Death Culture in the Victorian Era

One cannot talk about life in the Victorian era without mentioning death--and what death meant to those in that time period. As we learned during our discussion in class about death and after touring the Brompton Cemetery, death was a common factor of life in the Victorian Era. It was not feared, it often was not even sad. Death was a natural and inevitable aspect of life that the Victorians accepted. Death customs were extremely important.

As we walked around Brompton Cemetery, I felt this sense of the idea that death is natural, something that the Victorians thrived upon. In today's society, death is often seen as tragic. But walking around, I felt serene and at peace. I think this in large part is due to the fact that the cemetery is so intertwined with the everyday lives of the people living in the neighborhood. The cemetery is often used as a park to walk your dog, or its seen as the fastest route to get to work. 

Something in particular that I noticed that I was not able to snap a picture of was a man sitting cross-legged on a bench meditating. Before coming to Brompton Cemetery, the concepts of cemeteries and meditation did not go hand-in-hand to me. However, I could now totally understand the sense of serenity provoked from the Cemetery that encouraged this man to meditate--to find his own sense of well-being and peace. Although I do not have a picture of that, the picture I chose to use below is a representation of how the cemetery is now a part of everyday Londoner's lives, and how it's an extension of the neighborhood. This image reinforces the Victorian ideology that death is natural and an inevitability of life. 

In class, we discussed Christina Rossetti's piece "Song: When I am dead, my dearest." She says, "when I am dead, my dearest; sing no sad songs for me...be the green grass above me/with showers and dewdrops wet; and if thou wilt, remember, and if thou wilt, forget."As I was reading this, I was struck by her apparent indifference to her own death. She does not want her loved ones to spend all their energy mourning her. Although in some ways, her words do not align with the typical Victorian idea of death because Victorians were infamous for being obsessed with death and the rituals that follow; her words do relate to the Victorian idea of understanding the inevitability of death. Her song is calm, and brings this sense of calm to the nature of death. 

This is shown through the cemetery because the cemetery was a place of calm, with very few objects or flowers on the tombstones. Just as Rossetti touches on, the Brompton cemetery is not a place where people are obsessed with death--it is a place where death is not good nor bad, but a place where humans gather to live their own lives and give their respect to those who have passed before them. 

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