Modern Death

Philippe Aries described the transition to Forbidden Death as an "unheard-of-phenomenon. Death, so omnipresent in the past that it was familiar, would be effaced, would disappear. It would be shameful and forbidden". It had started in North America and had slowly migrated to Europe. It first started when loved one would avoid telling the dying person that they were actually dying to spare them that terrible news. People started to think that it was best that everyone avoid death and the unbearable emotions that came with it. But it was not until 1930-1950 where things rapidly changed; the displace of the site of death. People started to die in the hospitals rather than their own homes. Hospitals become a place for the sick, a place where people were healed, rather than a place for the poor. Death was in the hands of science, just like in the movie Hereafter Marie went to Switzerland to find answers to her near-death experience from a specialist in that field. She did not understand her experience so she turned to an expert, thinking that they would know what happened to her. Philippe Aries had explained in his book, "Western Attitudes toward Death" that there are four different eras on how people viewed death throughout history. It begins from the 12th century up to the 20th century. The four eras are Tamed Death, Death of Self, Thy Death, and Forbidden Death. But in this essay we will be focusing on Forbidden Death, since it is well portrayed in the movie hereafter. According to Aries “Forbidden Death", was the era when death was portrayed as dirty and shameful, something that interferes with our lives. Death is left up to the experts, the dying no longer stay at home but are transferred to hospitals. No one liked to talk about death because it made people feel uncomfortable. Death was looked as a "technical failure" and people were no longer dying in their homes but at hospitals. They left the professionals take care of the dying. The dying and the bereaved