Comparing The Guillotine And The Carmagnole Song

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However different a guillotine and the Carmagnole dance/song may seem, they are quite related. A guillotine is an “instrument for inflicting capital punishment by decapitation, introduced into France in 1792” (Britannica). It is a rather old method of execution that consists of a head assembly, wheels (a pulley system), uprights, a blade assembly, a restraining assembly, a brace, a trigger assembly, a base, and a rope that is attached to the blade assembly. However, the most important parts were the blade and mouton which “weighed roughly 88 pounds” (The Interactive World of the Guillotine). Their job was to make a quick and painless beheading. To use this apparatus, a victim must lay down and put their head in the restraining assembly. Hence the name, this device would hold the head in place and keep it from moving at the time of the beheading. The executor would then lift the blade and mouton with a piece of rope that is attached onto a pulley. …show more content…

However, The Carmagnole is no ordinary dance. According to its song, “the queen (Madame Veto), [is] believed to be a traitor, and [so are] the "aristocrats" who support her” (chnm). This takes place during the French Revolution. The a major name in the song was “Madame Veto”, which is actually a nickname for Marie Antoinette who married King Louis XVI of France and rose to power. She became hated by the people of France for allegedly vetoing proposals to increase taxes on the rich. This would benefit the aristocratic people like herself instead of the whole nation. Additionally, this where Marie Antoinette received the name “Madame Veto” in La Carmagnole. When the Revolution was at its high, they began to execute aristocrats. Marie Antoinette was among one of the many aristocrats executed in the guillotine in 1793 (biographyonline.net). Clearly, the guillotine is related to The Carmagnole since Antoinette was executed in

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