Victorian Era Death Culture

                                             Brompton Road Cemetery, Photo by Julia Zerull

For week 10 of our class, we visited Brompton Road Cemetery, exploring the Victorian ideas of death and comparing their philosophies on the subject to the modern day. One subject that we discussed in particular was the symbolism of different objects used to memorialize the dead in the form of headstones. Each object had a different meaning and related to how that person either lived or died.

In the picture that I took, some different objects that can be seen are an obelisk, variations of different crosses and an angel. The crosses and angels can be easily connected to faith and Christianity, and the crosses over a circle can particularly be connected to English faith. The obelisk, however, can actually be connected to the Victorian obsession with Egypt. The Victorians were fascinated by Egyptian culture and so lots of Egyptian symbolism can be seen throughout the Victorian era.

Some other symbols I observed in the cemetery which do not appear in my photo include a cylinder sliced in half, an anchor and a lion. The sliced cylinder represented a life cut short that ended before it was meant to. The anchor represented hope for the grieving family, and the lion was representative of a particularly brave individual. These observations all connect back to the Victorian culture of symbolizing death. Not only was it popular to use particular symbols as headstones, Victorians created symbols of death throughout their daily life. They wore black for extended periods of mourning, they created “death masks” and photographs of lost loved ones and they even made special jewelry out of the deceased’s hair.

All of this connects to how death was an integral part of Victorian life, with evidence of it visible everywhere. In comparison to modern day, death is not as overtly celebrated, but symbols of it can still be found in many places. From wearing black to a funeral to passing down a loved one’s jewelry, Victorian death culture may not be as strong, but it can be argued that it is definitely still around.