Semester of Graduation

Summer 2024

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

"The Anatomy of Inequality: Medicine, Mourning, and Socioeconomic Status in Victorian England," examines the historic relationships between socioeconomic inequality, death, and medical practice during the Victorian period, with specific ttention on London and surrounding areas. I argue that the extreme socioeconomic disparities of the time were deeply intertwined with the practices surrounding death, mourning, and medical care. The first chapter, "The Price of Sorrow," explores the elaborate mourning rituals and displays of status among the wealthy and upper to middle-class Victorians, detailing how these practices were not only expressions of grief but also conspicuous displays of social status and wealth. The second chapter, "A Collective Goodbye," focuses on the mourning and burial adaptations among the Victorian paupers and working-class, emphasizing how the poor developed their own mourning traditions, marked by collective grief and resource-sharing, despite economic constraints. In the third chapter, "Bodies and Bureaucracy," I explain the practices of graverobbing, the impact of anatomical legislation, and the role of the medical field in perpetuating social inequality. I primarily argue that the Anatomy Act of 1832, intended to regulate the supply of cadavers for medical study, disproportionately affected the poor, whose bodies became commodities for medical advancement. The final chapter, "The Last Resort," examines the conditions in Victorian hospitals and the consequences of forced hospital detentions and the cadaver trade on the working poor. It presents a detailed account of how the poor, who were often treated in hospitals under dire conditions, were exploited even in death for the benefit of medical education and research. The thesis combines multiple accounts and social histories of Victorian life and economic class disparities, and how the legal, medical, and social systems of the time worked in tandem to exacerbate this inequality. My argument that the practices surrounding death and medical care during the Victorian era were not just reflections of existing social hierarchies, but active mechanisms that reinforced and perpetuated these divisions, is supported using a combination of primary and secondary sources, along with some data visualizations that I created using digital humanities methods.

Date

7-24-2024

Committee Chair

Veldman, Meredith

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