La Guillotine

"La Guillotine"

The crowds gathered around a beheading differed greatly, depending on the person being beheaded and the nature of the crime. However, each crowd was needed to make an example out of the condemned and his unlawful acts. The crowd would often cheer on the last spiteful words of a man who had nothing left to loose, often cursing the government, the laws and/or officials. The crowd also decided how good of a job each executioner did, if he caused excessive pain or if he couldn't kill instantaneously. The executioners were either fined or imprisoned as a result of the crowds findings.

The guillotine has become the bloody symbol of the French Revolution, an ironic ending for a machine that was initially introduced to end the preceding centuries of inhumane torture of criminals. The guillotine was introduced to France by Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotine, he was not the inventor of the machine only a lobbyist for it. The idea behind its introduction was to end the spectacle of public torture and to eliminate the severity of pain involved with capital punishment.