Why are ghost brides such a classic trope? Is it the Poe-esque juxtaposition of death with youth and beauty? Is it the fact that a woman clad in a white gown is already appropriately dressed for the afterlife, her diaphanous white veil ready-made for her shade in the most symbolically neat packaging of all ghosts? Is it because, though we have all been socially conditioned to desire it, we secretly fear marriage?
With her deep origins in fairy tales and folklore, and her many expressions in ghost stories and Gothic literature, the ghost bride is an archetypal figure that is deeply embedded in popular consciousness. She has existed for centuries in folklore as an apparition who warns the bride-
(or groom- ) to-be of the dangers that lie ahead, dangers of an excess of passion, or a lack of it, dangers of trusting your heart to someone you
maybe don’t fully know yet. There’s a narrative arc to a wedding that is tinged with fear, which we brush off as wedding-day jitters. The bride is the
radiant focal point of the day, and at the precise moment of the fatal kiss, as maiden morphs into wife-and-mother, her fate is sealed. I hope, for your sake, your husband is a benevolent overlord and not a murderous Bluebeard, dear lady.
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