The Personification of Death in Media

The Personification of Death

Throughout history, in all forms of media, people have personified death as a humanlike figure. Sometimes this figure can be bargained with, sometimes Death is sympathetic to humanity and may bestow gifts upon worthy souls, sometimes Death is personified only to give us a figure to blame for the grief that is woven into our lives.

In the wake of a global pandemic, it is natural that the media we create should reflect our response to the mass death that continues to occur. Noticing that two children's movies in the last year included a personified version of Death that taught the main character the purpose of life, as if to help children reckon with the tragedy they are living through, is what prompted this project. And I became interested in why we personify Death and whether instances of it align with world tragedies.

I collected each item with these questions in mind, making note of the country of origin, date of creation, and Death's purpose within the story. I ended up with many different forms of media, but certain similarities in themes arose.

Digital cultural heritage gives us the ability to preserve forms of media that otherwise could not have been accessed. A collection like this also allows the juxtaposition of vastly different forms of media. Only in a digital collection could an English folk ballad be placed next to a Japanese manga character next to an Australian commercial — yet a system like this allows us to put these items all in one place and allows us to draw connections.