From Verona to Mayerling: reflections on the phenomenon of omo-suicide from cases historic-artistic

Abstract

The phenomenon of homicide-suicide, particularly if carried out between two lovers, has been the subject of several artistic productions. Some stories, then, such as the history of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and the case of the lovers of Mayerling, gave inspiration to many literary and motion picture works. Whether it comes to historical events, as in the matter of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and Baroness Maria Vetsera, or to dramatic works, as in the matter of Romeo Montagues and Juliet Capulets, the more or less voluntary death of two lovers is always a very interesting case to criminological sciences. This interest is due to many reasons: in criminology reconstructing a crime is meant also as a symbolic activity, which is - at least for some aspects - similar to an artistic production; artworks often do show in a clear way those psychopathological situations, which can cause deeds such as homicide-suicide; the crime description, from an artistic point of view, may help reconstructing the emotional atmosphere in which the crime was carried out and with which the specialist has to empathize. The Authors aim then at deepening some aspects concerning both the causesand the dynamics of homicide-suicide, making reference to the above mentioned historical and literary cases. In fact, the death of the lovers of Verona involves those dynamics we also find in suicide pacts, in which a life plan based on love is paradoxically performed through a double and simultaneous voluntary death.With regards to this and to the tragedy of Mayerling,we remark the need of distinguishing between a suicide pact and a suicide carried out only after an homicide and inspired by reasons which are far away from those of a shared death. Sometimes the range of interpretation as regards to this phenomenon may be very wide, either because of the emotional involvement caused in the observer by an homicide-suicide, since it reaches the existential dimension of the observer himself, either because of the enigmatic feature often characterizing a voluntary death, particularly when performed at the same time (or almost at the same time) by two people linked by an emotional relationship. In many cases there are only partial answers to questions, since reconstructing the path leading to such deed is difficult, because rarely there are survivors. Therefore, from this point of view, reflecting both on the symptoms and on the dynamics of the stories of either the lovers of Mayerling and those of Verona helps us to a better understanding of such a complex, and for some aspects always mysterious case as that of homicide-suicide. That is the place, in the end, beyond the different definitions and classifications proposed in the scientific field, where the search for the meaning of life is necessarily linked to that for the end of life, if we admit that the fundamental concern of human beings is avoiding the distress caused by death.