The Innocence of Marie Antoinette

Cosette never experienced true love because the Thenardiers didn’t treat her with respect. When Valjean adopts her, he gets her schooling and gives her the love and compassion he never has been able to give to anyone. Valjean helps Cosette blossom into a beautiful, educated young woman.

During that time, the economy of France was very poor, Marie Antoinette wore his lady fashion cloth and ate meals in front of public. Her life after married to Louis XVI became very luxurious, because the only thing she knew was spending money in her entertainments. Both of them spent money from government on their entertainments. They made the economy even worse when they wasted money. Instead of ruling the country, Louis XVI chose to spend money and have fun on his entertainment. When the citizens had no money to pay for their taxes, they were spending the money on their entertainment.

In the excerpt from "Reflections on the Revolution in France", Burke argues in favor of King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette. When Marie was murdered, Burke says, “As a man, it became him to feel for his wife and his children, and the faithful guards of his person, that were massacred in cold blood about him; as a prince, it became him to feel for the strange and frightful transformation of his civilized

While the arguments are generally in stasis that Marie Antoinette was not the sole cause of the French Revolution, the legacy of Marie Antoinette continues to be a point of disagreement. This debate does not directly influence the history of the French Revolution, but it does affect the overall understanding of Marie Antoinette and her actions throughout her queenship. The first side of the argument presents Marie Antoinette more negatively, blaming her for her unconcerned attitude. David Grubin supports this viewpoint, establishing Antoinette’s failings as a queen by explaining her indifference towards her subjects and the wealth that made her ignorant toward the needy. Grubin

The fact that Desiree derives her happiness from pleasing Armand shows that she is not only his slave, but also that she helps to put herself into this position.  “When he frowned she trembled, but loved him” (317).  Desiree’s simultaneous fear and love of Armand elevates him to a god-like status in

It can be easily said that the intended audience for this letter was to Marie Antoinette’s mother, Maria Theresa the empress of Austria. Marie states several times throughout the letter of her many thanks to her mother for the reciprocating letters. The excitement in Marie’s tone is evident that she is astonished, despite the chaotic excitement upon their arrival, the amount of order there is. Marie is overjoyed that despite the hardships that the peasants faced, such as taxes, they remain loyal to her and her husband Louis, and show their affection with cheering and excitement. In response to the love that they received, Marie makes a point to tell her mother that the dauphin and herself wished the citizens not to be harmed despite the fact that they were unable to move for hours from the sheer masses of people who gathered upon their arrival.

During the medieval times, Marie de France, unlike the male writers of her time, wrote courtly stories that depicted women who were predominantly featured in the primary roles with empathy and questioned the sexist predicaments women were often subjected to. Women often times struggled to find their voice, but her stories told the perseverance and progress within those constraints. Instead, she wrote of men idealizing wealthy, powerful, independent, beautiful women. She inserts the thoughts and feelings from a woman’s perspective. In a sense, giving women the voice they strived to have heard in a male dominated time period. As Damon stated in the article “Marie de France: Psychologist of Courtly Love,” “Contemporary readers might have noted that the characters departed occasionally from the established laws of courtly conduct; none the less, as all such departures were towards reality, they were welcomed.” She opened the door for women’s self-expression and individual achievement. Marie de France’s popular adulterous love stories bring about many fascinating ethical questions.

The controversial story of Martin Guerre becomes intensified as historian Natalie Davis and Robert Finlay makes their persuasive argument. Davis presents the story in a humorous way, portraying Bertrande sympathetically and developing her as an “honorable” figure. In the sixteenth century France, honor is a central aspect of women's identity and reputation. To gain honor, the woman remained faithful to their husband and followed the strict rules of Canon law, married women were not allowed to remarry or make a relationship with other men without the proof of husband’s death (Davis, Martin 20). However, presenting Bertrande de Rols as a strong assertive woman Davis intentionally reveals that Bertrande is capable of doing more than the housework.

Marie Ationnette was born as the 15th child into the Austrian royal family in 1755. At the early age of 14, she was married off in 1770 to the dauphine of France, Louis. At 19 she became queen of France, becoming an embodiment of the ancien regime, eventually becoming the symbol of the excesses of the monarchy and their irresponsible spending, earning her the name of Madame deficit. Marie Ationnette was significant to the revolution, for her symbolism of lavish spending, her scandals, and her role in the march of the women provoked the people to overthrow the Monarchy. Marie Ationnette was best known for her extravagant spending, which ultimately earned her the name “Madame Deficit”. To entertain herself Marie would often go to parties, theatre,

How can one separate a mere normal man from a king? And which is more important between men with a passion from a man with a selfish desire? King Louis XVI was an example of a king unfit to rule. We will discuss King Louis’s early life, his reign as king, and the role he played in the French revolution.

"Marie Antoinette was the Austrian born child bride of the future King Louis XVI of France. It was an arranged marriage designed to

She witnesses firsthand all of the hardships the French commoners are enduring and it fuels her rage and anger toward the nobility. Madame Defarge channels all of this anger into exacting her revenge, but we cannot help pitying her for her wretched childhood. We comprehend the reasons behind the madness, but that does not justify her actions.

Cosette is deprived of the love that she desires and deserves. She longs for love and instead receives the opposite. The Thenardiers do not care for Cosette and do not view her as their child, to them she is a servant girl. When Jean Valjean offers to take Cosette away from the Thenardiers, they reply, “Ah monsieur! My good monsieur! Take her, keep her, take her away, carry her off, sugar her, stuff her, drink her, eat her, and be blessed by the holy Virgin and all the saints in paradise!” (154). The Thenardiers want Cosette out of their house, and no longer want the responsibility of taking care of the “imbecile child” (147). It is a blessing to them that this traveler has come to take Cosette away forever. Because of Jean Valjean's good deed, Cosette's life can improve and she can finally experience the emotion of love she longs for. Although Jean Valjean offers Cosette all the love he is capable of giving, it is not enough to satisfy Cosette. She craves for a different, romantic love after she is introduced to Marius. Hugo,

With each letter in Les Liaisons dangereuses, Choderlos de Laclos advances a great many games of chess being played simultaneously. In each, the pieces—women of the eighteenth-century Parisian aristocracy—are tossed about mercilessly but with great precision on the part of the author. One is a pawn: a convent girl pulled out of a world of simplicity and offered as an entree to a public impossible to sate; another is a queen: a calculating monument to debauchery with fissures from a struggle with true love. By examining their similarities and differences, Laclos explores women’s constitutions in a world that promises ruin for even the most formidable among them. Presenting the reader glimpses of femininity from a young innocent’s daunting debut to a faithful woman’s conflicted quest for heavenly virtue to another’s ruthless pursuit of vengeance and earthly pleasures, he insinuates the harrowing journey undertaken by every girl as she is forced to make a name for herself as a woman amongst the tumult of a community that machinates at every turn her downfall at the hands of the opposite sex. In his careful presentation of the novel’s female characters, Laclos condemns this unrelenting subjugation of women by making clear that every woman’s fate in such a society is a definitive and resounding checkmate.

In the introduction to The Fabrication of Louis XIV, Peter Burke expresses his ambition to write a study of Louis XIV 's public image as a whole and the changes it underwent throughout Louis 's reign. This book examines the relation between art and power and the official structures responsible for making – fabricating – the image, or more appropriately, the images of Louis XIV, as well as their contemporary reception. As the title suggests and as Burke himself reminds the reader, the book as a whole focuses on the ideas of royal myth and royal narrative, and the manipulation of information.