For as long as most of us can remember, the crumbling Victorian mansion has been a symbol of spookiness and the supernatural. You see it in everything from The Addams Family, to Psycho, to most recently, The Haunting of Hill House. But how did this phenomenon happen? Why do we culturally associate homes from one very specific era with the concept of fear? According to a new video essay by Vox, via The Laughing Squid, it all goes back to how we as Americans felt about the fallout of the so-called “Gilded Age” at the turn of the twentieth century.
Of course, today, the remaining Victorian homes have been restored and repainted, and are coveted by many. They also go for millions of dollars, even the smaller ones (see: all San Francisco real estate values). But even those homes evoke a sense of spooky history, of ghosts and candlelit hallways. But it’s all tied into uniquely American ideas about wealth and class, and how decadence can lead to ruin. Food for though next time you post a cardboard picture of an old Victorian home on your wall for Halloween.wWould you live an old, spooky Victorian manor? Be sure to let us know down below in the comments.
Images: Paramount Pictures