Communicating through Grief: The Effects of Writing in Victorian and Gilded Ages

Abstract

Grief is a complex emotional response to loss, often associated with the death of a loved one. However, there were many ways that it was expressed. Mourning stationery, mourning cigarettes, hair wreaths, and mourning rings, on the more expensive end, were objects used to signal a public display of grief, but writing had a profound influence on the Victorian and Gilded Ages, but even in death, there was money to be made in death during the Victorian and Gilded Ages. The world of commerce was quick to recognize the money to be made from this unexpected and unprecedented run on all things funeral. This economic foresight triggered a surge in British manufacturing. As the production of mourning tea sets reveals, taking tea and thinking about death were two cultural practices that could be done simultaneously. An important legacy that remained in mourning was letter writing and stationery during the Victorian and Gilded Ages, which was based on the writer and recipient of expressive papers, and has been maintained as a tradition through modern times as a form of expression and healing. As mourning became more expressive, handwritten notes and letters reached peak popularity during the second half of the 19th century and became fashionable for people as being characterized by having an elegant simplicity.