On March 18th we visited Brompton Cemetery, a Victorian cemetery opened in 1840. In class we had discussed symbolism in Victorian death culture and how these symbols represented the Victorians’ various ideas of death with themes of sadness and hope. Many of these elements were present as we wandered around the cemetery and its 35,000 gravestones. When walking through the area, the most frequent sculptures were the angels and broken columns. To the Victorians, the angels represented spiritual beings that served as a connection between the living and the dead, therefore connecting them to their departed loved ones. They saw intact columns as a sign of stability and support, so the numerous broken columns standing above the gravestones represented a life cut short and a loss of security. While broken columns called attention to human mortality and the sadness that comes with death, the headstones carved into anchors represented hope and strength; the Victorians associated anchors with sailors arriving safely at the end of their journey.
These symbols associated with death all share the common intent to remember the dead and preserve their memory, whether in a sorrowful way through broken columns or in a hopeful way through angels and anchors. Though she is a Victorian writer, Christina Rossetti’s poems “Song” and “Remember” contrast with this idea of remembrance. Her poems suggest that forgetting the dead may be more beneficial to the living because they are saddened by remembering people who have died. This made me wonder if a cemetery’s only purpose is to remember the dead or if it can allow us to forget as well. While going to a cemetery can allow someone to move on from a loved one’s death, I think that setting up a grave for someone innately creates a way to remember them, not forget them. The death symbols that are placed on graves contribute to this theme of remembrance: they remind visitors that the cemetery is a sad and hopeful place to think about the stories of people buried there. A grave is something physical that exists to represent a person, and while looking at their headstone with various symbolic elements can evoke acceptance or curiosity, it doesn’t let them forget that person.
Hi Europa,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your response to seeing Brompton cemetery. The analysis of the meaning of the symbols present on the gravestones helps to share insight on the conventions and ceremonies of death during the Victorian era. I also believe that there is a clear religious connection in death during the Victorian era. Most of the graves features forms of crosses, angels, birds and other christian symbols. Thus, this emphasizes the commitment to spirituality that most Victorians experienced during the time period. In life and in death Victorians were connected to their beliefs and to god.