Melancholia, A Lover’s Rejection, and Fortune Teller’s Reading: A linguistic analysis of suicide obituaries in a historical newspaper

Melancholia, A Lover’s Rejection, and Fortune Teller’s Reading: A linguistic analysis of suicide obituaries in a historical newspaper

Haley Scott

Obituaries and other death notifications such as funeral announcements and news reports have long been the method of death notice for the public. Typically including information ranging from date of birth and death, the deceased’s greatest accomplishments, late and surviving family, and occasional cause and/or manner of death, they provide insight into cultural perspectives of death. By examining aspects such as linguistic devices used and positive or negative language association, patterns in how attitudes surrounding death, specifically in cases of suicide, can be identified. This paper seeks to address the various linguistic ways in which suicide in obituaries have been recognized. Utilizing 254 historical New York Times suicide notifications between 1858 and 1922, a database was constructed documenting year of publication, age and sex of the deceased, the method and description of death, words used to describe the act of suicide itself, and circumstances surrounding the death, in order to examine the extent of evasive methods of death discourse. Death notifications within this paper are shown to serve more than the sole purpose of public notice. Explicit details of suicide notifications allow for readers to comment on death and discuss a taboo subject without consequence. By exploring the broader social context for suicide and the perception of death at the time of this historical death notification study, one can begin to understand how views of suicide, death, grief, and death-related language have changed over time.