Western Attitudes Towards Death Essay Sample
Although the attitudes of western civilisation towards decease may look to be unchanged over long periods of clip. it has been illustrated in the yesteryear that they are. in fact dynamic. Western attitudes towards decease are invariably germinating. of all time so easy and subtly. However. sporadically quantum springs in popular idea sing decease have occurred. These alterations are noticeable because they are so really rapid. Philippe Aries. writer of Western attitudes towards decease describes four distinguishable epochs of idea with respects to decease. He calls these epochs Tamed decease. One’s ain decease. Thy decease. and Forbidden decease. The passages between each of these four epochs are caused by important historical events that deeply alter the attitudes and beliefs of the multitudes. “Tamed death” is used by Aries to depict the cultural position of decease prior to the in-between ages. During this tamed decease epoch. decease was a familiar and quite public event. The rites of the sickbed were good known and kids were even included in the deathbed scene. In his mentions to the chansons de geste. Aries illustrates that both brave Knights and devout Monks approached decease in the same manner because “they were normally forewarned” ( Aries. p. 2 ) .
During the tamed decease epoch it was believed that decease would direct a warning through either natural marks or more frequently an interior strong belief ( Aries. p. 4 ) . Once warned. the shortly to be dead would fix to decease. The rite of deceasing was a procedure that was “organized by the deceasing individual himself” . After holding made all readyings. the deceasing individual would calmly delay for decease. The organic structures of those who had died were buried in big communal Gravess where they decomposed until they were able to be transported to charnel houses. Often the remains of the deceased were separated and jumbled together with the remains of others. It was non the individualism of the deceased after decease that was of import during this epoch. but the construct of burial ad sanctos. It was desirable to be buried in close propinquity to a sacred holy topographic point or saint.
During the Middle Ages tamed decease was subtly modified which “gradually gave a dramatic and personal significance to man’s traditional acquaintance with death” ( Aries. p. 27 ) . The construct of a judgement at the terminal of one’s life is introduced. This “last judgment” gave light to a new position on decease. The position is that upon decease. each adult male was examined before Christ harmonizing to the balance sheet of his life. ”Good and bad workss are conscientiously separated and placed on the appropriate sides of the scales” ( Aries. p. 32 ) . This creative activity of a last judgement illustrates a belief in an being after decease. which was a way station until the ultimate terminal of the universe when “one’s equilibrating sheet will eventually be closed” The passage between the tamed decease epoch and the epoch of idea that Aries calls one’s ain decease was caused by a heightened consciousness of the individualism of the deceasing individual. The method of entombment used during the tamed decease epoch truly illustrates the inexistence of the construct of individualism after decease.
In analyzing the development of idea sing decease from the tamed decease epoch to one’s ain decease epoch we see a motion off from mass Gravess towards private. clearly pronounced Gravess. Effigies with letterings appear over clip every bit good. These represent the desire to individualise the burial country. perpetuating the memory of the deceased in that topographic point. During the epoch of one’s ain decease. we see a passage from namelessness of the deceased to individualism of the deceased. “Beginning with the 11th century a once unknown relationship developed between the decease of each person and his consciousness of being an individual…In the mirror of his ain decease each adult male would detect the secret of his individuality” ( Aries. p. 51 ) .
One’s ain decease or la mort de soi. refers to adult male holding discovered his ain individualism in decease. Death so becomes the juncture when a adult male is most cognizant of himself. During the epoch of one’s ain decease we do non see a new attitude toward decease replace the predating one. “but instead elusive alterations bit by bit gave a dramatic and personal significance to man’s traditional acquaintance with death” . New phenomena gave visible radiation to the concern for the individualism of each individual. New phenomena include the portraiture of a last judgement at the terminal of the universe. the motion of this judgement to the precise minute of each individual’s decease. macabre subjects and portraitures of decomposition. and the personalization of each individual’s concluding resting topographic point.
The passage between one’s ain decease and thy decease. like the passage between tamed decease and one’s ain decease was non a paradigm displacement in thought. but the consequence of gradual alterations of the predating manner of idea. Get downing in the 18th century. “man in western societies tended to give decease a new meaning…he exalted it. dramatized it. and idea of it as perturbing and greedy” ( Aries. p. 56 ) . Emphasis was now placed on la mort de toi. the decease of the other. instead than on one’s ain decease. The loss and memory of the asleep one inspired the creative activity of luxuriant graves and new graveyards every bit good as the “romantic rhetorical intervention of death” ( Aries 56 ) . This replacing of fright for one’s ain decease with fright for decease of others was really permanent and elicited wild emotions in many. During the epoch of thy decease we see decease taking on an titillating subject. Death is portrayed in art as ravishing the life.
“From the 16th century to the 18th century. infinite scenes or motives in art and in literature associated decease with love” ( Aries. p. 57 ) . These titillating macabre subjects are illustrated in literature. art. and theater. Love scenes in Baroque plants such as Romeo and Juliet took topographic point in such topographic points as grave. During this period decease was progressively though of as a transgression-like the sexual act-which would rupture a adult male from the humdrum of his day-to-day life and “plunge him into and irrational. violent and beautiful world” ( Aries. p. 57 ) . During this period decease is no longer desirable. but is admirable in its beauty. A kind of compliance towards decease besides develops during this period and becomes one of the major features of Romanticism. Mourning becomes. for a brief clip ritualized. manifested in certain garments and specific fixed intervals. However restraint with respects to mourning in the 19th century is lost. The dramatisation of decease and inordinate self-generated presentations become platitude during this epoch.
Individuality of the deceased becomes even more of import than it had been during the epoch of one’s ain decease. The church is criticized for charnel houses. as household members now want to be able to see the site where their loved one is buried. Of class this burial topographic point besides had to belong entirely to the deceased and his household. The passage between the epoch of thy decease and the out decease epoch was. unlike the others antecedently discussed. a dramatic and rapid alteration. Death holding been “so omnipresent in the yesteryear that it was familiar” would now vanish ( Aries. p. 85 ) . Death during the out decease epoch is now regarded as a proficient failure and has become black. and so should be hidden. The grounds for such a rapid passage to prohibit decease are double.
First. with progresss in modern medical specialty it is now possible to protract the life of the deceasing. Death is moved from the traditional sickbed at place to a bed in a infirmary or alleviative attention centre so that it can be hidden. Death so. becomes institutional. and hence an issue to be handled by physicians. This displacement towards deceasing in the infirmary instead than at place occurs because it is no longer convieneient to decease at place. Death is regarded as a load and the impression of an acceptable decease has become one that does non problem the subsisters. Second. and more significantly. as a consequence of the tragic loss of 1000000s of lives during the First World War. decease could no longer be regarded as beautiful. An full coevals of immature work forces was said to be lost during the Great War. and so decease was no longer seen as inspirational but as tragic. Death was no longer familiar. and was really denied or defied. Death is denied during this epoch by censoring it from common conversation as it is considered tabu. Religion is besides used to an extent as a manner to withstand decease. The construct of an everlastingly blissful hereafter is soothing and religion in a faith is regarded as a salvaging grace which will protect and continue one’s psyche.
The oldest and most abiding attitude towards decease is that of acquaintance. During the tamed decease epoch. decease was both close and familiar. Attitudes and imposts of the tamed decease epoch underwent many subtle alterations which bit by bit gave a dramatic and personal significance to a man’s traditional acquaintance of decease. This accent on the individualism of the asleep brought about an epoch referred to as one’s ain decease. During this epoch. adult male discovers that he is most cognizant of who he truly is at his minute of decease. Man finally begins to laud and dramatise decease. tie ining it with many Romantic subjects. This dramatisation was the passage from concern about the decease of one’s ego to concern about the decease of the other. Extreme bereavement and inordinate self-generated presentation go prevailing during this epoch every bit good as a reinforced sense of the individualism of the deceased.
While the passages between Aries’ foremost three epochs were elusive and really gradual. the passage from thy decease to prohibit decease was dramatic and rapid. In a universe of rapid alteration. ways of believing about decease kept gait. With quantum progresss in medical specialty. originate the institutionalization of decease. This institutionalization of decease is manifested in the pattern of the deceasing coming to infirmaries to decease. instead than in their ain beds. A convenient. concealed decease is considered a good 1. World War One besides changed western positions sing the former beauty of decease. Death could no longer be called beautiful after holding witnessed the loss of 1000000s of immature work forces. As a consequence. decease was banished from mundane conversation. and considered black and forbidden. While our attitudes toward decease may look to be changeless over clip. analyzing the differentiations between each of Aries’ four epoch and the grounds for the passages between them illustrates the magnitude of alteration that western attitudes towards decease have undergone from tamed decease until present epoch.
Bibliography
Aries. Philippe. Western Attitudes Towards Death. Translated by Patricia N. Ranum. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1975.
