Blurring the Lines: Early Modern Suicide by Proxy, Emotion, and Reason

This paper discusses the ambivalent relationship between emotion (passion) and reason in the popular-cultural responses to early modern instances of suicide by proxy. It argues that suicide by proxy was not an anomaly but was instead rooted in the intellectual and social transformations of the early modern period. These transformations are linked to an ambivalent approach towards emotion and reason and the reevaluation of social, legal, and religious norms.

Suicide by proxy blurred the lines not only between right and wrong, just and unjust, but also between emotion and reason. While public opinion fundamentally condemned suicide by proxy, there was a notable shift in sentiment once perpetrators where imprisoned and faced execution. This ambivalence in public opinion was particularly evident in popular culture. Broadsheets, ballads, and similar accounts frequently featured graphic depictions of suicidal (child) murders, emphasizing the heinous nature of the crime. Concurrently, they portrayed the perpetrators with a remarkable degree of compassion, underscoring the perpetrators’ lives of overwhelming adversity and prolonged suffering. Similarly, many Sturm und Drang era authors, many of whom had a legal background and ex professo adopted rigorous legal viewpoints on suicide and child murders, demonstrated pronounced empathy towards these perpetrators in their creative work. Echoing the sentiments of the ballads and broadsheets, they emphasized the moral ambiguity of suicide by proxy by obscuring reason beneath layers of emotion and passion. Thus, reason and passion merged so seamlessly that distinguishing between them became nearly impossible.

By discussing a sample of popular depictions of suicide by proxy instances in early modern Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, this paper demonstrates that public perception of suicide by proxy was not merely a reflection of moral and legal standards, but also a complex response to the shifting boundaries between emotion and reason during the early modern period.