Bonjour Madame Guillotine, Goodbye Head
The Reign of Terror during the French Revolution
began in June 1793 and lasted until July 1794.
During this time, King Louis XVI and Marie
Antoinette ___1___ many intellectuals, nobles, and
politicians were put to death for crimes against
liberty. During this gruesome year, ordinary
townsfolk would gather in the Place de la
Revolution fighting for the best view. An ___2___
15,000 to 40,000 people had a date with Madame
Guillotine during this period of time.
Before the French Revolution, criminals
sentenced to death were burnt at the stake,
hanged, or decapitated with a stroke of a sword.
The ___3___ sometimes took repeated strikes and
was very painful for the victim and the
relatives watching. Dr. Guillotin, a respected
doctor, recognized that there was a need for a
humane form of ___4___. To this end, he introduced
a device that had been in use since the 13th
century in other parts of Europe. ___5___ for
beheading, this tall, wooden structure with a
heavy blade would come into use and later be
renamed the guillotine.
More than a hundred years after the end of
the French Revolution, some people felt the
guillotine inhumane because the head briefly
___6___ after the blade fell. Scientists studied
the head of an executed man and found no
evidence of it being able to feel or ___7___ after
being cut off. Madame Guillotine was retired
once and for all in 1977. |