La Danse Macabre - Death in the Middle Ages

"La Danse Macabre" from 1492 Parisian text of the same title

The "Danse Macabre" (Dance of Death) is one subset of the Memento Mori genre, which bid its observers to "Remember you must die." The genre existed even before the Middle Ages, but gained momentum after the era of the Black Death, when death seemed truly unavoidable. In images of the Danse Macabre, Death himself dances with living men and women of all statuses, from kings and popes to children. These works depict death as the ultimate equalizer; death was an entity that did not discriminate. This served not only as a somber reminder of one's ultimate fate, but a moral motivator; luxury, excess, and personal success seem insignificant when they did little for a soul in the afterlife. However, how effective this message may have been is questionable, as even facing their mortality during the Black Death people reacted differently; while some were somber, reflecting on their lives, others saw their inevitable demise as reason to enjoy themselves while still living.

The Three Living and the Three Dead (14th c.) in vernacular

Perhaps one of the more commonly known Danse Macabre and Memento Mori genre storylines is the legend of the Three Living and the Three Dead, in which three living noblemen meet three animated corpses. Afraid, they cry out in disgust and dismay, only to be reminded by the corpses "I was well fair - such you shall be" or  "as we are, so shall you be," an ominous reminder of their eventual fate that is often enough to make the young nobles rethink their luxurious lives.

Though common in Medieval and later Renaissance art, the themes of the Danse Macabre and Memento Mori have also been immortalized as key part of the Middle Ages by films such as The Seventh Seal, where a Danse Macabre is mimicked by the characters in the end, and even The Kingdom of Heaven, where a Danse Macabre is painted on a wall and pondered by Balian. Though in modern minds the theme of Memento Mori and the Danse Macabre may have seemed a morbid and frightened obsession with death, it may also have been the opposite; the presence of death may have been a sign of its acceptance and peace with the concept in society. It was not necessarily a frightened recollection of death and turmoil, but a reminder that while life was to be enjoyed, it must be lived well, for the afterlife is vast - and certainly inevitable.

The Seventh Seal's Danse Macabre 

Resources:

British Library. "The Three Living and the Three Dead." The British Library: Medieval Manuscripts 
Blog, 16 Jan 2014, http://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2014/01/the-three-living-and-the-three-dead.html.

Lambeth Palace Library. "Featured Image: Danse Macabre." Lambeth Palace Library, http://www.lambethpalacelibrary.org/content/dansemacabre.

The Canterbury Tales and The Importance of Representation

Geofry Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is one of the finest examples of vernacular literature (written in middle English) to come from the 14^th century, in my opinion. His story follows a group of a couple dozen people going on a pilgrimage to St. Thomas Becket’s shrine. The host of the group goes around to have each pilgrim talk about themselves and proceed to tell stories.

The meticulously crafted style of rhyming couplets, and each line being exactly ten syllables long, certainly places this work as a good piece of literature, but that aspect coupled with what Chaucer offers in the message of his Canterbury Tales makes it a great piece of literature. The narrative device, as well as writing in a more common language (not latin), allowed Chaucer to represent many facets of life and many different kinds of people. The Miller’s prologue and tale are very bawdy, and incorporate a lot of bodily humor (see: fart jokes). The Wife of Bath’s section deals with matters of fidelity and feminine power. The Pardoner’s tale touches on themes of greed and death. The Knight’s tale follows a man learning to respect women in a more meaningful way (that one should be taken with a grain of salt. The fictional Knight in that story sexually abuses a woman to start his journey to respect women, and Chaucer himself had a history of sexual abuse). However, these stories are all about everyday people you could find while walking through a city in Chaucer's time. These are all authentic people with authentic concerns represented in their words. 

All of these stories are presented with a lot of irony and there is a great deal of humor mixed in, so they do not feel as dated as one might expect. Chaucer also interweaves a lot of social commentary into this narrative. His writing can be very pointed at times, especially those who hold the vices of greed or corruption.

Chaucer presents a wide range of different people that have not always been presented in literature, and therefore offers different underrepresented viewpoints or concerns. There are no epic heroes in these stories, no one of great fame or power. Instead, these are common people and the tales chronicle their every day concerns. This is one of the great strengths of vernacular literature, in that it can offer perspectives of real people. Rather than only presenting narratives about the elite and powerful, Chaucer adds to the tradition of telling stories about everyday folk. He shows us that this kind of representation is incredibly important, because it allows for broader narratives and more encompassing reflection of life.

The Seventh Seal and Experiencing Death

Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal has pretty much always been in the periphery of my film knowledge. I have heard the name, knew the general concept, but have never seen it until now. I used to think it was one of those classic movies that made you sound pretentious when you talk about it. I thought that's how this, or any review of the film, will sound due to its reputation as one of the greatest films of all time, because who would need to review a film like that?

However, the film surprised me quite a bit. It is a very humble movie in many ways. The subtle yet careful acting, the steady pace, the deliberate cinematography, and the psychologically charged plot all come together to make the film live up to its reputation. 

The movie follows a knight, Antonius Block, who has returned from fighting in the crusades to his country, Sweden, swept by the black plague. Upon returning he meets Death, who tells Block his time has come. However, Block challenges Death to a game of chess. If Block wins, he gets to keep his life. 

The film felt medieval, although I cannot speak for every accuracy or inaccuracy. I think Bergman definitely captured a good tone for the middle ages. His depiction may be a little bleak, but I think rather than that trying to be representative of the whole medieval period, it is reflective of how the people may have felt at the time of the black death. The dreary tone was a directorial choice to express what otherwise would be internalized by these people who feared or experienced the horrible disease, or death.

One of the most interesting parts of this film is that it is about a knight who has just done a lot of fighting in war, but the movie is not about war. The movie tackles the psychological effects of fighting in a war, and then returning home only to experience more death. Block is a very troubled character throughout the whole film. Following the tradition of existentialism in art in the mid-20th century Europe, we see Block continually try to deal with a crisis of faith. At one point, Block is shown to be locked in a prison cell with Death just outside the bars talking to him. Block says to Death, "No man can live with death knowing that everything is nothingness. [...] In our fear we make an idol and call it God." Block, after just fighting in war and coming home to only experience more death all around him, cannot come to grips that God could allow this to happen. His motivation for playing chess with Death is not to save his life, but to get answers about God and ease his existential crisis instead. 

Block was also not literally in a prison cell, but it seems we were rather within his mind. The film does a good job at blending reality and fantasy. It does it so well that it can be disorienting at times, where you don't exactly know where the characters are. One character, Jof, even has mystical visions at some points and sees things like the Virgin Mary with a baby, or Death. This mixing of reality and fantasy also might reflect how people experience death. Not knowing where the film is rooted in reality mirrors how dealing with a lot of grief can place you outside of reality and into the dream-like fantasies of your head as you try to deal with the emotional trauma you have experienced. 

Block is not only representative of how people of the time might have interacted with an abundance of death and widespead grief, but also people of any time period who fear that Death is 'always by their side,' as Death tells Block. I think it is incredibly interesting how the film uses this particular moment in history as a device to explain the sort of internal crises people would feel when death is taking so many around them and they might be next on the list. While, not completely using ideas from the middle ages and instead borrowing from the more modern school of thought of existentialism, in the end, this proved to be a very human story and its message transcends each particular moment in time.