Death Masks

Death was a common occurrence in the Victorian Age. 

“Three of every twenty babies died before their first birthday, and those who survived infancy had a life expectancy of only forty-two years” 

The Art of Death

• Death would take place most often in the home
• When a death occurs, the entire house stops and takes up deep mourning. 
• Windows are closed. 
• Clocks are stopped. - Symbolism with Miss Havisham as she had all the clocks in her house stopped on the time she was left at the alter, related to the happy part of Miss Havisham dying
• Mirrors were covered. - could cause the departed one’s soul to become trapped in it.
• Locks of hair cut from the dead were arranged and worn in lockets, 
• Death masks were created
• Images and symbols of death cropped up in all sorts of everyday paintings and sculptures. 
• Photographs of dead relatives became an increasingly popular feature of family albums, often in a lifelike pose with a rosy colouring and even open eyes painted over eyelids. 
• Graves became increasingly elaborate, with extravagant grave monuments and memorials built according to what a family could afford - These graveyards became areas for reflection, and indeed popular weekend excursions for the middle classes.
• Bodies would be stored in homes until they were buried. Poor families in their small houses would have to kept the dead in the same quarters as the living until the time of the funeral had arrived.
• Rules and regulations of what was proper was decided in every aspect of life, including that of proper death procedures and funeral rites. It was considered quite a scandal if any of the rituals were broken.

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Victorian Funerals

Another feature of Victorian death was the rise of the funeral director. Where funerals had previously been arranged between the family and the church, the increasing pomp of funerals required some serious stage management. The undertaker emerged from being a side-line job of the local carpenter or job-master (who hired out horses) to presiding over and directing these displays. Elaborate hearses were constructed, replete with black horses, ostrich feathers and flowers. Mourners, known as Mutes were employed to follow the coffin looking suitably despondent and feasts were prepared for assembled friends and family. Indeed funerals became so expensive that many parents saved up for the likely death of one or more of their children. A ‘respectable funeral’ was now closely entwined with its cash value and pageantry.

Death Masks

A death mask is a wax or plaster cast made of a person’s face following death. Death masks may be mementos of the dead, or be used for creation of portraits.

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Websites Used:

• http://www.history.co.uk/study-topics/history-of-death/victorians-and-the-art-of-dying
• https://avintagevault.wordpress.com/tag/victorian-death-masks/