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Explore essential questions surrounding death and dying, and learn how art can facilitate communication and understanding. Discover the transformative power of the arts in addressing emotional, physical, and spiritual aspects of end-of-life experiences.
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Communicating Last Things Strategies for Teaching about Death and Dying Through the Arts Gail Henson, Ph. D., Bellarmine University
What are the essential questions? • Since dying and death happen to all humans, the questions will vary with • Age • Stage of life • Religion • Culture • Reasons for dying
Why is life so fragile? Why is everything living transient? How do I deal with suffering? How can I deal with pain or discomfort as I die? Do I fight death or do I embrace it? Why am I suffering? What is quality of life? What is the meaning of my life? What is my legacy? What is a good death? What will the hour of my death be like? Can I prepare for death? Does anyone care about my death? Does my death affect anyone? What loose ends need to be tied up before I die? Questions asked….
What will happen to my body after death? Will I continue suffering? Will I be reborn into a new existence or into a cosmic nothingness? How do I go into the next stage? Is it dark or light? Is there a life after this? What is heaven (or hell) like? Will there be angels or demons? Will I see God (or a devil)? Will there be a judgment? Will there be people, places, or animals I know? More questions…
Self Process of dying Fear of dependency Fear of pain in dying process Fear of the indignity in dying process Fear of loneliness, rejection & isolation Fear of leaving loved ones Others Process of dying Fear of financial burdens Fear of going through the painful experience of others Fear of being unable to cope with the physical problems of others Fear of being unable to cope emotionally wit problems of others Fear of losing loved ones. The Eight Dimensions of Death Anxiety as they relate tothe Deaths of Self and Others
Self Afterlife concerns Fear of an unknown situation Fear of divine judgment Fear of the spirit world Fear of nothingness Others Afterlife concerns Fear of the judgment of others—“What are they thinking?” Fear of ghosts, spirits, devils, etc. Anxiety about the State of being dead
Fear of the finality of death Fear of not being able to achieve one’s goals Fear of the possible end of physical & symbolic identity Fear of the end of all social relationships Fear of the fate of the body Fear of body decomposition Fear of not being buried Fear of not being treated with respect Fear of never seeing the person again Fear of the end of a relationship Guilt related to not having done Enough for the deceased Fear of not seeing the person again Fear of losing the social relationship Fear of death objects Fear of dead bodies Fear of being in cemeteries Fear of not knowing how to act in death-related situations. State of being dead
How can the arts help us in our journey toward understanding death?
What can the arts do? The arts can be a catalyst enough to enable grieving, to stimulate the search for meaning, and to initiate change—or a least negotiate a truce with the status quo. With the mediation of the arts, poetry, drawing, psychodrama, music and so forth, we and our clients become involved...in heightened identification, catharsis, and insight. The beauty of the process is its openness to interpretations, jogging both us and those entrusted to our care out of our old ruts of perception toward enlarged understandings and possibilities.” Arts can “refresh, inspire, remind, and upon occasion, to jolt.” Sandra Bertman, Grief and the Healing Arts, 3.
The Arts Transform… • The arts are an agent of self-expression and therefore are transforming in nature. The artist begins with an ephemeral idea, a vision, or possibility. Then the artist faces the blank page and, in doing so, his or her fears as well. As the visions meet concrete reality of materials, the artist sheds preconceptions and steps into the unknown. The reality of the evolving art work is a product of growth and discovery. • The artist is empowered not only by self-expression but by tangible nonverbal knowledge. This seed of transformation is present in every art-making process and can help to prepare patients for their final transformation, death. From: C Regina Kelley’s essay “Transformations: Visual arts and Hospice Care” in Bertman, Creativity and the Healing Arts.
Transformational power of the arts • The arts address all of these areas (emotional , physical, and spiritual) functioning as an animator, that which endows life or spirit. The arts reawaken the senses often ignored during long illnesses. They address what is possible rather than what is lost. They bring beauty, joy, and every form of expression into a time that we often assume to be unbearably painful. Kelley, in Bertman.
Concepts seen in most arts • Momento mori • Arts moriendi • Dans macrabre
Exercises • Exercise 1 My First Experience with Death • Exercise 2 Death Anxiety Scale (DAS
Communicating Last things Part II The Visual Arts
Death In the Sickroom Munch
“The Dead Mother” Edward Munch
XLIX. The Allegorical Escutcheon of DeathThe coat or shield is fractured in several places. On it is a skull, and at the top the crest as a helmet surmounted by two arm-bones, the hands of which are grasping a ragged piece of stone, and between them is placed an hour-glass. The supporters are a gentleman and a lady in the dresses of the times.
Hans Holbein— The Dance of Death, 1520s The Alphabet of Death
The orchestra of Death. From Der Doten Dantz, Printed by Heinrich Knoblochzer, Heidelberg, 1490
Inferno : Canto XVII : The Descent of the Abyss on Geryon's Back
Inferno : Canto III : The Doomed Souls Embarking to Cross the Acheron
Inferno : Canto XXVIII : The Severed Head of Bertrand de Born Speaks
Bosch Hell
William Blake The Ancient of Days
Communicating Last things Part II Literature
Literature • George Herbert • John Donne • Robert Frost • Emily Dickinson • Wallace Stevens • Leo Tolstoy
How soon doth man decay! When clothes are taken from a chest of sweets To swaddle infants, whose young breath Scarce knows the way; Those clouts are little winding sheets, Which do consign and send them unto death. When boyes go first to bed, They step into their voluntarie graves, Sleep bindes them fast; onely their breath Makes them not dead: Successive nights, like rolling waves, Convey them quickly, who are bound for death. When youth is frank and free, Ande calls for musick, while his veins do swell, All day exchanging mirth and breath In companie; That musick summons to the knell, Which shall befriend him at the hour of death. When man grows staid and wise, Getting a house and home, where he may move Within the circle of his breath, Schooling his eyes; That dumbe inclosure maketh love Unto the coffin, that attends his death. When age grows low and weak, Marking his grave, and thawing ev’ry yeare, Till all do melt, and drown his breath When he would speak; A chair or litter shows the biere, Which shall convey him to the house of death. Man, ere he is aware, Hath put together a solemnitie, And drest his herse, while he has breath As yet to spare: Yet Lord, instruct us so to die, That all these dyings may be life in death. Herbert “Mortification”
John Donne Holy Sonnets • VI • Death be not proud, though some have called thee • Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe, • For those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow • Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee; • From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, • Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow, • And soonest our best men with thee do goe, • Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie. • Thou aret slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, • And doest with poison, warre, and sickness dwell, • And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well, • And better than thy stroake; why swell’st thou then? • One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally, • And death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die.
Because I could not stop for Death— He kindly stopped for me— The Carriage held but just Ourselves— And Immortality. We slowly drove—He knew no haste And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For his Civility— We passed the School where Children strove At Recess—in the Ring— We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain— We passed the Setting Sun— Or rather—He passed Us— The Dews drew quivering and chill— For only Gossamer, my Gown— My Tippet—only Tulle— We paused before a House that seemed A swelling of the Ground— The Roof was scarcely visible— The Cornice—in the Ground— Since then—‘tis Centuries—and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses’ Heads Were toward Eternity— Emily Dickinson 712
“Goodnight, Willie Lee, I’ll see youin the morning” Alice Walker Looking down into my father’s dead face for the last time my mother said without tears, without smiles without regrets but with civility “Goodnight, Willie Lee, I’ll see you in the morning.” And it was then I knew that the healing of all our wounds is forgiveness that permits a promise of our return at the end.
Milton Methought I saw my late espoused saint Methought I saw my late espoused saint Brought to me like Alcestis from the grace, Whom Jove’s great son to her glad husband gave, Rescued from death by force, though pale and faint. Mine, as whom washed from spot of child-bed taint Purification in the Old Law did save, And as such yet once more I trust to have Full sight of her in heaven without restraint, Came vested all in white, pure as her mind. Her face was veiled, yet to my fancied sight Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined So clear as in no face with more delight. But O as to embrace me she inclined, I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night. John Milton 1608-1674
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightening they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Dylan Thomas “Do not go gentle into that good night”
Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich In addition to the lie, or owing to it, what tormented Ivan Ilyich most was that no one gave him the kind of compassion he craved. There were moments after long suffering when what he wanted most of all (shameful as it might be for him to admit) was to be pitied like a sick child. He wanted to be caressed, kissed, cried over, as sick children are caressed and comforted.
Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich Where was death? What death? There was no fear because there was no death.Instead of death there was light. “So that’s it!” he exclaimed. “What bliss!” All this happened in a single moment, but the significance of this moment was lasting. For those present, his agony continued for another two hours. Something rattled in his chest; his emaciated body twitched. Then the rattling and wheezing gradually diminished “It is all over,” said someone standing beside him. He heard these words and repeated them in his soul. “Death is over,” he said to himself. “There is no more death.” He drew in a breath, broke off in the middle of it, stretched himself out, and died.”
Music • For those who are dying, hearing is the last of the senses to go. • Music is a way of telling a story and of inviting singers to accept a role in that story. • Music can articulate the rich subtleties experienced in suffering and joy. It releases a wider spectrum of emotions than can be released by confessional formulas or historical reconstructions. • It evokes the sense of mystery that surrounds such homespun words as death and life. • It uses sounds as a band of communication with the encompassing Silence. (Minear 18)
Forms • Hymns • Requiems • Cantatas • Masses • Spirituals • Gospel music (Christian) • Chanting • Program music
