The Idle Apprentice At Tyburn

“But indeed, at that time, putting to death was a recipe much in vogue with all trades and professions, and not least of all with Tellson’s. Death is Nature’s remedy for all things, and why not the Legislation’s? Accordingly, the forger was put to Death; the utterer of a bad note was put to Death; the unlawful opener of a letter was put to Death; the purloiner of forty shillings and sixpence was put to Death; the holder of a horse at Tellson’s door, who made off with it, was put to Death; the coiner of a bad shilling was put to Death; the sounders of three-forths of the notes in the whole gamut of Crime, were put to Death” (39).

Washington Irving’s, “The Adventure of the German Student” is a story about a young German student named Gottfried Wolfgang that travels to Paris at the end of the eighteenth century during the French revolution. Wolfgang is a recluse that spends hours of his time studying old literature with an unbiased approached. Wolfgang is horrified of the guillotine and expresses disgust for such bloodlust, yet at the same time awe struck by the contraption. The site of blood shed had a negative impact on Wolfgang’s mentality. Wolfgang over time became obsessed with thoughts of a beautiful woman. One woman in particular haunted his dreams and consumed his thoughts. Later this woman appears on the steps near a guillotine. He professes his love and they become intimate that night. Wolfgang leaves the room briefly and upon his return he notices the awkward posture of the woman and attempted to wake her. The woman was dead; she had no pulse and was cold to the touch. An officer is left puzzled about the whole matter; he explained that the woman had been guillotined the day before. Wolfgang believed that a demon had possessed

The essay “A Hanging” by George Orwell speaks to the reader about the author’s stance on capital punishment. I believe that Orwell was able to communicate his point, without actually saying I’m against capital punishment, through three steps. The first step is to set the mood and bring you into his perspective. From the dreary description of the morning to the slow procession of the condemned man to the gallows, Orwell puts the reader in a mood that conveys the experience of watching a man die. The second step is to compare himself to the condemned man, showing how we are all equal. A life is a life, whether you are a condemned man or not. The third step is to show how everyone tries to cope with the aftermath of the execution. This

The image below is a primary source of people being hung in the Middle Ages for murdering. The authors perspective is shown how he has drawn people hanging down while there are people watching them to show them not to do this. The viewpoint of the author is to say not to do this otherwise it will happen to you. The crowd around the punished people are there to show the seriousness of the punishments providing a warning and awareness of the consequences. It could lead to death and torture for the rest of their lives, this reflects to the authors point of view. Overall, Crimes and Punishments in the Middle Ages were very hard for people to escape. Authors presented a lot detail to show how life was strict back in the Middle Ages. Images that

Through the use of strong imagery of the descriptions of the seven prisoners and guards, Dickens emphasizes the shift in power among the French aristocracy and the commoners. As Madame Defarge leads the mob to seize the guards in Bastille and free the prisoners, the ironic contrast formed within the actions truly depict the power altering between the two distinctive social classes. The seven dead guards were portrayed as, “seven gory heads on pikes” and “impassive faces, yet with a suspended—not an abolished—expression on them”(170). The powerful imagery thoroughly proves their defeat against the mob, since after the seven prisoners were released, the power became of the commoners. Thus, this is a substantial event to the start of the revolution,

In “Bring Back Flogging”, the author, Jeff Jacoby suggests that people should adopt some of the Puritans tactics to punish criminals instead of putting them in prison. In order to present his claim, Jacoby is based in the use of irony, logos, and ethos. According to Jeff Jacoby a moment of humiliation is better than a couple of years behind the bars. I do not agree with Jeff Jacoby’s argument because the examples he gives and the way he refers to the topic incite to violence, also during the development of the subject he is too contradictory with his own opinions, and his arguments are unclear.

The immense sickness wasn’t the only thing dark about Europe’s Middle Ages. The monarchs were cruel and unruly to their subjects while enforcing brutality upon their land and citizens. The laws enforced by these kings and queens were nothing short of diabolical, for there was no set list of limitations and rules meaning that the monarchs could punish anyone for anything, even if that meant simply disturbing the king. The executions of the ‘accused’ were public to the citizens, and were “a pitiless affair” (McGlynn). The kings ruled with an iron fist as their methods of justice were murderous as executions “sent out a message of warning and deterrence” and “offered the ultimate guarantee against repeat offenders”. The message monarchs tried to send while carelessly shedding blood was that they desired to make a statement, and scare citizens into not committing crimes, for they would know the gruesome consequences. If not death, the “standard, mandatory sentence” of all accused peoples was mutilation of “eyes, noses, ears, hands, feet and testicles”. To sum it all up, punishment in the Middle Ages was much more unforgiving than in this modern day of age; being burned at the stake or beheaded by the guillotine are still some of the most spine-tingling punishments to this day. In all of the depressing fog of the Middle Ages, could there truly have been a beneficial factor?

“A Hanging” by George Orwell is an influential, autobiographical essay, in which the subject of capital punishment is powerfully examined. The essay is based on a prisoner’s execution in a Prisoner of War camp in Burma during the Second World War. In the essay, Orwell is a prison guard for the camp and carefully illustrates his views on capital punishment. The structure of the essay is of three distinct sections. These sections provide the reader with contrast and repetition, and are grounded in reality but with emphasis on the creative,

Throughout history, there are lesser-known occurrences in which Historians can make assertions about the society in that time period as a whole. The conviction, execution and alleged resurrection of William Cragh is one such occurrence. In The Hanged Man, Robert Bartlett writes of a man who was executed, but allegedly rose from the dead in the Middle Ages. The story of William Cragh is not only a riveting anecdote, but also, an insightful look at the legal system of the Middle Ages. The Hanged Man helps to explain the relationship between England and Wales, the legal process that led to hanging, as well as societal perceptions of criminals and outlaws in the Medieval Period. Robert Bartlett is able to present a complicated historical event through the language of an everyday person. The Hanged Man is a great example of accessible historical nonfiction, bringing an understanding of the Middle Ages to a broad audience.

England has a reasonable repute for cruelty. A mutual awareness of the Middle Ages is that society was abused by continuous violence and social indifference against fatalities by the insistent dignity of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse continuously pushing back and forth across Europe.

Humiliation, Pain and Death: The Execution of Criminals in New France,” is an article that puts

On January 1st of 1649, the Rump Parliament of England passed a mandate for the trial of King Charles I to which he would be charged with “subverting the fundamental laws and liberties of the nation while maliciously making war on the parliament and people of England.” After years of civil war and various failures in fulfilling kingly duties, Charles faced a trial against a strategically assembled English court that would choose his fate. This stands out in history as one of the most noteworthy and dramatic events in early modern England- a domestic political crisis unlike anything that had ever been seen before. Over the years historians have debated in how they characterize the king’s trial and its end result, referring to the execution as “a crime of the worst magnitude, a regrettable necessity, or a laudable challenge to either an individual ruler or the entire political system.” Due to the overall disapproval of the trial by prominent individuals, biased personnel assembled in the court, questionable legal legitimacy, improper court proceedings and unfortunate socio-economic circumstances during his reign, it can be concluded that King Charles I did not receive a fair trial.

In the chapter, “The body of the Condemned,” Foucault addresses the evolution of the punishment system and how it has gone from being a public spectacle to something that is done behind closed doors. Foucault opens the chapter with an extremely descriptive and gory representation of a public execution. The purpose of this was to display how execution have changed from being in the public eye to behind closed doors using the electric chair and legal injections. It was done in this fashion to deter individuals from committing heinous crimes. Today, the cost of prison time, fines, etc.. deter individuals instead. Punishment has become less about effecting the body and more about the changing the souls and integrating them back into society.

In Margret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and William Shakespeare’s King Lear it is evident that the punishment of innocent individuals by evildoers catalyzes violence thus, culminating in the disruption of society.

The carnivalesque can be understood as having arisen in response to a society which, as described by literary critic Jon Cook, was “ostensibly attached to hierarchy and its manifold religious and social rituals” (Cook 190). It appears as a revolution against these confining structures, working to reassert freedom. It works toward this end by both negating the values of