Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Leviathan, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Nature, War, and Civil Society
Power, Common-wealths, and Monarchies
Religion
Fear
Reason, Fact, and Philosophy
Summary
Analysis
Hobbes defines punishment as “an Evill inflicted by publique Authority” on someone who has broken the law and gone before a judge. The right to punish subjects comes from the covenant of the common-wealth, which imbues the sovereign with the power to punish those who do not conform to the law and the right to appoint judges to issue that punishment. Private revenge done onto a subject by another subject is not punishment, nor is punishment inflicted by the authority that is not made public. Any pain that is inflicted by the authority in the name of punishment must be in respect to the good of the common-wealth, not the evil of the crime that was committed.
As all punishment must be issued for the good of the common-wealth, cruel and unusual punishment is not lawful because cruelty does not benefit the common-wealth in any way. Punishment afflicted in privacy (like the secret torture of a subject or an enemy of the common-wealth) is also unlawful. Punishment is meant to deter others from breaking the law through fear; if that punishment is not done publicly, it cannot be considered a deterrent
Themes
If punishment is inflicted directly on the body, as in wounds or a deprivation of some kind (like food or air), it is known as corporal punishment. Capital punishment is punishment by death, which may include torture, and pecuniary punishment deprives one of money, land, and any other valuable assets. There is also imprisonment, which deprives one of their liberty for a time, and exile, which is punishment by forced relocation. It is against the Law of Nature, Hobbes argues, to punish an innocent subject; however, it is not against the Law of Nature if innocents are harmed during a state of war, since it is within the Law of Nature to make war in the first place.
Harm and injury are expected in a state of war, and one is able to defend their life with any force necessary; thus, it is not against the Law of Nature when an innocent subject is killed or harmed during a state of war. In a state of war, the sovereign power is dissolved, and the subject automatically takes back the power they forfeited to the sovereign. Hobbes’s definition of corporal punishment includes the physical harm of another, but it also includes harm done to the body through other means, like starvation or waterboarding.
Themes
Just as there is punishment for breaking laws, there is also reward for adhering to the laws of a common-wealth. A reward can be either a gift or some additional covenant, such as salary or wages for some service performed. Any benefit that is given by the sovereign by way of fear is not a reward and should not be practiced by sovereign power. Salaries are either certain and come from the public coffers (as in a subject who is paid a certain wage for doing a certain job for the common-wealth), or salary is casual and comes from the execution of some office. Casual salaries can cause trouble for the common-wealth, especially in government, where salaries can be made to benefit a certain judge or minister.
According to Hobbes, certain jobs and titles within a common-wealth are forms of reward, such as honoring a subject as a judge or a governor. However, if that position is accepted through fear (such as a subject who is coerced into accepting a position as a judge to benefit the sovereign or certain subjects within a common-wealth), it is not a reward and should not be practiced. Hobbes does not mean to say such practices do not occur in common-wealths; he only claims such practices are not advisable.
Themes
Hobbes has thus far explained the nature of humans and the power of the common-wealth, which he has compared to Leviathan from the Book of Job. God, having made the “great power of Leviathan,” named him “King of the Proud” and said: “There is nothing on earth, to be compared with him. He is made so as not to be afraid. Hee seeth every high thing below him; and is King of all the children of pride.” In the following chapters, Hobbes will discuss the “diseases” and “mortality” of Leviathan, as well as the Laws of Nature that Leviathan must obey.
In the Book of Job, Leviathan is a giant sea monster that is usually depicted as a large crocodile. Leviathan is often used within Christianity as a metaphor for the shared power of people unified as one. This is exactly how Hobbes sees the ideal common-wealth, hence the name “the great Leviathan.” There are also implications of fear in Hobbes’s included Bible verse (Job 41:34). Leviathan is never afraid, which is an important distinction since fear drives people to common-wealths in the first place.
Themes
Literary Devices
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