The topic of death has fascinated the human mind for as long as our historical records can go. From the medieval inscriptions of purgatorial skulls to the iconic statues of the Victorian gothic cemetery, death has always played a part in the way in which we preserve memory. There are a lot of clues we can retrieve about a person just from looking at the style, material, and size of their grave. In my research, I will be spending a fair bit of time looking at the Victorian period, as well as some aspect of the Medieval period in terms of symbolism around mourning and the afterlife. I hope to inspire a love of research around these topics which many of us find uncomfortable, as well as a desire to explore the physical sites of these amazing and yet too often forgotten histories.

The Weeping Angel

If you are a Doctor Who fan, you most certainly know of this absolutely iconic symbol of death and mourning (although the weeping angels of the show are less romantic and more…downright terrifying). It doesn’t stop at Who of course with the angels being the backdrop in countless culturally significant films and television shows serving as a melancholic or horror-inducing backdrop (e.g., Supernatural, Sabrina, Buffy, Dracula). Off-screen, weeping Angels can mainly be found in cemeteries and graveyard of the High Victorian gothic period and are one of the most important and iconic symbols of mourning in recent history. Where the Medieval period had skulls, hourglasses, and symbols of purgatory, the Victorians had emotion, sentimental symbolism, romantic images of death.