VI - Death.

Paintings and course :
- ever present during the century. Many diseases, especially for children. measles, whooping cough, diphteria.
- women giving birth = germ-free hands. vast epidemics. typhus and cholera. big cities like Manchester. No antobiotics.
- Unprotected by the place you live in. Death not taboo at all (contrary
to sex). Children were taken to see the dying persons. but suicide not
presented. most disapproved thing = murder against yourself. if you miss
yourself : you go to jail.
- Millais, Ophelia.
beautiful dead young woman. poppies and other flowers. willow tree :
forsaken love. violets on the neck : faithfulness. forget-me-nots. rose
on her hair "rose of May" in Hamlet. hands and arms = gives herself to the river. death is a pleasure. eros & thanatos.
- Waterhouse, Ophelia : not drowning yet.
- Wallis, Chatterton.
gifted poet. wrote false medieval poems. discovered. Committed suicide
with arsenic. romantic figure. dying : accomplishment. not a peaceful
position.
- Storey, The Bride's Funeral. very very young woman. Died on her wedding day. beautiful colours, landscape. Italian bell.
- Tissot, The Orphan. black of mourning. little girl not aware she has just lost her mother.
- Millais, The Vale of Rest.
evening, autumn. bell = ringing when one's dead. cross of the nun.
skull from vanities upon the cross. acceptation of death. tragedy as
seen today.
- Hughes, Home from Sea. young sailor. comes back. finds out his parents are dead
- Wallis, The Stonebreaker. End of the day; died alone of exhaustion. Nobody's crying for him. social ideas.


Texts :
1) C. Dickens, Dombey and Son 1848.
Police = crime. graphic details used to drown yourself. description of
the corpse. thin hair back on his head. agonised face. horror of
suicide. need to tell the relatives. shock of people around. Seen as a
killer.
2) E. Gaskell, North and South 1855 ?