Talking about Death - Western Culture IV

They also demonstrate the conjunction of sexuality and death: death, always a man, even when a skeleton, is frequently shown as the sexual assailant of a young woman. By the 18th century, the separation of death from life gave it the same fascination, and the same opportunity for fantasy, that had long been given to eroticism.

By the 19th century, most of these factors had become considerably intensified. The containment of nature, far from being abandoned, had reached unimaginable heights in the domains of science and technology. Enlightened rationalism had also achieved enormous successes in the social sphere. By mid-century, even the consolation provided by religion seemed to have been stripped away by Darwin, though not without considerable resistance.
The triumph of reason was nevertheless incomplete. Forces opposing these developments those of irrationality and passion, sentiment and emotion--intensified as well. If sexuality could not be given undisguised expression, at least in polite society, it had covert expression in art, and overt expression in pornography.