Bourgeois republics punish the soul while monarchies punished the body.

Evidence

If the penality in its most severe forms no longer addresses itself to the body, on what does it lay hold? The answer of the theoreticians – those who, about 1760, opened up a new period that is not yet at an end – is simple, almost obvious. It seems to be contained in the question itself: since it is no longer the body, it must be the soul. The expiation that once rained down upon the body must be replaced by a punishment that acts in depth on the heart, the thoughts, the will, the inclinations. Mably formulated the principle once and for all: ‘Punishment, if I may so put it, should strike the soul rather than the body’ (Mably, 326). — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 55 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Dressing in the morning, she had to stand naked until she was handed a shift by the highest-ranking lady present; if, halfway through the ceremony, a lady of higher rank entered, Antoinette must shiver till the newcomer took her place in the line-up. She could do nothing for herself; if she wanted a glass of water, and the right person was not available to pass it to her, she had to go thirsty. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 675 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

It also made the body of the condemned man the place where the vengeance of the sovereign was applied, the anchoring point for a manifestation of power, an opportunity of affirming the dissymmetry of forces. We shall see later that the truth-power relation remains at the heart of all mechanisms of punishment and that it is still to be found in contemporary penal practice – but in a quite different form and with very different effects. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 110 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Enlightenment-era cruelty shifts from rulers onto the ruled.; Modern punishment targets the soul rather than the body — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 55; The punished body anchors sovereign power’s manifestation — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 110 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Modern punishment targets the soul rather than the body #corroborates (1.00) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 55
• Versailles etiquette stripped royalty of ordinary bodily autonomy #exemplifies (0.80) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 675
• The punished body anchors sovereign power’s manifestation #qualifies (0.78) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 110
• The same perceived traits were celebrated or condemned depending on the political regime #expands (0.75)
• Modern tyrannies are overwhelmingly republics rather than monarchies #corroborates (0.72) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 520
• Reformers reframed punishment as protection rather than vengeance #qualifies (0.72) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 489