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“Tyrant”
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“Lesbian”
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Representing Marie Antoinette
Representing Marie Antoinette
Representing Marie Antoinette
Representing Marie Antoinette
““““Style Icon
Style Icon
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Images front-page from left to right:
Detail of James Gillray’s Un petit Souper à la Parisiènne; or A Family of Sans Culottes
refreshing after the fatigues of the day, September 29th 1792
Detail of James Gillray’s The Blessings of Peace, the Curses of War, 1795
Detail of The Contrast, designed by Lord George Murray and engraved by Thomas Rowlandson, 1792
Marie-Antoinette en Chemise by Vigée Lebrun, 1783
Representing Marie
Representing Marie
Representing Marie
Representing Marie Antoinette
Antoinette
Antoinette
Antoinette
Dirieke Henstra
Dirieke Henstra
Dirieke Henstra
Dirieke Henstra
S1268643
S1268643
S1268643
S1268643
Masterscriptie opleiding Engelse Taal en Cultuur
Masterscriptie opleiding Engelse Taal en Cultuur
Masterscriptie opleiding Engelse Taal en Cultuur
Masterscriptie opleiding Engelse Taal en Cultuur
Faculteit der Letteren, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Faculteit der Letteren, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Faculteit der Letteren, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Faculteit der Letteren, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Su
Su
Su
Supervisor:
pervisor:
pervisor:
pervisor: Dr.
Dr.
Dr.
Dr. A. L.
A. L.
A. L.
A. L. Gilroy
Gilroy
Gilroy
Gilroy
Second reader:
Second reader:
Second reader:
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
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Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter 1
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“Marie Antoinette as Vulnerable Victim of the Revolutionaries
Marie Antoinette as Vulnerable Victim of the Revolutionaries
Marie Antoinette as Vulnerable Victim of the Revolutionaries””””
Marie Antoinette as Vulnerable Victim of the Revolutionaries
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
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““““Deceitful and Destructive Queen as Cause of the Revolution
Deceitful and Destructive Queen as Cause of the Revolution
Deceitful and Destructive Queen as Cause of the Revolution””””
Deceitful and Destructive Queen as Cause of the Revolution
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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“Marie Antoinette as a Powerful Role Model for Women”
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
The pre-elections for the American presidency 2008 were historical. The democratic nominee could have been Hillary Clinton, America’s first serious, female candidate for the presidency.
Fig. 1 Hillary Clinton Elle Magazine January 2008
Figure 1 shows the photo published in the January 2008 edition of Elle magazine accompanying an article in which Katha Pollit describes the problematic status of Hillary Clinton as a public woman. The photo accompanying the article suggests that Hillary Clinton has an ambivalent reputation: she is regarded as either a dragon lady and castrating lesbian or as a sweet, compassionate and honest person. In her article, Katha Pollitt especially focuses on the fear surrounding public and powerful women. Opponents of this powerful woman attack her on gender grounds and call her a “slut” and a “lesbian” whose “power is illegitimate because it is bound up somehow with sex” (1). These attacks are reminiscent of the attacks directed at Marie Antoinette, queen of France during the French Revolution. Pierre Saint-Amant even describes this “fear of women in power” as “the Marie Antoinette syndrome” (253).
Marie Antoinette of Austria, the youngest daughter of the empress Marie-Theresa, married the dauphin of France, Louis Auguste in 1770. This union was a manifestation of Marie Theresa’s desire to reinforce the alliance between the traditional enemies France and Austria. Marie Antoinette’s role as reconciler was not easy. In order to make her appear as French as possible she got a French education and also her looks were adapted to the French style. But still, this Austrian lady, born in a country led by an empress, remained a foreigner and a dangerous woman in the eyes of conservative France. France was governed by Salic law, which prohibited inheritance through or by women. Guy Coquille's Institution au droict
The King is Monarch, & has no companion in his Royal Majesty. Exterior honours may be communicated by Kings to their wives, but that which is of his Majesty, representing his power and dignity, resides in his person alone. (qtd. in Hosford 184)
A queen of France was permitted to sit on her husband's council if he granted permission, but the ambitious empress of Austria was counting on her daughter's eventual influence in the French court. This made the French feel uneasy about their new queen. In addition, the failure of the royal couple to have children for seven years accompanied by Marie Antoinette’s extravagant lifestyle, her passion for dress and extreme hairstyles increased her infamy. She was squandering public money despite the financial burden of France.
John Brewer explains that the first English responses to the French Revolution were favourable (13-16). Some government ministers hoped that this turmoil would influence and diminish France’s military might. The Whig Opposition, closely linked to the liberal aristocratic opinion in France, welcomed this revolution as a new version of the English ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688.1 The British already enjoyed the liberties for which the French were struggling. There was a general sympathy expressed for what was seen as a justifiable overthrow of arbitrary power characteristic of the French state. Especially radicals and religious dissenters saw the Revolution in France as an example to follow. However, the conservative Tories tried to temper this radicalism. The critic Edmund Burke first formulated the most important conservative perceptions of the Revolution. He predicted its violence and warned of the reversal of the ruling order. With the September massacres in 1792, during which revolutionaries killed prisoners en masse for several days in Paris, the attitude towards revolutionary France changed. William Pitt, the enlightened Prime Minister of Britain abandoned his liberalism and became “during the 1790s the figurehead of a conservative loyal state” (Mori 85). In 1793, Britain went to war against revolutionary France. This war was accompanied by the repression of a popular democratic movement at home.
All these contrasting viewpoints about the French Revolution were fervently communicated to the rest of Britain in order to convince them either to support or to reject the Revolution. In England, the public sphere existed from the seventeenth century on. Unofficial newspapers like The Postman Post and the Post Boy started in 1695. These unofficial newspapers “turned the earlier temporary public sphere into a permanent institution, making politics part of the daily life of a considerable proportion of the population, especially in London” (Briggs and Burke 79). Also prints became an important medium to reach a broad public. They encouraged critical thought by means of satire. During the French Revolution, these various media helped to steer British public opinion towards rejecting or towards supporting the French Revolution. “Between 1788 and 1792, Britain saw the most sustained radical and reformist activity since the civil wars of the seventeenth century” (John Brewer 14). Radical clubs and associations were set up and the radical newspaper press flourished as never before. However, the government opposed this radicalisation by means of deliberately exaggerated and deeply hostile depictions of the French Revolution. In addition, the French Revolution was accompanied by a change of gender roles; women started to play a part within politics. Feminists, encouraged by this changing position of women, also participated in the
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debate about the French Revolution. What means did the conservatives, the radicals and the feminists use in order to reach a broad public and to convince the British of their ideas?
In the three following chapters, we will see that all kinds of media, such as newspapers, poetry, novels, visual art and even hairstyles became effective media to express one’s political opinion. In addition, the conservatives, the radicals and the feminists used a certain icon to refer to the French Revolution, which strengthened their political message. Revolutionary politics had its own imagery, symbols and iconography, like for instance the female figure ‘Mariane’, the symbol of liberty. During the Revolution she was portrayed with a short dress and a spear or a pike in her hand, as a symbol of action and energy. As the revolutionaries used their own symbols to fight for their freedom, the British also used symbols and emblems to represent and to discuss the Revolution. Instead of an abstract female figure, Britain used a real woman onto whom they could project their fear, their anger, their enthusiasm or their idealism. Being a central and controversial figure even before the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette provoked vehement reactions and was an ideal icon in the discussion about the French Revolution.
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Marie Antoinette as Vulnerable Victim of the Revolutionaries
Marie Antoinette as Vulnerable Victim of the Revolutionaries
Marie Antoinette as Vulnerable Victim of the Revolutionaries
Marie Antoinette as Vulnerable Victim of the Revolutionaries
As a response to the radicals, the conservative Edmund Burke created a dramatic portrayal of Marie Antoinette as a defenceless prey of the revolutionaries. By means of this depiction, he attempted to steer British public opinion towards condemning the French Revolution. Edmund Burke understood the impact of sentimentality on the public, which proved to be effective, since this theatrical depiction of the French queen kept returning in other works. Burke’s image of the queen even transcended genres and was familiar to a broad public. In this chapter, I will look at a variety of media, like political pamphlets, broadsides, poetry and novels that refer back to Burke’s portrayal of Marie Antoinette in order to discover its influence in the political debate about the French Revolution in Britain.Marie Antoinette in Political Pamphlets
Marie Antoinette in Political Pamphlets
Marie Antoinette in Political Pamphlets
Marie Antoinette in Political Pamphlets
A band of cruel ruffians and assassins, reeking with…blood, rushed into the chamber of the queen and pierced with an hundred strokes and poniards the bed, from whence this persecuted woman had but just time to fly almost naked and through ways unknown to the murderers had escaped to seek refuge at the feet of a king and husband, not secure of his own life for a moment. (Burke,
Reflections 71)
the declaration of the rights of men.2 However, these days were also essential for Britain, because they mobilised British public opinion regarding the French Revolution, which was till that point very positive. Burke’s pamphlet Reflections on the Revolution in France played an important role in this process, since his account of the October days was received with much criticism and provoked reactions from various other political parties. It can be seen as the starting-point for the political debate about the French Revolution in Britain. Burke was an Irishman of modest background and means. However, he was able to improve his social position and played a prominent role within British politics. In the 1760s he had aligned himself with the political opposition, the Rockingham Whigs. He had a progressive reputation, and therefore many people were amazed at his decision to oppose the French Revolution.3 Ultimately, his conservative ideas about the Revolution made him break with the Whigs and side with the Tories. Burke's Reflections expressed the fear that revolutionary ideals would violently destroy essential British traditions and institutions, like, for instance, the traditional gender roles, the prominent position of the aristocracy in Britain, and the law of primogeniture, which helped to maintain these social ranks within British society. In his
Reflections, Burke focuses on Marie Antoinette, whom he presents as a victim of the revolutionaries in order to bring his message across. To be more specific, Marie Antoinette represents the British traditions that Burke wanted to preserve.
Burke wanted to preserve a clear distinction between gender roles. Throughout the revolutionary period, the interpretation of femininity -what it meant to be a woman, and what it might signify politically and socially- was continually in flux. In his criticism on the French Revolution, Burke juxtaposes Marie Antoinette to the women who participated in the October 1789 Women’s March to Versailles in order to address the issue of femininity and to present the French queen as a role model. The Women’s March was the first moment in the Revolution that women came together as a group in order to act politically. The direct confrontation between the queen and this group of women is depicted in Edmund Burke’s pamphlet in order to show the dangers of the Revolution to the traditional model of
2
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen was a short document, containing a preamble and 17 articles. It was influenced by the natural law theory and the Enlightenment philosophy. Hanson claims that “The Declaration asserted that the purpose of government was the protection of individual rights, rather than the expression of royal will…Individual articles proclaimed freedom of religion, freedom of the press, the principle of no taxation without representation, the principle of national sovereignty, the principle of legal equality, and the right to private property” (101).
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femininity. Dragged from their chambers, Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI were “slowly moved along” the road to Paris, “amidst the horrid yells and shrilling screams, and frantic dances, and infamous contumelies and all the unutterable abominations of the furies of hell in the abused shape of the vilest of women”(Reflections 72). Burke makes a distinction between the ‘Beautiful' and the ‘Female’ or ‘Bad Sublime’. Paul Mattick Jr. explains that “features given by Burke as characterising objects experienced as beautiful are such as would still today likely be typed as ‘feminine’: smallness, smoothness, curviness, delicacy, cleanliness, soft coloration, lack of resistance, quietness”(qtd. in Marso 19). Lori Marso rightly claims that in Burke’s depiction of the October days, Marie Antoinette represents all these typical feminine characteristics, whereas the market women are aberrations of the model of femininity to Burke (19). Burke qualifies these women as the ‘Female Sublime’, because they produce a kind of horror.
Burke presents Marie Antoinette as particularly beautiful, since she embodies beauty in distress. He made an earlier assumption that “beauty in distress is much the most affecting beauty”(Philosophical Enquiry 100). He describes Marie Antoinette intentionally as a “morning-star” to emphasise her role as a mother (Reflections 75). The morning-star is an allusion to the planet Venus, but also creates a link to the mythological Venus, goddess of love and mother of the Romans. In order to intensify the contrast between the women, the physical and audible presence of Marie Antoinette and the market women is juxtaposed. Marie Antoinette is “glittering like the morning-star” and bears her imprisonment with a “serene patience”, whereas this serenity is disturbed by “horrid yells and shrilling screams” of the revolutionary women (Reflections 75, 72). Marie Antoinette, transcending corporeality as the morning-star, is contrasted with the physically present “abused shape of the vilest of women” (Reflections 72). Physically and audibly not present, Marie Antoinette was ‘the embodiment’ of idealised womanhood. She was a victim of the Revolution, but also of a male dominated society.
public female figure during a confusing time concerning gender. Moreover, the economic crisis in France reinforced this focus. The angry citizens attacked Marie Antoinette by focussing on her sexualised body and by blemishing her reputation; she was subject to representations in pornographic and erotic literature before and during the Revolution.4 However, Burke wanted the naked body of the queen to evoke a different reaction from his readers. Catherine Spooner claims that “the shocking spectacle of the ‘almost naked queen’ is rather a rhetorical object of pity that provokes the desire to conceal in order to protect, not to censor”(32). Also Versailles is portrayed as a sacred place threatened and stained by blood and horror: Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were “forced to abandon the sanctuary of the most splendid palace in the world, which they left swimming in blood, polluted by massacre and strewed with scattered limbs and mutilated carcasses” (Reflections 71). The naked Marie Antoinette and her bloodstained sanctuary represent the virtuous aristocracy that will be destroyed under the influence of a Revolution led by “the swinish multitude” (Reflections 79). In his Reflections, Burke addresses the most privileged classes in order to maintain this inequality among British classes. He excludes the lower classes by means of his complex rhetoric.
Edmund Burke’s text explicitly deals with the issue of equal rights to private property. Burke supports the law of premogeniture, which increased the mighty position of the aristocracy and which was abandoned in Revolutionary France. Burke juxtaposes the virtuous aristocracy with the revolutionaries in order to show that the Revolution could be regarded as a re-empowerment of the greedy middle class, fed by material self-interest, at the expense of the traditional values. He felt that property had to be maintained in the hands of the aristocracy, instead of becoming public property:
The characteristic essence of property, formed out of the combined principles of its acquisition and conservation, is to be unequal…this tends most to the perpetuation of society itself…Property, which is by the natural course of things divided among many, has not the same operation. Its defensive power is weakened as it is diffused. (Reflections 51)
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In Burke’s Reflections, Marie Antoinette’s body can be interpreted as the private property the revolutionaries are claiming. By stressing her isolation, her nakedness and vulnerability, Burke is able to strengthen the association with rape, which is a literal loss of private property. However, by turning her body into a morning-star, her body transcends corporeality, and is prevented from becoming public property.
This melodramatic image of Marie Antoinette also gave attention to another essential aspect in Burke’s work, namely the disappearance of sentimentalized manhood:
Little did I dream that I should see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honour and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone. (Reflections 76)
Burke implicitly positioned himself as the chivalrous hero who would rescue this doomed princess and, in turn, the British traditions. He expected his readers to be sensitive to this depiction of feminine distress, so that his sentimental portrayal of Marie Antoinette would be an incentive to save the British nation and traditions. He wanted his text to arouse political mobilisation. By lamenting the fall of sentimentalised manhood, Burke was able to accomplish another goal. By focussing on a woman needing to be rescued, an object of pity, he helped to maintain the powerless position of women, and, in turn, he preserved the traditional gender roles. Claudia Johnson argues that “Burke is not so much lamenting the fall of Marie Antoinette as the fall of sentimentalised manhood” (4). At first sight, Burke appears to put Marie Antoinette in a central position, but he actually reduces her importance by presenting her as a powerless creature. Burke focuses on her naked and weak body, and in some passages, he even omits her physical and audible presence. Burke understood the impact of sentiments and shows that this is a device to empower himself, while keeping women in a confined position.
issues in this pamphlet war. Paine argues in Rights of Man that Burke prefers to focus on the theatrical display of the persecuted body, instead of on the political actuality, so that “he pities the plumage, but forgets the dying bird”(17). As a reaction to Burke’s text, in which the portrayal of Marie Antoinette has a central position, Paine intentionally excludes the queen from his Rights of Man. He does not mention her name, but refers to her as a ‘dying bird’. Moreover, he draws ‘the swinish multitude’ into politics by means of his uncomplicated rhetoric.
Burke’s Portrayal of Marie Antoinette Transcends Genres
Burke’s Portrayal of Marie Antoinette Transcends Genres
Burke’s Portrayal of Marie Antoinette Transcends Genres
Burke’s Portrayal of Marie Antoinette Transcends Genres
Fig. 2 James Gillray, Un petit Souper à la Parisiènne; or A Family of Sans Culottes
refreshing after the fatigues of the day, September 29th 1792
the ferocious characters show Gillray’s fear of radical revolutionaries. Due to the allusion to Marie Antoinette, the print dramatises the political message. Gillray made Burke’s persecuted Marie Antoinette known to a broader public. Tamara Hunt shows the popularity of Gillray’s caricatures by commenting that Mrs’s Humphrey’s print shop, landlady and publisher of Gillray, was “one of the most popular places for all ranks in society to visit” (11). She displayed Gillray’s satires in the shop windows, just as “many of the London print shops posted their newest prints in their shop windows as a means of advertising their wares, giving a gratis exhibition to those who could not afford to buy…From that time, like the staff of life, bread, caricature has become a daily provision necessary to the masses” (12).
Fig. 3 James Gillray, The Blessings of Peace, the Curses of War, by the Crown and Anchor society, 1795
Dutch victims of the revolutionary armies. The part that represents England shows comfortable and contented women, whereas the part that represents the victims of the France’s revolutionary armies shows a mother in distress. Her state of semi-undress reveals the destructive power of the revolutionary crowd. The exposure of her breasts highlights the vulnerability of this virtuous mother, but also the vulnerability of a nation and its traditions. Visual art appeared to be the perfect medium to steer British public opinion. As Burke added sentimentality and drama to his political text by means of the verbal depiction of Marie Antoinette, so did both prints visualize Burke’s Marie Antoinette in order to dramatize their political message.
Burke’s sentimental vision of Marie Antoinette as an icon of persecuted femininity abounded in British poems as well. The poet Thomas Campbell had shed tears at the news of Marie Antoinette’s execution. Campbell’s political principles were extremely liberal and “were perhaps prevented from becoming republican, only by the atrocities of the French Revolution” (Poetical Works ix). Inspired by Marie Antoinette’s public execution, he wrote the poem “Verses on The Queen of France” in 1793. Campbell represents her as martyred wife and mother in “her lone captivity” enduring through “scenes of [her] sad sequestered cave” (“Verses on the Queen of France” 8, 10). The last line of each stanza is repeated, which stresses the poet’s lament of her sad and undeserved captivity. Campbell emphasises the resemblance between Marie Antoinette and her children in order to stress her innocence and purity. Campbell portrays the prison as a microcosm of the revolutionary world to establish a link between her and her children. Marie Antoinette is undeservedly captured. Equally, her children are undeservedly imprisoned in the revolutionary world:
Adieu, ye babes, whose infant bloom Beneath oppression’s lawless doom
Pines in the solitary gloom Of undeserved captivity
(“Verses on the Queen of France” 17-20)
Campbell also laments the disappearance of sentimentalised manhood and asks to reinstate the sensibility of chivalric principles in order to protect women and children:
Shed consolation from the sky. (“Verses on the Queen of France” 21-23)
Similar to Burke’s passage on the victimized Marie Antoinette, the poem excited much attention in Britain, and was known to a broad public: the poem “met the public sympathy so universally felt at that time, and afterwards appeared in one of the leading Glasgow papers” (Life and Letters of Thomas Campbell 81). Instead of a simple elegy, this poem expressed a political message due to its focus on Marie Antoinette. Poetry, a genre that depicts powerful emotions by means of metaphors, symbols and repetition, was considered as the ideal medium to convey a political message. A wide distribution of the political message was facilitated by the popularity of Campbell. Moreover, “poetry was often seen as a more powerful medium than prose, because its metre, rhythm and frequent association with popular and traditional tunes [made] it especially memorable for the lower class of people” (Bainbridge 9). Poetry also became available to a broad public, because “nearly every important periodical had a poetry section and it was common practice for newspapers to include poetry on a regular basis” (Bainbridge 9).
Furthermore, gothic literature appeared as a perfect medium to convey the dreadfulness of the Revolution. Motifs of horror, imprisonment and peril perfectly expressed the chaotic events during the Revolution. Also Burke’s depiction of the French queen is reminiscent of the typical gothic heroine: the sensitive and vulnerable Marie Antoinette is haunted by terrifying tyrants, and confined within a gothic setting. In gothic novels, often a political message was hidden, especially in those containing an allusion to the distressed Marie Antoinette.
as “having undergone a thorough revolution” because of his affair with Matilda (The Monk 209). A second romance tells the story of Agnes, who twice attempts to elope with her lover Raymond. After her first attempt, her guardians have her confined in a convent; after the second, the prioress has her entombed alive. Meanwhile, Agnes gives birth to Raymond’s child, but has to watch it die. The fate of Agnes in the novel, “almost debarred the coarse support of life”, echoes the fate of Marie Antoinette ( “France and England 1793” 40). Agnes is weeping over her dead child as Marie Antoinette was weeping over her children. In the novel, the leading women, like Matilda and the prioress, are negatively portrayed and appear to be destructive forces, so that this novel supports Burke’s claim to preserve the traditional gender roles.
In The Romance of the Forest, Ann Radcliffe also echoes Burke’s depiction of Marie
Antoinette. Adeline is dressed in a “grey camlet” that “shewed, but did not adorn, her figure”(RF 7). However, due the effect of exhaustion and distress, she flies half-naked from her persecutors. Her dress was “thrown open at the bosom, upon which part of her hair had fallen in disorder, while the light veil hastily thrown on, had, in her confusion, been suffered to fall back”(RF 7). AnnRadcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho incorporates a more subtle idea evoked by Burke. At the moment Emily realises that her room is invaded, she lies down to sleep in her clothes, so that she prevents her body from being exposed to the intruders as happened to Marie Antoinette. The penetration of her room evokes the feeling of Emily’s sexual vulnerability.
blunted light/ That the dim moon through painted casements lends” (Mysteries 70). Claudia Johnson observes that in The Mysteries Of Udolpho, “Radcliffe conjures not the specific interests or agendas of French revolutionaries, but rather the standard of masculinity Burke considered typical of them, a standard in which ferocity is unmitigated by chivalry, and unmollified by the gallantry towards rank and sex that were supposed crucial to civilized life” (98). Montoni’s contempt for gallantry and belief that “chivalric love is emasculating” align him with Marie Antoinette’s tormenters (Johnson 103). Although Radcliffe’s novels might appear to be feminist novels, preoccupied with women and their maintenance of private property, they turn out to have a slightly conservative tone, and her views can be compared to Burke’s. She shows, for instance, her support of chivalric behaviour in men, which reduces women to powerless creatures. Moreover, Radcliffe’s novels do not progress; the heroines end up in the same patriarchal order as in the beginning of the novel. Women are powerless, since the female heir has to give up the rights over her property when she marries. Women were prevented from distributing their property without their husband’s consent, and Emily “beg[s]” Valencourt on the novel's final page for permission to settle her estates as she wishes (Mysteries 631).
The struggle for Marie Antoinette’s body, representing private property, is also evident in Radcliffe’s novels. The bodies of Radcliffe’s protagonists are threatened by rape. Emily discovers that Montoni has promised her hand to an ardent suitor, Count Morano, in exchange for her estates. In the discussion about this marriage, Emily serves as property, which can be “bought”, “sold” or stolen. (Udolpho 248). Also in La Motte’s and the Marquis’s negotiation on the crimes of the former, Adeline’s body plays an important role. The Marquis agrees to withdraw the order to arrest La Motte for trespassing, robbery and
assault if La Motte will grant him Adeline’s body. In both novels, Radcliffe shows a literal
loss of private property by presenting the bodies of the heroines endangered by rape.
Furthermore, in Ann Radcliffe’s novels, the sentient body of the heroine literally
associated with the other. In addition, when surrounded by real threats, Radcliffe’s heroines also exclude themselves from the outside world’s tribulations by fainting. They are able to transcend corporeality and isolate themselves from a fallen revolutionary world, as Burke’s portrayal of Marie Antoinette as a morning-star makes the French queen rise above the revolutionary forces. Bruhm states that “in Ann Radcliffe’s novels, the sensitive body replays that anti-Jacobin, Tory position” (44). Radcliffe shows her fears and reservation about property, i.e. her heroines, ending up in the hands of the public, which indicates that people should have respect for property, propriety, and for the legitimate transfer of wealth.
Marie Antoinette: Generic Freedom and British Public Opinion
Marie Antoinette: Generic Freedom and British Public Opinion
Marie Antoinette: Generic Freedom and British Public Opinion
Marie Antoinette: Generic Freedom and British Public Opinion
Even though Burke tried to isolate Marie Antoinette from the revolutionary forces in order to emphasise the importance of private property, ironically, he turned her into public property. He tried to prevent this by using complex language, thereby addressing only the privileged classes, but his image became so popular that it ended up in the hands of ‘the swinish multitude’. The image of his persecuted Marie Antoinette transcended genres and became available to a broad public. As Marie Antoinette transcended genres, so did the debate about the Revolution. At the turn of the nineteenth century, the distinction between the various literary genres started to fade. Indeed, some critics claim that “the Revolution debate in England transcended boundaries and margins of genre, style and discipline.” This tendency is evident in “verbal and visual art, poetry and prose, history and fiction, politics and religion, philosophy and language theory” (Crafton vii). This process of generic freedom, in which Marie Antoinette’s portrayal played an important role, was vital to the mobilisation of British public opinion. Broadsides, prints and poetry with political messages became widely available to the people and it appeared that the circulating library played an important role in late eighteenth century society, so that novels that incorporated political messages “had an essentially democratizing impact on British society” (Gilroy, Verhoeven 3).
around Marie Antoinette. Due to this famous passage, Burke’s political pamphlet gives the reader the impression that it is merely a fictional account instead of a political text. However, his sentimental description of Marie Antoinette is the most contested passage in his pamphlet. It provoked a lot of reaction, and, ultimately, this combination between ‘fiction’ and objective and distant political texts proved to be effective, since it aroused a debate about the French Revolution. Equally, political prints were dramatised when referring to the affliction of a real person. Just as Burke, caricaturists did not only use political rhetoric to move the public, but also drama.
Furthermore, an image of Marie Antoinette politicized poems and novels, which were usually created for leisure. An elegy turned out to be a political text, which steered the public towards condemning the Revolution due to the portrayal of Marie Antoinette. It appeared that especially novels changed drastically into radical and revolutionary works, which encouraged the reader to follow the opinion of the writer and “to move around in the social system that the novel was supposed to condition him/her for”(Gilroy, Verhoeven 4). Gothic literature shook off “its cloak of escapist mystery… [to] reveal a grimmer guise of subversion and speculation”(Gilroy, Verhoeven 4). The portrayals of Marie Antoinette were of importance in the debate about the French Revolution, but her image also helped to change the public sphere, as this developed into a sphere in which political ideas became available through various genres.
Ch
Ch
Ch
Chapter 2
apter 2
apter 2
apter 2
Deceitful and Destructive Queen as Cause of the Revolution
Deceitful and Destructive Queen as Cause of the Revolution
Deceitful and Destructive Queen as Cause of the Revolution
Deceitful and Destructive Queen as Cause of the Revolution
Marie Antoinette as a tyrant, a lesbian or a femme fatale; this chapter will focus on the political alter ego of Burke’s victimized queen. These negative images were used as a means to attack Burke and his emotional and dramatic description of the French queen, but they were also effective in the discussion about the French Revolution. Instead of passive and vulnerable, the queen was now presented as the cause of the Revolution. Throughout this chapter, we will also discover that Marie Antoinette could be seen as the cause of the changing public sphere in Britain.
Some opponents of Burke, who did not sympathize with the queen, directly attacked his portrayal of Marie Antoinette by ridiculing his emphasis on emotion and drama, and by contradicting his image of the queen. Philip Frances’s reaction to Burke’s early draft of his
Reflections gives expression to the attitude of various critics, concerning the particular role Burke assigned to Marie Antoinette in his work:
In my opinion, all that you say of the queen is pure foppery. If she be a perfect female character you ought to take your ground upon her virtues. If she be the reverse it is ridiculous in any but a lover, to place her personal charms in opposition to her crimes. (qtd. in Robinson 140)
Fig. 4 attributed to Frederick George Byron, The Knight of the Woeful Countenance Going to
extirpate the National Assembly, 1790
The Knight of the Woeful Countenance Going to extirpate the National Assembly (fig. 4) clearly ridicules Burke’s depiction of the Marie Antoinette. He is represented as Don Quixote with a spear, fashioned from his gigantic pen, and with “a shield of aristocracy and despotism” to battle with the national assembly. He is riding out from his publisher’s house on the back of an ass with the head of Pope Pius VI, representing ignorance. This is an allusion to Burke’s alleged association with the Jesuits of St Omer. Burke is wearing a medallion of Marie Antoinette around his neck and a biretta of a catholic priest, on which sits, ironically, an owl, the symbol of wisdom.5 In addition to the criticism of Burke’s exaggerated and fictionalized portrayal of Marie Antoinette, the caricaturist also contradicts Burke’s victimized queen by portraying her as a tyrant. The medallion is positioned alongside the shield and the queen looks
5
straight ahead at the scenes of torture depicted on the shield. Sarah Wood rightly claims that “a visual reflection and enlargement of the oval miniature portrait, the shield suggests that the queen is both the source and symbol of ‘Aristocracy and Despotism’, and of the atrocities committed in their name” (45).
Fig. 5 attributed to Frederick George Byron, Don Dismalo, After an Absence of Sixteen Years,
Embracing his Beautiful Vision, 1790
Burke’s sexual feelings towards the queen are scorned in Don Dismalo, After an
chivalry…Give me to grasp thy invincible Shillelagh”. Marie Antoinette, having no sense of decorum, seduces a married man, while his wife stands beside them weeping. Rejoicing at the vision of Marie Antoinette, Burke exclaims: “Christ Jasus, what an ass I have been a number of years; to have doated on an old woman – heavens! What’s her bacon and eggs to the delicious Dairy of this celestial Vision.” This Dairy refers to Marie Antoinette’s Hameau in the gardens of Versailles. Louis gave her a part of the garden and she decided to create an ornamental farm which combined agricultural production with pleasure.6 She often withdrew to this farm, where she played at being a simple milkmaid. This disguise provoked a lot of criticism, because it made an amusement out of the misery of the working poor. Consequently, this image, in which Burke idolizes the queen and her Dairy, also stresses his lack of sympathy for the lower classes.
A negative portrayal of Marie Antoinette as a deceitful lesbian or a powerful femme fatale, squandering public money and transgressing gender boundaries, was also useful in the discussion about the French Revolution, and serves as a characteristic feature in the other works that will be discussed in this chapter. These depictions were, interestingly, used by critics with opposing political sympathies, some being in favor of and some being opposed to the Revolution. In all works, she is presented as the cause of the Revolution, but, depending on the actual portrayal, this could steer the British public towards supporting or rejecting the French Revolution. An image of Marie Antoinette, representing the feminization and corruption of the aristocracy, served as a means to support the Revolution. Yet, a depiction of Marie Antoinette as a powerful and destructive femme fatale, a source of inspiration for the revolutionary women, also functioned to condemn the Revolution.
Marie Antoinett
Marie Antoinett
Marie Antoinett
Marie Antoinette as Embodiment of the Corrupt
e as Embodiment of the Corrupt
e as Embodiment of the Corrupt Aristocracy
e as Embodiment of the Corrupt
Aristocracy
Aristocracy
Aristocracy
The old regime in France was characterised by its patriarchal monarchy, but it was also notorious for its salon culture, in which aristocratic women fully participated. This female participation in salons made everyone question the role of women and it was decided that in the new republic, this public role had to be replaced by a domestic role for women; their main task was to become prudent wives and mothers. The controversial role of the queen in France also contributed to this feeling of distrust towards public women. She was believed to have negatively influenced her husband and other important political men. In summarizing the
6
charges against Marie Antoinette during the trial in 1793, Herman, president of the court, referred to “her intimate liaisons with infamous ministers, perfidious generals, disloyal representatives of the people”. He denounced the “orgy” at the chateau of Versailles on 1 October 1789, when the queen had allegedly encouraged the royal officers present to trample on the revolutionary tricolor cockade (qtd. in Hunt 119, 120). In short, the queen had used her sexuality to corrupt the body politic either through “liaisons” or “intimacies” with criminal politicians or through her ability to act sexually upon the king, the ministers or his soldiers. In England, the following account was written about her trial, in which she is compared to various queens of France, who were typified as historical femmes fatales, and were known for their violent nature and seductive power:
…like Messaline, Brunchant, Fredigonde, and Medicis, who were formely qualified with the titles of the Queen of France, whose names have ever been odious, and will never be effaced from the pages of history- Marie Antoinette, widow of Louis Capet, has, since her abode in France, been the scourge and the bloodsucker of the French…having squandered the finances of France…in a dreadful manner, to satisfy inordinate pleasures, and to pay the agents of her criminal intrigues. (qtd. in Craciun 78)
Often depicted as a perverse, sexually insatiable lesbian, who participated in orgies, Marie Antoinette was associated with the transgression of sexual boundaries. These portrayals were considered as proof that she would not be able to observe the proprieties as a queen, as she also lacked a sense of decorum in her private life. Private vice would ultimately lead to public corruption. According to Lynn Hunt, these descriptions reflected “a fundamental anxiety about queenship as the most extreme form of women invading the public sphere”(123). Marie Antoinette was soon known as the embodiment of the feminized and, consequently, corrupt regime.
The French pamphlet Les Memoirs d’Antonina supported this view. The original version was published in Paris at the beginning of the Revolution. The British were also given access to the text, when it was translated by the reformer and police magistrate John Giffard, a friend of the Tory Prime Minister in England, William Pitt.7 With the help of translators, political messages could be expressed on an international level. The satirical pamphlet
7
Memoirs of Antonina mocks Marie Antoinette and her husband, and is meant to undermine the aristocracy. The French original explicitly refers to Marie Antoinette and stresses in the preface that the text was found in the Bastille. Although the first half of the text is a direct translation, the English version leaves out the preface and changes Marie Antoinette into Antonina. Katherine Binhammer correctly states that “in erasing the direct political references, the queen’s status as a representative of her sex is magnified” (5). Nevertheless, the political references are easy to discover, since all the names of the political figures, which are mentioned in the original French, are spelled in reverse. Antonina, married to the Niphuad (the Dauphin), is described as being open to other relationships with both aristocratic ladies and men. In Volume II of Memoirs of Antonina, containing a first-person “true confession”, Marie Antoinette relates how she went back and forth between men and women. She did not care who satisfied her appetite as long she remained independent and dominant in the situation. While involved with the Duke d'Artois, Louis XVI's brother, the queen seduces one of her maids in order to keep control over the situation:
But wherever he be, let him not imagine that he monopolized my person, at this period.... Miss Tavrod, one of my attendants, after gaining my confidence by her merit, had fixed my attention by her beauty. The brilliancy of her eyes, and the delicate whiteness of her bosom, excited my desires; the impulse soon became irresistible, and I determined to gratify it. (Memoirs of Antonina II: 29)
Throughout most of the book, her passion for her own sex is shown to be stronger than her passion for men. She deliberately disguised her love for women by taking men as lovers:
The insipid Marquis of Valal [Lalav], at one time, believed himself the favoured object; but the queen only encouraged his hopes, that she might fix her affections elsewhere with less danger of discovery…At length the wishes of Antonina were crowned with success; by openly giving a loose to her inclinations in one respect, she imagined that she had effectually concealed the real object of her pursuits. (Memoirs of Antonina I: 31, 32)
This message was conveyed by means of satire, which was an effective device. It was witty, but at the same time, critical. Lynn Hunt explains that the popularity of the pamphlets is reflected in “the repetition of formulaic expressions in nonpornographic political pamphlets”, like the standard comparison of Marie Antoinette to Catherine de Medicis, Agrippina, and Messalina (128, 129). This stresses the wide distribution of the pornographic images of Marie Antoinette, and signals the importance of these portrayals to British politics.
Charles Pigott also devoted an important passage to Marie Antoinette in his bestselling Jockey Club. Impersonating the corrupt aristocracy, her image served as a means to convince the public to support the French Revolution. Charles Pigott, an English radical in the 1790’s, was born into a gentry family and married an aristocratic lady, so he had the ability to move in aristocratic circles. Consequently, he picked up various scandalous stories, which strengthened his negative view of the aristocracy. In his Jockey Club and Female
of a young clerk and a conspiracy to reduce the city of Paris to ashes.8 Pigott concludes that “it has been proved beyond all doubt, that the French Revolution, is the true touchstone whereby to try the character and designs of men” (Pigott 85). He ends his passage by giving a final statement about appropriate political rhetoric, and rejects Burke’s appeal to sentimentality: “In closing this article, we entreat our readers to remember that our positions have been elucidated by facts, and thus we bid adieu to the Immortal Heroine of Mr Burke’s
Romance” (Pigott 86).
Mary Wollstonecraft, an important critic in Britain during the French Revolution, also had a pronounced view of Marie Antoinette, which differed slightly from the above mentioned. In contrast to Burke, she was in favor of a revolution, since this would dissolve differences in rank and in gender. Wollstonecraft claimed that Burke only pitied a few titled aristocratic women, like Marie Antoinette, but ignored thousands of women who suffered: “the distress of many industrious mothers…could not move your commiseration” (Vindication 14). She insinuates that Marie Antoinette, “whose rank alters the nature of folly and throws a graceful veil over vices that degrade humanity”, is guilty of all the crimes of which she was accused (Vindication 14). She “was firmly attached to the aggrandizement of her house”; “She never omitted sending immense sums of money to her brother, on every occasion”; and she had an “unbounded sway” over the king (FR 73-74). The French queen embodies, according to Wollstonecraft, the corruption of the aristocracy, and rules by beauty and by cunning. Just as Burke, she juxtaposes Marie Antoinette to the market women, but on different grounds. She condemns the exaggerated femininity of Marie Antoinette, and the exaggerated masculinity of the market women, who had “thrown off the virtues of one sex without having power to assume more than the vices of the other” (FR 197, 198). However, Mary Wollstonecraft believed that both Marie Antoinette and the market women were victims
8
The Diamond Necklace Affair was a scandal that took place at the court of King Louis XVI of France just
before the French Revolution. The chief player in this story was Countess de La Motte, who claimed descent from the French royal family through a bastard line, while, in fact, her family was of provincial and ruined nobility. Another important character in the affair is Cardinal de Rohan, who was born into one of France’s most ancient and wealthy noble families. Countess de la Motte duped Cardinal de Rohan, who was out of favour with queen Marie Antoinette, into believing that he could regain the favour of the queen. Jeanne de la Motte set up an interview between Cardinal de Rohan and a woman impersonating the queen, in which he was led to believe that the queen wished to acquire a diamond necklace of enormous value and that she had chosen him as her confidential agent. When Rohan obtained the necklace from the jewellers, he turned it over to a man he believed to be the queen’s valet. However, the necklace was sold on the black market, and the jewellers were never paid. Both de la Motte and Rohan eventually came to trial. Marie Antoinette, noted for her extravagance and frivolity, was unjustly implicated in the affair. Her enemies hinted that she had schemed to ruin Cardinal de Rohan or that she had used her favour to obtain the necklace and then refused to pay. For more information on the diamond necklace affair, see Sara Maza “The Diamond Neckalce Affair Revisited”.
of society. Wollstonecraft claims that Marie Antoinette’s shortcomings are caused by a lack of education, and the predominance of excessive sensibility in her character. She emphasizes that women, like men, are reasonable creatures. In all her works, she expresses the need for an educational system for women, so that women will become aware of the importance to temper sensibility and to appreciate reason in order to become good wives and mothers. Wollstonecraft argues that women should become house managers, seeking respect from their husbands, instead of being humble creatures dependent on their husbands. She also rails against overly refined women who are attracted by the pleasure-seeking society. These women are seduced by the “regal homage” they receive, and deign to exercise “illegitimate power” (Vindication 90). She argues that the overly refined feminine women are the greatest violators of nature and equality. Hence, the excessive femininity of Marie Antoinette ultimately corrupted the aristocracy.
In An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution, Wollstonecraft incorporated drama in order to strengthen her point. Steven Blakemore correctly points out that Wollstonecraft compares the tragedy in France to Shakespeare’s Macbeth (103). Wollstonecraft links Marie Antoinette, in whom tenderness is banished “from the female bosom” (FR 84) to Lady Macbeth, who although she has “given suck” to “the babe that milks me”, she would be able to “dash the brains out” (Macbeth 1.7. 55-60). Furthermore, Wollstonecraft refers to Louis’ “milkiness of heart” (FR 74), which can be linked to Macbeth’s nature, which “is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness” (Macbeth 1.5 16-17). Usually, it was only Marie Antoinette, who was put in a bad light, but in this account, Louis XVI is also portrayed in a negative way. On the one hand, he is without a “character”(FR 71), does not have a mind of his own, is indecisive, and is manipulated by Marie Antoinette. On the other hand, he had “a total disregard of delicacy, and even decency in his apartments”. He had a “devouring passion” for his wife and treated her with “great brutality, till she acquired sufficient finesse to subjugate him” (FR 73). The queen, however, manipulated him sexually, and “managing the disgust she had for his person, she made him pay a kingly price for her favors”(FR 74). Mary Wollstonecraft used this opposition in order to blame men for female behavior. Marie Antoinette, just as Lady Macbeth, had a manipulative nature, but Wollstonecraft claimed that Louis was responsible for this. Equally, all men in society had the ability to change female conduct by reforming the educational system.
Marie Antoinette as a Source of Inspira
Marie Antoinette as a Source of Inspira
Marie Antoinette as a Source of Inspira
Marie Antoinette as a Source of Inspiration to Revolutionary Women
tion to Revolutionary Women
tion to Revolutionary Women
tion to Revolutionary Women
Besides the easy access to political ideas due to generic liberty, as discussed in the first chapter, people were given the freedom to interpret political messages if these were indirectly conveyed. Consequently, a work could be interpreted differently than the writer intended. This became even more complicated where images of Marie Antoinette were concerned, due to her ambivalent reputation. It appears that portrayals of her had a democratizing impact on British society. The last two works that will be discussed in this chapter will expose the two ways in which the role of Marie Antoinette may be interpreted in terms of the rejection of the French Revolution. Both the print The Contrast and the novel The Monk condemn the French Revolution, but it remains ambiguous on which grounds. In the first chapter, Marie Antoinette’s personification of British traditional values, threatened by the revolutionaries, served as a perfect image to reject the Revolution. Yet, an image of the French queen as a cruel femme fatale, representing the source of inspiration for the ferocious revolutionary women, also functioned to condemn the Revolution. Whereas some people regarded the Revolution as an attempt to restrict Marie Antoinette’s corrupt influence on politics, others interpreted the Revolution as an opportunity for women to follow Marie Antoinette’s example, and to claim gender equality with atrocious consequences. Lori Marso states that “especially between 1789 and 1793, women were a visible presence in political clubs, popular societies, festivals, and demonstrations.” (3).9 Men saw this participation of women in politics as the cause of turmoil in France. Joan B. Landes shows that even in the eyes of the male revolutionaries, “‘impudent’ revolutionary women were often indistinguishable from the queen” (165, 166). As a public figure, Marie Antoinette could be seen as the source of inspiration to the revolutionary women, and, consequently, as the cause of disorder in France.
In England, several caricaturists tried to convince the public to oppose the Revolution by juxtaposing tumultuous France to peaceful England. From 1789 on, the first year of the Revolution, England wanted to redefine its national identity alongside France whose identity changed due to the Revolution. England defined itself especially as a masculine country and opposed itself to the French by depicting France as a feminine country with negative female qualities. Amanda Gilroy states that France was known as “emotional, sensual, preoccupied
9
with fashion and fancy food” (198). Above that, the country was known by its improper women, who did not respect the established gender roles.
Fig. 6 Lord George Murray and Thomas Rowlandson, The Contrast – Which is Best 1792
The print The Contrast (fig. 6), published in 1792, designed by Lord George Murray and engraved by Thomas Rowlandson, depicts this opposition between the two countries by means of two contrasting icons of France and Britain; Marianne, the symbol of Liberty in France during the French Revolution, and Britannia. The dignified Britannia, representing England, behaves as she is supposed to according to the established gender roles. The British lion is resting at her feet while she watches a ship setting sail. She holds a pike with the cap of liberty, and the Magna Charta.10 The scales show that this country is well balanced. The right side of the print depicts France as a mad, uncontrollable woman, holding a pike with a skull. She tramples upon a headless body, and in the background another dead man hangs from a lamppost. The public, sympathizing with the queen, would associate the woman in the print with Burke’s “unutterable abominations of the furies of hell” threatening Marie Antoinette and British traditions (Reflections 71, 72). However, opponents of the queen could associate
10
the woman with Marie Antoinette. Due to the snaky hair, the woman on the right side could be recognized as the mythological figure Medusa.11 Medusa “was once renowned for her loveliness, and roused jealous hopes in the hearts of many suitors. Of all the beauties she possessed none was more striking than her lovely hair” (Ovid 115). After her metamorphosis, Medusa’s hair became powerful in a frightful way. She had the ability to petrify men, and her snake-like hair, a phallic image, symbolized this emasculating power. Ultimately, Medusa was beheaded. During her first years in France, Marie Antoinette was renowned for her beauty and her hairstyle. However, she became as ‘ugly’ and ‘destructive’ as Medusa. She emasculated France, which resulted in her execution. It appears that the queen and the revolutionary women can both be recognized in the print, and are no longer contrasted.
Fig. 7 Mug printed in dark blue with The Contrast after Rowlandson
David Bindman notes that this print is “probably the most widely disseminated design of the whole anti-radical campaign” (118). Miss Sarah Sophia Banks, who gave the print to the British museum, revealed that Murray sent it “to the Crown and Anchor whence they have been distributed & likewise sold by Mrs Humphreys [Gillray’s publisher]” (qtd. in Bindman 118). David Bindman also shows that this print was used on mugs (fig. 7), which were probably from 1793 and remained in production for some years (120). Furthermore, The
Contrast with The New Hearts of Oak (fig. 8) appeared in a broadside with God Save the
King!. It equally appeared on the title-page of The Antigallican Songster, published by J Downes in 1793. This widely distributed print was highly popular; the ambivalence of the
11
message could attract opponents and sympathizers of the queen, since everyone could read their own political conviction in this print.
Matthew Lewis’s The Monk equally appealed to people with slightly different political ideas. This novel could be seen as condemning the Revolution, but it is not really clear which role Lewis assigns to Marie Antoinette in this matter. Lewis expresses ideas that could be linked to Burke’s Reflections. As mentioned in the first chapter, Marie Antoinette and the British tradition she represents are echoed in female characters such as Agnes and Antonia. Yet, a reader could also interpret Matilda as the character that impersonates Marie Antoinette as the threatening femme fatale, jeopardizing the male public sphere, and encouraging women to stray beyond the borders of femininity. Joseph Adriano claims that “the powerful femmes fatales in Gothic fiction such as The Monk threaten male subjectivity with a breakdown in gender distinctions which masculinity cannot survive” (qtd in Craciun 78). Lewis had a profoundly ambivalent feeling towards women, as the portrayals of women in his novel suggest. These depictions range from the virtuous and suffering Agnes and Antonia to the monstrous prioress of St. Clare and the demonic Matilda. Ann Williams links Lewis’s anti-Catholicism with his anti-feminism arguing that his fear for “Mother Church” is an example of the “horror of the female [that] drives and shapes the narrative” of the male Gothic in general and The Monk in particular (117,114). In The Monk, Matilda overpowers Ambrosio, who finds himself in a “feminine position” (Blakemore 1). Raised by the church, he has always been treated as a girl, whose virginity must be protected. Throughout the novel, Ambrosio makes some unwise decisions due to the intervention of Matilda. She often uses her beauty and sexuality in order to convince Ambrosio. Matilda is the femme fatale in the novel, who later turns out to be the devil with whom Ambrosio makes a pact. The whole situation in the novel is reminiscent of the situation in France. Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI were not able to have children for several years. A rumor was spreading about Louis XVI’s impotence, a literal loss of masculinity. In addition, Marie Antoinette took on the male role and subjugated Louis XVI even more by her political interference. Both Matilda and Marie Antoinette are powerful women and able to control men by exposing their body in a sexual way. Again in this work Marie Antoinette and the revolutionary women can be recognized in Matilda.
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Marie Antoinette as a Powerful Role Model for Women
Marie Antoinette as a Powerful Role Model for Women
Marie Antoinette as a Powerful Role Model for Women
Marie Antoinette as a Powerful Role Model for Women
British politics was enriched with depictions of Marie Antoinette as a weak victim, as a woman with destructive power or as a negative source of inspiration. In addition, a group of female writers constructed a new political image of the French queen, in which these three descriptions were partly combined: Marie Antoinette was victimized, yet powerful, and served as an important source of inspiration to these women. According to them, Marie Antoinette symbolised the subdued position of women in a male dominated society. Aristocratic women enjoyed a certain freedom during the Old Regime, but the Revolution put an end to this. During the French Revolution, the characteristics of the Old Regime, like private theatre and masquerade were replaced by truth and transparency. Joan Landes argues that the new “republic was constructed against women, not just without them” (171). In the new bourgeois public sphere, masquerade, performance, wit, stylized speech, luxurious dress (all feminine elements) were demonized. The execution of Marie Antoinette signalled this official exclusion of all women from the public sphere, which is also clear in the account of her execution. The French sociologist and avant-garde writer Roger Caillois describes the difference between the two royal deaths:
The focus on Marie Antoinette’s private life turns her execution into a moral death opposed to Louis’s political death. The death of the French queen was not only a symbol of “the new regime’s advent”; it was an attempt to make an end to the effeminized nation and to reassert masculine power over the public sphere. Even though the women discussed in this chapter regarded her as a victim, their portrayal of Marie Antoinette does not resemble Burke’s feeble victim. These women depicted Marie Antoinette as a strong woman, and elevated her to an important role model. Although Marie Antoinette was criticised for her excessive femininity, they praised Marie Antoinette’s femininity through her preoccupation with fashion and hairstyles, her role as a mother, her eroticized body, or her taste for private theatre and masquerade. Charlotte Smith, Mary Robinson, Joanne Baillie and various fashionable women in England presented Marie Antoinette as a role model for she had used her femininity to obtain independence and authority. Inspired by the French queen, these women challenged revolutionaries’ attempt to restrict women to the domestic sphere, entered the public sphere on distinctly feminine terms, and incited other women to step out of their confined position as well.
Coiffeur and Fashion
Coiffeur and Fashion
Coiffeur and Fashion
Coiffeur and Fashion
During Marie Antoinette’s first years in France, her hairstyle became famous as well as notorious. It reflected the different stages this Austrian lady went through, when she came to France. Jean-Baptiste Charpentier’s portrait of Marie Antoinette shows a coiffeur, created by the Parisian hairdresser Larseneur, which emphasised her affiliation with the French court (fig. 9). In contrast to the Austrian style, this hairstyle was more careful; each strand of hair was neatly placed, and there were no free-flowing curls on top or behind. Hosford Desmond states that “in a symbolic context, Marie Antoinette's French coiffure was a crucial corporeal
manifestation of her submission to France and worked in conjunction with more extroverted expressions of her new identity, such as her adoption of the French language” (186). However, her hairstyle soon revealed her endeavours to gain more influence and independence. She started to create her own elaborate hairstyle, ‘the coiffure pyramidale’, which caused a stir among fashionable women in England. It was a complex powdered creation with an aigrette and strand of diamonds, a blue silk ribbon, and feathers (fig. 10).
Fig. 10 Marie-Antoinette by Gautier-Dagoty, 1775
