The Spread Of Suicide During The Dark Ages

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Society has undergone many changes in terms of norms and culture, and this has widely informed perceptions of suicide. Suicide’s importance rose and fell with the dawn of modern philosophy, and its retreat back to the category of “the greatest sin” mirrored the fall of deep philosophy during the Dark Ages. The advent of suicide occurred during the Classical Age when the question of whether man had free will over his own life was discussed in the political forum. The
Greek and Romans became obsessed with suicide as a means of taking control over their own life and mortality, and was seen as a way of succeeding over the gods of death.
The Renaissance, and its loosening attitude towards religion, brought about some change in the public’s view towards suicide. As people’s lives became longer, and old age became prolonged; man became afflicted with various diseases. One way of avoiding a long, painful death was by killing oneself. People began to feel as though, if someone wasn’t hurting anyone else and was sure to suffer extreme pain or eventual death, that suicide was not as much of a sin as the Catholic Church was making it out to be. …show more content…
This marked a major shift in attitude as suicide was previously though of as a horrible crime against God and the state. In an attempt at a solution, in 1562, “an English court held suicide a punishable felony because it offended nature, God, and the King.” (Cite) The “self murder” was then obligated to forfeit all his belongings to the King, a move that was meant to discourage “desperate and wicked an act." (Cite) So, with the change in legislation, suicide was now no longer as big a “crime” as homicide, and while it still had an attached social and religious stigma, it was now seen as justified in some
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