Summary Of Western Attitudes Towards Death

Philippe Aries gives a depiction of the historical perception of death in his writing on ‘Western Attitudes toward Death: From the Middle Ages to the Present.’ Aries classifies the social history of death into varies categories; each one defines the meaning of death by individual and community view. He even defines death through social institutions beginning in the Middles Ages to present times of Western history. Aries historical research of varies attitudes toward death from one time period showed that social concepts and perception concerning death changed drastically over time. His research was documented based upon historical writing centered around death, art, archaeological, last will and testament documents, funding to churches based upon death, biographies, letters, and study of cemeteries’ practices from varies time periods. Aries outlines four different attitudes towards death which are the following: tame death, one’s own death, thy death, and forbidden death. Overall, Aries writing gives a view how many societies in the Western cultural dealt with the
issue of human mortality and the different ways they approach death based upon what time in history they resided.
Tamed death covers a long period of time before the Middle Ages in which people were primarily forewarned about their death, and they accepted death as a necessary part of life.
This period of time reminds of when I used to watch old movies of knights, or gladiators before their death would speak their last words and accepted their faith. During the tamed death stage people in society considered death as being natural and inevitable. Most deaths during this time period was accepted as common place and the death bed was a meeting place for one to say their last farewells to family, to remember one’s life before death, and to receive the last forgiveness from minister or priest. I believe acceptance of the end of one’s life is something that is very noble. I know we all know we are not going to live forever and to be in state of readiness when your time comes says a lot about one’s mind
set.
During the time of 11th and 13th centuries, there was a subtle change on how a person viewed their own death. I believe this time period, Western society became more focus on their religious beliefs which portrayed the Day of Judgment and the end of the world. This time period is significant because it reflect some of current societal feelings around their death and how people felt about what will happen when they take off this body. Death is more personal and dramatic to the individual. Individual during this time period began to weight their life choices more seriously at their time of death, and death became less acceptable. In this stage, mankind’s perception of death becomes more spiritual and personal. Individual have to face the reality of their fate in the next life on their death bed.
During the 18th century, society began to shift their focus from their own death to the death of their loved ones. This period of time Aries’s defined as ‘thy death’. I can relate to this period of time in which people began to romanticize death like through the story of Romeo & Juliet. I can see during this time, death was neither accepted nor fear, but lied somewhere in between. Family members were more emotional about the death of their loved ones. I can relate to the emotional state of the people during this time when someone very close to you are dying and the emotional trauma it brings to one’s spirit. The thought of losing someone close to me, brings me to tears. I am a person who worries about those closer to me dying, rather than my own death.
The forbidden death stage to me should be called the denial stage in which people during the 20th century tried to avoid dealing with death. I couldn’t imagine leaving my close family members in the hospital to die. I don’t believe the medical staff should decide how and where my family members should die or be buried. People choose to deal with death by denying it exists. This is really crazy to me, because a person refuse to deal with it, does not make death disappear. How can society change so subtle over time from a person peacefully preparing for their final state by accepting death to a society in which people thinking a person should fight against dying, because to accept death is an insult to a society in which death doesn’t exist? How can one live in a society in which people chose to hide their feelings about grief? In this type of society, a change in the perception of death is needed and is definitely necessary.