The moment someone died, a Victorian family hurried to drape every mirror in the house in black. And it wasn’t to shield themselves from their own grief. It was to shield themselves from the beyond.
When death came to a Victorian household, one of the first things the family did, even before the body had gone cold, was to cover the mirrors. Every looking glass in the house was draped in black crape or simply turned to face the wall.
The Victorians believed mirrors could capture a soul. The newly dead, confused and perhaps not yet fully departed, might glimpse themselves in the glass and become trapped there, left to linger in the house they once lived in. And there was danger for those they left behind as well. A mourner who caught sight of their own reflection in a house where death had just occurred might find themselves marked as the next to follow.
For the Victorians, the mirror was not the only danger. After a death, the entire house was believed to be a perilous place. Clocks were stopped not only to record the exact hour of passing, but also to avoid inviting more misfortune. Photographs were turned face-down, so that the restless spirit could not slip into an image and possess the living person found there. And the body was carried out feet-first, so it could not look back over its shoulder and urge another soul to follow. Every part of it was carefully managed to avoid the unfortunate luck of the dead.
It seems the Victorians were completely fascinated with death. They wore mourning dress for long periods of time, including jewelry and embroidery samplers woven from a dead loved one’s hair. They photographed the deceased as if merely sleeping, or positioned them among family members, as a loving memorial. Queen Victoria spent four decades in black after the death of her beloved Albert, and made sure his clothes were laid out every day, as if he would step into them at any moment. In a world that was so intimate with its dead, a mirror that might be holding a lingering soul was a household hazard that needed to be dealt with to assure everyone’s safety.
