Foucault Discipline And Punish Sparknotes

Foucault's Discipline and Punish is a book based on the history of the penal system. Foucault uses this book to breakdown the process of punishment, what all it contain, and how power can affect punishment. He starts this book off by discussing the issues before the eighteenth century. When the issues were prominent, public execution and corporal punishment was the most commonly used forms of punishments. During this time period punishments were viewed as a ceremonial type of ordeal that affected the prisoner's body. During this ritual like program, the audience played one of the biggest roles. This form of execution was known for its discipline and punishment which eventually reestablished its power back to the highest figureheads. Many different …show more content…
According to Foucault, the reformers were considered selfish and self motivated. Foucault stated that the reformers never cared about the prisoners well being, but more focused on making power operate reach maximum abilities. As stated by Foucault, “ And, behind this is punishment of the unskillful executioner, stands a tradition, which is still close to us according to which the condemned man I should be pardoned if the executioner happens to figure” (p.52) By proposing a theater of punishment, the main points in this book showed a reflection of how punishments related to it's crimes and how the punishment served as an dilemma to those who broke the law. Prison was not a factor when dealing with penalty. In this book three new models of penalty was discussed and used to helped overcome resistance. Furthermore, there were quite a few differences that happened to exist between this time period of institutional punishment and the early known punitive city. Punitive city was described as a way of preparing the prison and prisoners by simply introducing them to disciplines. According to Webster, Discipline is the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior. Foucault described discipline as a sequence of different strategies at which the body can be mentally and physically controlled. Foucault described discipline working in a form of order by arranging