Another completely practical influence was heightened need for space due to various contagions that wiped out thousands in a short time span. At first these Edens of Death were full of the gothic marble and even small mausoleums. But eventually the plain uniform tombstones of the modern age replaced the more individual and decorative. They are a reflection of our current emphasis on rationality and of our bureaucratic times. With legalities the dead can hold unnatural power over the living through bequests and wills.
Death is no longer a natural part of life.
Our lives are now extended. We no longer die at home among relatives, but in institutions where modern science has placed us. We fear the slowed act of dying these days perhaps more than death itself. It is now the old who die more acceptably and with little grief, no longer considered useful. In horror we have always dealt with the dead and with the negative emotional terror of immortality.