Pain: The Making And The Unmaking Of The Word

This essay will be exploring two primary perspectives; the nature of pain and the power that pain portrays. Within the nature of pain, I will be concentrating on Elaine Scarry’s (1946 -) ‘The Body in Pain: The Making and the Unmaking of the Word’ focusing on her theory of language being a barrier. Therefore, allowing the subject to reiterate agony using other methods. Art being the main form of communication, where I will be looking at artist Frieda Kahlo (1907 – 1954) as a visual perspective. Secondly,
What is your main argument? Nature of Pain
Pain is indescribable, no words or phrases can truly define the specific pain one feels. It cannot be seen on any scans, felt by anyone else or known by anyone except yourself. Only guesswork in trying to understand what is and what is needed to treat the pain. Pain is also multidimensional, created in

We try and pinpoint what we cannot see, hold a meaning behind the suffering and hope and that it leads to something positive. We have the ability to make the intangible, tangible using art as a voice because pain is the most misunderstood condition of the human body. It is a condition where Baruch Spinoza conveys that “we are nomadic, we see people who look like us but we have an interior life that we cannot share and that is ours alone,” showing that pain is universal, where we all understand the concept of pain, but fall on the specifics due to its subjective nature. Therefore, the interpretation of pain into images brings it into the public consciousness, raising the image of bodily suffering as being fundamental to the human condition.

Frieda Kahlo – Artist
Frieda Kahlo’s work gives a raw, experience of suffering allowing us to perceive how images offer an emotional catharsis. Kahlo had a constant pain though