SOURCE: "Deathbeds," in Victorian Conventions, Ohio University Press, 1975, pp. 156-71.

In the following essay, Reed overviews of Victorian attitudes toward death and describes assorted uses of deathbed scenes in literature, including that of moral instruction for the reader.

Attitude Toward Dying

E. M. Forster observed that the Victorians had a strong affection for deathbeds,¹ and Elizabeth Longford in her biography of Victoria explained that "Frank interest in death-bed scenes was quite normal. Partly because Victorians cared passionately about religion, the moment of passing from this world to the next was not one to be hushed up. Only paupers died in hospital so opportunities for study were plentiful." She adds that "The young Victoria collected from Queen Adelaide the 'painfully interesting details of the King's last illness'."² J. F. Stephen was among those critics of the literature of his time who felt that deathbed scenes were abused, especially by...