Middle Ages

The Middle Ages appear in the book as the starting point of a long history in which honor was repeatedly given as a reason for killing a newborn. The period is situated within a changing social and legal landscape: as infanticide came to be treated as a punishable crime rather than an accepted practice, it did not simply disappear, but was driven into secrecy.

Historical Context

The book traces the appeal to honor from the Middle Ages through the nineteenth century, presenting it as the most frequently invoked reason for ending a newborn’s life during that span. It also describes a broader shift: infanticide, once a systematic practice, increasingly appeared as the desperate act of mothers, while legal condemnation pushed it underground. The passage does not assign this legal change to a precise date within the medieval period.

A Later Literary Example

To give this history a literary form, the book turns to Gretchen in Goethe’s Faust, an archetypal character from the eighteenth century. After Faust seduces her, she gives birth and kills the newborn in an attempt to conceal the dishonor. She is condemned to death; by the time Faust seeks to free her, she has lost her sanity, refuses escape, and dies consumed by guilt. The episode links the long history of honor and infanticide to a literary image of punishment and lasting spiritual consequence.