The guillotine is the ultimate expression of Law, and its name is vengeance; it is not neutral, nor does it allow us to remain neutral. All social questions achieve their finality around that blade. The scaffold is an image. It is not merely a framework, a machine, a lifeless mechanism of wood, iron, and rope. It is as though it were a being having its own dark purpose, as though the framework saw, the machine listened, and the mechanism understood; as though that arrangement of wood and iron and rope expressed a will. In the hideous picture which its presence evokes it seems to be most terribly a part of what it does. It is the executioner's accomplice; it consumes, devouring flesh and drinking blood. It is a kind of monster created by the judge and the craftsman; a spectre seeming to live an awful life born of the death it deals. Victor Hugo
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The guillotine was the last and most extreme example of the implementation of justice through violence. The guillotine was a very old and still used method of execution, first invented by Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin in France in 1789. The device had several names; it was called "the machine", "the device", and "the turnip".

The name came from the French word, "guillotine." The guillotine was an incredibly simple device, consisting only of a blade that is placed between two wooden planks. A person would be placed on top of these planks, which would then be moved into position just above the neck. The person's arms were tied to their sides so they could not move their head down to stop the blade from being dropped.

When the knife dropped, the blade severed the neck at the joint between the head and neck. The invention came at a time when France had become highly dissatisfied with their previous form of government. After one king was dethroned, another king took his place without any sort of election or consent by the people. This left France with no legitimate government since they had none under whose rule they could consent.

This caused great unrest in France until finally they turned to violent revolution to bring about change. The revolution was led by Maximilien Robespierre who became one of the leading members of the Committee of Public Safety, along with Georges Danton, Georges Jacques Alexis de Flesselles, Etienne Marcel Marat, Jean-Paul Marat (younger brother), Nicolas Marie Auguste Cousin de Coignard (brother-in-law), Louis Antoine Saint Just (cousin) and Claude Anet (friend). They were known as "the Five Hanged Men" because after their deaths they were all displayed on a large wooden board with five holes through which their bodies dangled on ropes. The board featured their portraits on either side of an iron blade that was driven through their necks by an axe or hatchet so that each man's body swung inside its own hole with his head facing out towards his supporters who cheered on Paris as he swung back and forth on his rope.

They gained control of Paris after taking over various halls in order to save them for future use during times of political unrest or revolution. They then went to work on creating changes that would benefit all of France instead of just leading it towards more violence like they had done

Source: Les MisaRables

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