ABSTRACT
Ageing into old age is an emotive issue but what exactly are the emotions of ageing? How are the emotions associated with ageing and old age given cultural frame and form? These questions concerning the age-related nature of the emotions are complex and may be explored sociologically from two interrelated perspectives: firstly by means of empirical enquiries into the personal or subjective qualities of the emotions experienced in everyday life by men and women as they grow older and, secondly, through an examination on the cultural level of evidence of social expectations concerning the emotions of ageing available in visual, literary and other sources. This chapter explores cultural evidence supplied by a small selection of Victorian paintings and the focus of interest is the images of emotions related to old age in these works of fine art. Sociological research into these two sources of evidence on the emotions associated with ageing suggests that there is tension between the subjective experience of emotions during later life and the images of the emotions which society considers to be appropriate in old age (see Milligan et al., this volume).
