ABSTRACT
Foucault' s analysis of public torture, in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, helps to illuminate the motivations and implications of the scenes of physical torture in the Lijlade ant te Passiun of Seinte Margarete. 12 Public torture, according to Foucault, aims "to bring into play . . . the dissymetry between the subject who has dared to violate the law and the all-powerful sovereign who displays his strength" (Foucault 48). Olibrius attempts to redress the wrong Margaret has performed by torturing her, asserting his sovereign strength against her physical body, the same body that he desired sexually. But she has also wronged his political body, and that crime must be punished in public in order to send the appropriate message of sovereign power to the populus of that body. Olibrius must "make everyone aware, through the body of the criminal, of the unrestrained presence of the sovereign" (Foucault 49). Olibrius' "cwelleres" (52.7), executioners, perform in public, displaying Margaret' s body "marked, beaten, broken" (Foucault 49). This public display is an integral part of the intention of torture. Olibrius deliberately places Margaret' s body "on heh up" and "steort-naket" so that she can be seen clearly and without obstruction by all. The people respond willingly to Olibrius' entertainment:
The Power of the Senses: Christian Conversion
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