Nora Farmer

Block G
January 5th, 2015
Dr. Guillotine
I am Dr. Guillotin, the greatest inventor of the French Revolution. I invented the
guillotine, a machine that kills someone faster, with less pain and mess. Before I invented the
guillotine, I was the hero of December petitioning campaign in Paris. I was one of the Paris
Deputies. I was a medical doctor and lawmaker, and in 1790 proposed that the death penalty
should be equal for all, regardless of social rank and nature of the crime. My machine was first
used in the execution of Nicolas Pelletier, a common criminal, on the 25th of April 1792.
My invention, the guillotine, was named after me. After I came up with this new way of
killing I was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly, in 1789. I was also a member of the
National Assembly, and my view on politics is mostly moderate. I am a very poor speaker and
prefer back-room committees to public grandstanding. For the guillotine I outlined the device I
had in mind and said that its victims would feel nothing more than, a light breeze on the back of
the neck. There is so much less pain and terror for the subjects because it happens so quickly.
People do not have much time to contemplate their own demise. Before my invention, people
were generally hanged. When a person is hanged, a persons head can be ripped from the body,
the process is a fairly long and painful. It is also terrifying, I would imagine, to hang and take
time to die. I have provided a much more civilized process for execution. Family members will
also be relieved that the person died quickly and cleanly.

Works Cited
Cobb, Richard, and Colin Jones. The French Revolution: Voices from a Momentous Epoch,

1789-1795. London: Simon & Schuster, 1988. Print.

Hibbert, Christopher. The Days of the French Revolution. New York: Morrow, 1980. Print.