The Truth About Marie Antoinette

Many people may argue that Marie Antoinette was the biggest factor for why France fell into a revolutionary state, however, Marie Antoinette was a queen victimized and forced to play role from a young age to satisfy the French people who disapproved. Marie Antoinette was falsely blamed for her actions when in fact it wasn’t her fault. Marie Antoinette was forced to accept a society where she had to learn new customs and traditions. She had to leave everything behind, consequently become something she isn’t. Her frustration and unhappiness with Versailles was no surprise. Marie Antoinette was frustrated by her marriage. At Versailles her husband-to-be, Louis Auguste had no interest in her. In the film, Marie Antoinette, the director clearly

Marie Antoinette was the queen of France and could be seen as a controversial figure. She grew up in Austria and later moved to France, causing an outrage since she was an outsider.. Many events were blamed on her which had a huge impact on France. Many opposed her due to her poor leadership skills and lack of interest in the people. Marie Antoinette, along with her husband Louis XVI, came into power at a difficult time. France was in debt and revolutions were rising. Unfortunately, Marie Antoinette lacked the leadership and confidence necessary to rule. The time period of her rule was during the Enlightenment in the late 1700’s. Marie Antoinette was later executed in the guillotine for being found guilty of treason. Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, greatly impacted the history of Western Civilization by her excessive spending, her incompetence to rule, and her flight to Varennes.

During the lifetime of Marie Antoinette, France’s most infamous queen, she was known as the person who claimed, “ Let them eat cake” as many of her own subjects were starving. The queen’s life was filled with extravagance and wonder, but she was no stranger to rumors that would come to ruin her reputation and end her life during the French Revolution. Was Marie Antoinette truly a cruel queen or simply an ignorant young girl who had been given power to early in her life?

The biggest thing she was victimized for was the diamond necklace scandal. In 1781 Marie Antoinette was approached by Charles Boehmer about buying a necklace with 647 diamonds on it. Boehmer created the necklace for Louis XV, before he could finish the necklace Boehmer died. Later on he realized that he needed to sell the necklace to avoid financial ruin. When he approached Marie, she knew it was way too expensive for her to buy and she would not wear something that was intended for someone else. Boehmer continued to bother her to purchase it on several other occasions (Lotz 100). Later on Marie’s “friend” Jeanne informed Boehmer that she would be able to convince her to purchase the necklace. After she promised him that she would get Marie to reconsider she went to Cardinal de Rohan and told him that Marie wanted to purchase the necklace. She also told him that she didn't think it was wise for her to purchase it in person. He agreed to negotiate the purchase of the necklace with his own money (Lotz 104). Jeanne promised that Marie would pay him back over the next two years. After Cardinal de Rohan came to an agreement with Boehmer, the jeweler, the necklace was given to Jeanne so that she could give it to the queen. After Jeanne got hold of the necklace she then gave it to her husband to go sell in London. Not knowing what happened, Boehmer waited for the queen to show off his wonderful necklace, he waited feast day after feast day for her to wear it. He decided to write a letter to her saying he was glad the necklace was in her hands. Marie Antoinette not knowing what he was implying, burned the letter. Boehmer was having a financial crisis and need the money that he was owed. He decided he did not want to approach the queen directly and decided to talk to Madame Campan, her chief waiter, to inform her that she owed him money. She did not know of any such

On the 15th July Lafayette was appointed leader of the National Guard, which was an armed guard with the role of protecting Paris from foreign threats along with maintaining order in the city. It was from this position that Lafayette came to notice in the revolution as he now was in a position on power.

An crucial point that leads to the rupture of Antoinette’s identity and her identity crisis is related to race/ethnicity. The female protagonist is a white Creole, a woman of combined Black and European family history.

Through the history of the world, the people of Earth have seen every kind of leader. We’ve seen good leaders, average leaders, and terrible leaders. Many cases in France’s history they have had many leaders go through all of these ranks. For example, Napoleon Bonaparte started out great and slowly went down hill. But never in France’s history have they seen such a terrible leader as King Louie the XVI. Louie was not exactly king material. Louie was fat, shy, gluttonous, gentle, weak minded, not particularly smart and unambitious . He was everything a king shouldn’t be. As the French king Louie made just about every mistake a king could possibly make. These mistakes lead to the French Revolution and even the beheading of King Louie.

I do disagree with some things that Marie does, especially the things she does when she is about to become a queen. Marie focuses more on luxury, for example when preparing to become a queen she focuses more on the etiquette. Marie focuses on the dresses she has to wear or on parties and card games. Later this behavior costs her, her life. She doesn’t focus on getting an education or learning about France. After all she is going to be the Queen of France she should be educated on the country. But, she is not, but she can’t entirely be blamed for that. The people back in Austria only teach her about her hair or clothes. Marie’s mom, the Empress of the Holy Roman Empire was a good ruler but she didn’t take the time to teach Marie about ruling.

Marie Antoinette was hated by the french people since she was Austrian and spent tons of money. The marriage between Marie Antoinette and King Louis was a political union between the Austrian royal family and the French royal family. The marriage made France and Austria allies, when before they were enemies. Marie knew very little about the politics of France. Marie was unable to produce and heir to the throne for eight year, causing a lot of gossip around France. People were worried about who was going to take over the throne after King Louis XVI.

Marie Antoinette last queen of France which born on November 2, 1755, in Vienna, Austria. Baptized by Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna. She was the 15th and second to last child of her mother Maria Theresa the empress of Austria and the father was Holy Roman Emperor Francis I. Marie Antoinette loved her father more than her mother but the sad thing is that the father died at the age of 9 so she didn’t remember much of him as she grew. But she still loved her mother but also hated her this qote proves it “I love the empress but I’m frightened of her, then at a distance; when I’m writing to her, I never feel completely at ease” this proves it because she’s frightened of her and she also said that she loves her. The father was happy and loved by

One of these significant people was Marie Antoinette. Marie Antoinette was the last Queen of France. Though Antoinette was thought of as a fashion icon and very pretty, she didn’t do much to take of the people she ruled over (Barker 711). She was known for living an expensive and frivolous lifestyle while the people she ruled over didn’t have enough food to eat. Antoinette’s lifestyle upset people and caused political unrest. During the time of political unrest, Antoinette and her husband, the King Louis XVI, were both arrested and beheaded for their crimes of treason, ending the reign of Monarch’s in France, in 1793 (Barker 723). Overall, had it not been for Antoinette treating her people poorly, France could still be ruled by a king and

“If the people do not have bread, let them eat cake” was one of the most famous lines that Marie Antoinette never said. This and many other false accusations helped make Queen Marie of France one of the most misjudged and disliked characters in history. France, prior to Marie’s reign, was in poor conditions from the debt caused by the American Revolution, cold harsh winters, and famine, all of which greatly affected the French, particularly the overtaxed and mistreated lower class. Already bitter about their life, the introduction of Marie into their lives helped catalyze the already forming French Revolution. Marie Antoinette, best known for her role as the queen of France during 1789, expresses her frivolous but determined personality in addition to the criticism she receives from all the social classes in France due to her contribution to the start of the French Revolution; in A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens uses her lavish lifestyle to contrast the atrocious conditions of the poor caused by the nobility’s abuse of wealth and power and to criticize the peasants’ corrupt use of power even after the monarchy was overthrown.

Marie Antoinette, Queen of France from 1770 to 1797 was despised by the people of France. Their hatred of her and the monarchy in general led to the French Revolution. Many issues led to the unpopularity of Queen Maria Antoinette, her vanity, her disregard for the people, but perhaps the most significant was the Affair of the Diamond Necklace.

In her 2006 film, director and writer Sofia Coppola follows the infamous French queen and Austrian expat, Marie Antoinette (played by Kirsten Dunst), as she attempts to acclimate to her husband Louis XVI’s stringent court in the years leading up to the French Revolution. The film opens with Marie, an Austrian princess and the daughter of the Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa traveling to France to marry the dauphin who will one day acquire the illustrious title of King of France. Teenaged Marie finds it difficult to conform to her new role as a French princess, and after her new husband’s courtiers begin to show blatant contempt towards the young dauphine when the newlyweds’ inability to produce an heir, due to Louis’s inability to consummate their relationship, is brought to light. Dejected due to her relationship with her husband, Marie finds solace in one thing: spending vast quantities of money. With the economy of France continuing to follow a downward spiral and Marie and other French nobles continuing to live lifestyles of exorbitant excess and waste, the people’s opinion of their Austrian Queen sours beyond the point of repair. Even after Marie begins to fixate on her children, who took so long to be brought to fruition, instead of the vast network of extravagant, profligate courtiers, and begins to lessen her lavish spending, the French people had already decidedly marked all nobility as the instigators of France’s financial debacle. After the storming of the

Marie Antoinette, directed by Sofia Coppola, is a historical drama film that captures the life of the infamous French queen, Marie Antoinette. Because the movie is a historical drama, it tries to depict Marie Antoinette closely to what she was in history: a young woman of Habsburg descent who married Louis XVI of France as a means of forming an alliance between France and Austria. The movie follows Marie as she travels to France to marry Louis XVI and illustrates what living in Versailles was like for her. It follows her journey starting from her marriage all the way through her reign, and eventually ending with the fall of Versailles. Throughout the movie, the appearances of historical figures such as Louis XV and Joseph II of the Holy Roman Empire help contextualize and give depth to the movie’s setting in royal, 18th century France. However, while Marie Antoinette gives a fairly accurate representation of the grandeur of Versailles and the emotions that likely went through young Antoinette’s mind, it fails to capture the political atmosphere and historical background of France’s revolutionary era. If anything, Coppola’s Marie Antoinette depicts Marie Antoinette as a young, teenage girl who is forced to mature at a young age due to the time period’s societal customs and pressures.