Erewhon · Chapter
XIII: The Views of the Erewhonians Concerning Death explained
The narrator describes Erewhonian attitudes toward death, which they regard with less abhorrence than disease, considering it beyond the reach of law.
What happens
The narrator describes Erewhonian attitudes toward death, which they regard with less abhorrence than disease, considering it beyond the reach of law. They believe many who die have never truly been born into the unseen world. Death is seen as more frightening than harmful, and the precise moment of death is unknowable. The dead are cremated and their ashes scattered over chosen land, often a childhood garden. Statues are made during life with flattering inscriptions, but public statues are destroyed after fifty years unless a jury votes to retain them. Condolences are expressed through boxes of artificial tears. The chapter also discusses Erewhonian secrecy and shame around childbirth, which is treated as an illness to be concealed.
Themes in this chapter
Inversion of Morality
Erewhonians invert conventional moral attitudes: death is less abhorrent than disease, childbirth is treated as a shameful illness, and statues are destroyed after fifty years.
Truth and Deception
Statues bear untruthful inscriptions about beauty and wealth, and the custom of paying sculptors not to make statues involves clandestine transactions.
Characters to notice
- Narrator
The narrator observes and explains Erewhonian customs regarding death, statues, and childbirth.
- Erewhonians
The Erewhonians hold unique views on death, considering it less serious than disease, and practice cremation with ash scattering. They also have customs for statues and condolence tears.
Key passages
“The Erewhonians regard death with less abhorrence than disease. If it is an offence at all, it is one beyond the reach of the law, which is therefore silent on the subject; but they insist that the greater number of those who are commonly said to die, have never yet been born—not, at least, into that unseen world which is alone worthy of consideration.”
The Erewhonians fear death less than disease; they consider it beyond legal punishment and believe most who die were never truly born into the spiritual realm.
This introduces the Erewhonian inversion of values regarding death and the afterlife.
“They have statues of themselves made while they are still alive (those, that is, who can afford it), and write inscriptions under them, which are often quite as untruthful as are our own epitaphs—only in another way. For they do not hesitate to describe themselves as victims to ill temper, jealousy, covetousness, and the like, but almost always lay claim to personal beauty, whether they have it or not, and, often, to the possession of a large sum in the funded debt of the country.”
Wealthy Erewhonians commission statues of themselves while alive, with inscriptions that admit moral flaws but falsely claim beauty and wealth.
This satirizes Victorian epitaphs and the vanity of public monuments.