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Marie Antoinette's Sacrifice and the Fragmentation of French Femininity

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Marie Antoinette's Sacrifice and the Fragmentation of French Femininity Marie Antoinette’s Sacrifice and the Fragmentation of French Femininity by Olivia Fuson Introduction modern identity as well as the evolution of French From beautiful Austrian princess to tragic heroine feminism and womanhood. to depraved whore, depictions of Marie Antoinette are almost as varied as depictions of the French Girardian Mimetic Relations in Revolutionary Revolution itself. Historians have written at length France about the persona(s) of this great royal but have yet To fully appreciate the complexities of Marie to come to a consensus. Who was Marie Antoinette? Antoinette’s trial, we must first consider the tensions What was her role in the Revolution? And did she within France that later culminated in her sentencing deserve her sentence? Our perspective from within and execution. Mimetic tensions had been building an equality-driven society makes it all too tempting in France since the beginning of the Revolution, to cheer along as the guillotine falls on a monarch; we contributing to the violent atmosphere surrounding want the Revolution to succeed because the values Antoinette in 1793. As Girard notes in his book, which it espouses so closely resemble those of our Violence and the Sacred, man’s tendency to imitate culture today. This bias in favor of the ideals of the the desires of his fellow man frequently leads to early Revolution has led many historians to justify its competition and conflict. Girard explains how these later events in light of the Enlightened motivations tensions multiply within the population, writing, behind them and, in doing so, to condone the death “Rivalry does not arise because of the fortuitous of Marie Antoinette as a necessary casualty on the convergence of two desires on a single object; rather, road towards Enlightenment. However, due to the the subject desires the object because the rival desires rapid reorganization of French society after the it…The reason is that he desiresbeing , something he collapse of the monarchy, persistent food shortages, himself lacks and which some other person seems to riots, violent political polarization, and frequent possess. The subject thus looks to that other person redistributions of power, the Republic of 1793 more to inform him of what he should desire in order to 1 closely resembled a civilization in crisis than a acquire that being.” Girard argues that, due to man’s democratic society. Consequently, in order to fully insecurity over the validity of his own existence, appreciate the significance of the execution of Marie he takes others’ desires as more valid than his own Antoinette and its impact on French national identity, and proceeds to mimic these desires in hopes of we must take into account the violent elements which attaining the supposedly superior reality of his rival. plagued the society that condemned her instead of In France, various factions (men with property, men simply writing her death off as collateral damage on without property, women, etc.) had all begun to mimic each other’s desires and were each clamoring the road to the modern Republic. Through the work over the object of natural rights by the dawn of of prominent philosopher René Girard, who has the Revolution. While there were certainly various written extensively on the phenomenon of violence in factions involved in this competition, this paper societies in crisis as well as on the trial and execution will focus on the relationship between men and of Marie Antoinette, we gain particularly valid insight women, which had become particularly mimetic and into the execution of the queen. While Girard’s work contentious by 1791, as we can infer from the parallel focused on the effects of the societal phenomenon writings of the National Assembly and Olympe de of violence rather than individual sacrifice, his line Gouges. Responding to women’s exclusion from the of reasoning can help us create a valuable, nuanced supposed equality of the Revolution despite their understanding of Marie Antoinette when coupled with a feminist perspective—an understanding 1 René Girard, Violence and the Sacred (Baltimore: Johns which clarifies both the fragmented nature of her Hopkins University Press, 1977). Aisthesis 12 Volume 9, 2018 Marie Antoinette’s Sacrifice and the Fragmentation of French Femininity equal participation in it, De Gouges penned her himself enjoys.”3 Taking men to be the model in this “Declaration of the Rights of Women” in hopes of scenario (simply because they expanded their rights attaining for women those rights which men had earlier than women) and women to be the disciples, already seized for themselves. Commandeering we begin to understand, firstly, why tensions existed the structure as well as the content of the original between these two factions that supposedly desired “Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen,” de the same ends and, secondly, why the first faction Gouges writes: blocked the second from attaining its object. Initially, the debate over women’s rights seemed to be making Mothers, daughters, sisters, female representatives headway and even gained purchase on the floor of the 4 of the nation ask to be constituted as a national National Assembly. Scarcely a year later, however, the assembly. Considering that ignorance, neglect, tide had turned against women’s rights, prompting or contempt for the rights of woman are the sole Olympe De Gouges to write her “Declaration of the causes of public misfortunes and governmental Rights of Women” and English author and observer corruption, they have resolved to set forth in a of the Revolution Edmund Burke to conclude, “On this scheme of things, a king is but a man; a queen solemn declaration the natural, inalienable, and is but a woman; a woman is but an animal; and an sacred rights of woman.2 animal not of the highest order.”5 Girard’s idea of the model’s resentment of their rival(s) accounts for the De Gouges’s imitation of the male, Revolutionary tentative consideration and then violent rejection of “Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen” is women’s rights. Due to the threat the male faction a noteworthy example of the mimetic nature of perceived in women’s desire of the coveted object of political desire early in the Revolution. Although rights, they could not allow women to achieve those both desirous of the same object, men and women same rights because any other faction’s achievement constituted two distinct factions that pursued their would diminish the value of their own. As a result, desires independently of one another, as the very the relationship between women and men was existence of this document indicates. Due to the fraught with resentment which, as the Revolution apt characterization of men and women as distinct progressed, moved closer and closer to violence. entities that both desired the same object, Girard’s idea of mimetic rivalry accurately depicts the Sacrificing Marie Antoinette relationship between the men and women of France While in developed societies today, Girard at the time when De Gouges penned her “Declaration explains, venerable judicial systems serve as of the Rights of Women.” bulwarks against mimetic violence, the judicial As Girard notes, however, a mimetic relationship system of France in 1793 was not yet so established such as that between the men and women of the early as to be able to fulfill this role and, as a result, had to Revolution, can never be peaceful. He elaborates employ a more primitive method to restore harmony on the nature of the mimetic relationship, writing, 3 “The model, even when he has openly encouraged René Girard, Violence and the Sacred (Baltimore: Johns imitation, is surprised to find himself engaged Hopkins University Press, 1977). 4 Marquise de Condorcet, “On Giving Women the Right in competition. He concludes that the disciple of Citizenship,” in Condorcet, Foundations of Social Choice has betrayed his confidence by following in his and Political Theory, trans. and eds. Iain McLean and Fio- footsteps. As for the disciple, he feels both rejected na Hewitt (Aldershot, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Lim- and humiliated, judged unworthy by his model of ited, 1994), http://www.historywiz.com/primarysources/ participating in the superior existence the model condorcet.html 5 Edmund Burke, Reflections On the Revolution In France, 2 Olympe de Gouges, “The Declaration of the Rights of And On the Proceedings In Certain Societies In London Woman, September 1791,” in The French Revolution and Relative to That Event: In a Letter Intended to Have Human Rights: A Brief Documentary History, trans. and Been Sent to a Gentleman In Paris, Second ed. (London: ed. Lynn Hunt (Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, J. Dodsley, 1790), PDF, https://archive.org/details/ 1966), 124-129. reflectionsonre04burkgoog Aisthesis 13 Volume 9, 2018 Marie Antoinette’s Sacrifice and the Fragmentation of French Femininity within the population: sacrifice. According to this passage closely resemble Girard’s explanation of Girard, when tensions within a society threaten to the scapegoat effect. Specifically, Necker’s analysis erupt into violence, that violence cannot be denied. of the execution of the king touches upon Girard’s It can either be redirected through the state’s judicial claim that “A single victim can be substituted for system—provided that the judicial system possesses all the potential victims… All the rancors scattered enough recognition to command this authority— at random among the divergent individuals, all or redirected towards a surrogate victim. In 1793, the differing antagonisms, now converge on an violence was redirected through the latter course.6 isolated and unique figure, thesurrogate victim.” 8 As one Revolutionary author noted in her work However, as Necker also notes, the sacrifice of “Defense of the Queen by a Woman,” Louis XVI this particular surrogate victim was insufficient to was the first surrogate victim to fall to the internal quell the disparate antagonisms within the French dissentions within France.
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