Se donner la mort sur la scène romantique Enjeux esthétiques, sociaux, politiques

The representation of death is a defining element of Romantic aestheticism. Indeed, suicide is often portrayed on the Romantic stage. Being aestheticized and spectacular, self inflicted death readily gives the character who commits suicide a tragic, sometimes Christ-like dimension. Some political, social and aesthetical stakes result from the representation of suicides on the Romantic stage, in the living art of the theatre, right in front of an audience utterly stunned.