william fly

aaust6yp — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 18:03:21 +0000

1. judge– first time in, i think, any of the readings a judge’s name has been specifically mentioned while speaking of a person’s conviction. in this case, William Dummer is directly correlated to the condemnation of death. this identification of a judge as a singular entity is new to our readings in the sense that, in this example, he is the first and only person connected to the fate of this person. this reading’s presentation of the judge offers an interesting contrast to a past foulcaut reading where he talks about the emphasis of power being removed from the judge and distributed among others such as doctors, therapists, and teachers when deciding what to do with a human life.

2. life– this text allows the reader to see life as something other than a reproducing, growing entity. it transforms life into a possession. this was most apparent to me when reading about atkinson securing fly. i felt that at that point, fly’s life was no longer his own, in a sense. it had been repossessed by atkins. fly also turned life into a possession when he “stole” it from jenkins and this other shipmates by killing them. their life was no longer theirs.

3. tremble– this act of shaking seems to be directly connected to fly’s nonconversion and absence of devout repentance for his actions. it is indicative of the unknown to which he is leaving his soul; it is significant in the sense that it is a physical manifestation of the fear that one must have felt when they did not heed the sermons and prayers of the ministers and christians of the town.

“he still persisted in his unrelenting frame…but it was observed…that in the midst of all his affected bravery, a very sensible trembling attended him…and so we mus tleave him for the judgment to come.”

tremble – Discipline & Punish

william fly