Freedom from the Bars of Your Soul

What is freedom? Is it when you have rights written by law to which you are entitled to? Is it being able to do what you want when you want? Is it freedom from desire as discussed by Irigaray or is it freedom from some sort of individuality? All of these could be correct in a certain way but wrong in another. Michel Foucault discussed the idea of having very limited freedom due to the social structures that are in place within humanity. In the book, “Discipline and Punish,” he examines the different structures that are in place that contribute to punishment and restrict freedom. He also discusses the different types of power in the modern day world and how they contrast with the tradition power of the past, “It was a time of great ‘scandals’ for traditional justice, a time of innumerable projects for reform. It saw a new theory of law and crime, a new moral or political justification to punish; old laws were abolished, old customs died out” (Foucault, page 7). According to Foucault the main denial of freedom is being in prison, the idea of punishing the soul and denying access to the outside world, the reasons for such a conclusion are as follows.

Physical punishments were the panicle of consequences that one had to endure when a law was disregarded by a citizen. Foucault describes a public execution that happened in March 1757, “This last operation was very long because the horses used were not accustomed to drawing; consequently, instead of four, six were needed; and when that did not suffice, they were forced, in order to cut off the wretch’s thighs, to sever the sinews and hack at the joints...” (Foucault 3). This particular idea is rather gruesome, the idea of being drawn and quartered multiply times only to fail and have t...

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...o death in the most painful way imaginable. Some forms included being drawn and quartered, being tortured in the harshest forms, having your skin peeled from your body using red hot pinchers and many more gruesome ways as Foucault mentions. As mankind evolved the idea of justice came into the authority’s decisions when it came to punishment and more humane ways of punishments were devised. On such concept was and still is known as prison. Prison, according to Foucault, is the most restriction that could be placed on an individual’s freedom. Foucault explores the restriction of freedom through prison as well as the contrast between physical punishment and humane punishment and how both have their own bars like a prison. In conclusion, I have discovered that Foucault has come to the correct conclusion that prison is the greatest constraint of an individual’s freedom.