The fear of being buried alive is more than just a Victorian era pre-occupation. Premature burial, also known as vivisepulture, has been recorded as intentional as a form of torture or murder, or accidental due to death like states such as catalepsy or coma combined with the inability to determine complete death. During the Victorian era, there was such a preoccupation with preventing this fate that the anxieties living burial became a major source of literary inspiration.

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