremated based on...
American Romantics believe that life and death are both a part of nature, as well as the natural process. Both should be celebrated, not feared. This point is especially driven home in “Thanatopsis” by William Cullen Bryant. Bryant states, “...where each shall take/His chamber in the silent halls of death/Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night/Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed/By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave/Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch/About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams (Bryant, 75-81).” The phrase “where each shall take his chamber in the silent halls of death” means that each and every person will eventually die. So, we should not go as if we are a “quarry slave at night.” Instead,
The Romantic Era was a time when writers wrote with passion in relation to elements of writing such as the fantastic or supernatural, the improbable, the sentimental, and the horrifying. Edgar Allan Poe was one of the many writers who used elements such as these in his writings. Poe was famous for reflecting the dark aspects of his mind in a story, creating detailed imagery intriguing the reader. The fantastic and supernatural elements are expressed in The Premature Burial as impossible and in a sense, horrifying. The idea of people walking after their believed death is very extreme thinking in a world that seems normal.
Imagine that the person you love most in the world dies. How would you cope with the loss? Death and grieving is an agonizing and inevitable part of life. No one is immune from death’s insidious and frigid grip. Individuals vary in their emotional reactions to loss. There is no right or wrong way to grieve (Huffman, 2012, p.183), it is a melancholy ordeal, but a necessary one (Johnson, 2007). In the following: the five stages of grief, the symptoms of grief, coping with grief, and unusual customs of mourning with particular emphasis on mourning at its most extravagant, during the Victorian era, will all be discussed in this essay (Smith, 2014).
This is an important concept to understand when reading these authors because in the back of their minds, they are comparing the way that people wanted to die at the time to the way Ariès defines the Good Death. For Ariès, the ideal death encompasses all aspects of the Tame Death: acceptance, last rites, and with knowledge of death’s imminence. For Rothman it is relatively similar, people strived to have accepted with their tuberculosis, faith in their salvation, make amends with family and friends, and death without pain. Faust describes the ideal death of Civil War soldiers by saying that it is best if the soldiers leave a note or fellow soldiers write to the families in place of the deceased, in order to bring some type of comfort. Also, Faust states the importance of the family having the body to bury. Orwell declares that the most ideal death is a sudden death, because death in a hospital is the worst way to die. Kaufman contends that the Good Death is a death where the patient has agency and can die before the line is crossed over into unnecessary prolongation of life. Finally, Stannard takes a completely different approach in that the Puritans consider the best death as one of complete uncertainty and anticipation of whether the dying is predetermined to heaven or hell. The main point is that during Ariès’ period of the Tame Death, the
In the novel “As I Lay Dying” William Faulkner shows how life can be a burden especially for the less fortunate. The Bundrens are a family of a low social class who embark on a journey to bury their mother and wife Addie Bundren. Initially, the family received help from their neighbors of equal and slightly higher social class, however when they began to encounter towns inhabited by wealthier people it became apparent they were not welcome. Turning their faces and helping hands away, the townspeople were not overjoyed to see the Bundren’s run-down wagon that smelt strongly of their mother’s rotting corpse. “the folks backed off with handkerchiefs to their faces,”(365).
Societies views of death were extremely different, and even the hearses were “Gaily coloured” and the ward that Linda was on was called the “Galloping senility ward” suggesting that they had no fear of going senile.
During the early seventeenth century, poets were able to mourn the loss of a child publicly by writing elegies, or poems to lament the deceased. Katherine Philips and Ben Jonson were two poets who wrote the popular poems “On the Death of My Dearest Child, Hector Philips”, “On My First Son”, and “On My First Daughter” respectively. Although Philips and Jonson’s elegies contain obvious similarities, the differences between “On the Death of My Dearest Child” and “On My First Son” specifically are pronounced. The emotions displayed in the elegies are very distinct when considering the sex of the poet. The grief shown by a mother and father is a major theme when comparing the approach of mourning in the two elegies.
Throughout Edgar Allan Poe’s life, death was a frequent visitor to those he loved around him. When Poe was only 3 years old, his loving mother died of Tuberculosis. Because Poe’s father left when he was an infant, he was now an orphan and went to live with the Allan’s. His stepmother was very affectionate towards Edgar and was a very prominent figure in his life. However, years later she also died from Tuberculosis, leaving Poe lonely and forlorn. Also, later on, when Poe was 26, he married his cousin 13-year-old Virginia, whom he adored. But, his happiness did not last long, and Virginia also died of Tuberculosis, otherwise known as the Red Death, a few years later. After Virginia’s death, Poe turned to alcohol and became isolated and reckless. Due to Edgar Allan Poe’s loss of those he cared for throughout his life, Poe’s obsession with death is evident in his works of “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Black Cat”, and “The Fall of the House of Usher”, in which in all three death is used to produce guilt.
Many people find it hard to imagine their death as there are so many questions to be answered-how will it happen, when, where and what comes next. The fact that our last days on Earth is unknown makes the topic of death a popular one for most poets who looks to seek out their own emotions. By them doing that it helps the reader make sense of their own emotions as well. In the two poems “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickenson and “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas, the poets are both capturing their emotion about death and the way that they accepted it. In Dickenson’s poem her feelings towards death are more passionate whereas in Dylan’s poem the feelings
The loss of a loved one is an emotional and personal experience, and everyone grieves in their own way. Before the healing process can begin, the deceased must be laid to rest and this is usually accomplished with a funeral service. Many people choose a piece to be read at these ceremonies, such as W.H. Auden’s “Funeral Blues” and Mary Elizabeth Frye’s “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep.” It is quite thought-provoking to compare the poems, since the subject matter is the same, however each of these works views death from a different perspective, one negative and the other positive.
I was very excited to take Death and Dying as a college level course. Firstly, because I have always had a huge interest in death, but it coincides with a fear surrounding it. I love the opportunity to write this paper because I can delve into my own experiences and beliefs around death and dying and perhaps really establish a clear personal perspective and how I can relate to others in a professional setting.