Victorian Deaths, Gothic Deaths & Death Photography in America

The Victorian Era was the time Britain was at its best. Queen Victoria was powerful and she was obsessed with death. After the death of her husband Prince Albert, she mourned for the rest 40 years of her life. She never stopped wearing black clothes. Family photos are also seen with every member of the family wearing black. She had a statue of her husband created during that time.

The fact that she could not let go of what happened was quite unusual. Victorians had strange mourning traditions and a weird odd obsession with deaths. Part of their mourning traditions was the Victorian Post Mortem photography. he image shows a two family members alongside a dead loved one sitting in between them. Thinking about this is very creepy as why would they want to take pictures with dead people. When people die the body normally becomes stiff, so in order for them to take these pictures it had to be just soon after someone's death.  

This enabled the middle class to have a memory of their loved ones who died. The image shows a two family members alongside a dead loved one sitting in between them. Another ritual of the mourning traditions was the spirit photography. They did this as they wanted proof of their ancestors being in the pictures as spirits. I personally find this really frightening as why would you want to call spirits in your home. Even though they are spirits of family members it is still terrifying.

While carrying out my research, I found a book on death photography in America. I thought that this related back to the victorian obsession with death. This shows that not only was death photography a tradition in England but also in other places. This book focuses on how death and photography were twisted together in the nineteenth century. Paul Smith was quite popular for taking quite a number of post-mortem photographs during that time.

The early death photography in America was usually of recent dead people. This is the same in England during the Victorian era. During this century children were encouraged to think about death and everyone had to pay their respects to the "beautiful corpses". In my opinion wouldn't this be a little overwhelming for little children as they see a corpse lying there being photographed. The middle class considered funerals to have the best displays but.. aren't weddings meant to have the best displays? The middle class also thought that they made history by taking pictures with the dead as this made them historical comparing them to warriors and prince's. On the other hand John Berger agues that photographs of the dead and human suffering not sensitive at all.

This creepy obsession of the Victorians and death photography in America creates a link which relates them to the Gothic horror world. Gothic deaths are often so clear and become attractive as the dead are' "un-dead." Just like the other two gothic deaths also connect with the historical past. Gothic deaths are often seen to be revealing the concealed part of death like the rise of spirits, genetic modification or even it be when the vampire hunters in Dracula stake the mysterious figure of the undead. The gothic deaths are a little extreme in my opinion. However, I think that there is some type of connection between these three topics as death photography and gothic deaths are both creepy and frightening.


Ref:
Mulvey-Roberts M, 1998. The Handbook to Gothic Literature. Macmillan, Basingstoke

Ruby J, 1999. Secure the Shadow: Death and Photography in America. MIT,  Cambridge MA

Reilly J, 2013. Victorian Photographs [viewed on 3rd February 2016] Available from:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2450832/Victorian-photographs-relatives-posing-alongside-dead-bodies.html