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The Guillotine
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"The Guillotine" is a haunting short story told in the first person—about guilt, justice,
and a man's last hours staring death in the face. The unnamed narrator stands trial before a French colonial court,
condemned for killing his wife's lover. What seems like a simple crime of jealousy unfolds into the tragedy of a man trapped
in a system where justice and revenge blur into one.
The setting is the infamous penal colony of Cayenne, French Guiana, where the guillotine is not only an instrument of law
but a permanent reminder of death. Amid sweltering heat, brutal routines, and inhuman conditions, the narrator reflects
on his life, his guilt, and the question of what a human being still feels in their final days.
The blade is at the heart of every thought: Do you feel it? Is there a last moment of awareness? Or is death nothing but a cut into nothingness?
With its stark language, its intimate inner voice, and its unflinching picture of prison life,
"The Guillotine" carries a raw existential weight. The inmates are no heroes, but neither are they monsters—
they're lost souls in the grip of a merciless world where death is routine and mercy looks like punishment.
Especially chilling is the portrayal of executions as a monthly ritual, heads rolling while guards and onlookers barely blink.
In this grim theater the story reaches its last, quiet truth: death is quick—and final.