Crying in Public and in Private

Tears, as cultural historians have long pointed out, do not simply represent emotions; they are also deeply determined by cultural meaning and social values. Public crying, in particular, reflects on ethical ideals, moral criteria, religious orientations, and gender roles. ¹ In certain societies grief is not expressed openly; in others the entire community shares in an individual’s mourning. ² At times those who cry in view of the public, that is, among friends and foes, deliberately try to evoke strong sympathy and respect; at other times, however, shedding tears can also provoke contempt and ridicule. Anyone who breaks out in tears follows, therefore—intentionally or not—culturally loaded rituals because crying in public frequently serves to evoke reactions of the external world, and to connect the emotional self with the social, public domain. In other words, the history of crying proves to be just as important, complex, and insightful as the history of laughter, or the history of anger and fear, inasmuch as it allows us to grasp fundamental aspects concerning the attitudes toward emotions in the medieval or any other, world. ³