Sunday, April 8, 2012

MARIE ANTOINETTE - the misconstrued queen that she was

I am not a History teacher nor I am a specialist of the life of this so-called extravagant queen. The queen famous for saying this infamous line, "Let them eat cake." The line, as most of the researchers are saying, is used as an answer to those peasants of the year 1700's for having no bread to eat. 

 Back in high school, I didn't know that such queen existed. It could either be because I was out of pure disinterest of the History subject or of the History teacher himself, or it could also be that I didn't really give any importance of the subject being taught that they just come off my mind the moment the test was done, not that I'm proud of it.

In any case, here I am writing about this queen: Marie Antoinette. 

 I happen to have read one of the Opinion writers in the Inquirer site (sorry if I can't point out who the writer is) talking about his thoughts and feelings about Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (she being the president the time the article is written) having such a grandeur lunch over one of her trips. His last line mentioned Queen Marie Antoinette of France, using her as an allusion of how exactly GMA is luxuriously spending her life during that trip. 

 Since the queen's name was stranger to me, as a rule, it would be best to do a little research to satisfy curiosity. So I browsed through the internet to check out the reason why this Inquirer writer paralleled GMA to this said queen. 

 These are the results of my "research" (browsing):

  • She married at an early age of 12 to whom for her was a complete stranger, the Dauphin of France Louis-Auguste.
  • She served as the resolution for peace between Austria and France for their ever so long political disagreement.
  • She was under pressure to an awfully a lot of things: being pushed to giving the family an heir, being a wife to a somehow problematic husband, and balancing on being a grown-up without showing her ever so young a character
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette


 Being the queen that she was, so young that she was, one can expect nothing but detestation from this queen, notwithstanding the beauty that she naturally had. To escape herself from the constraints the world had for her, she lavished herself with buying expensive clothing and, well, gambling. While she was working on getting herself and her husband a child, people who were against her were already working on how she would look bad to the masses, making false advertisements about her leading her to be guillotined.

 It was only when Antonia Fraser published her book, Marie Antoinette: The Journey, did it become known to many what lies behind the extravagance of her being, of how she was actually a victim of misogyny.

 
You can have the book by purchasing it at your nearest bookstore or by buying through online shopping sites like eBay and Amazon. You can also download it for free through this link: http://www.filestube.com/m/marie+antoinette+the+journey+ebook+free.




A movie written and directed by Sofia Coppola and starred by Kirsten Dunst was also released back in 2006 based from this said book and if you'd like to watch it in motion, you can again just do the same with the book, or you can borrow a copy from me provided that you agree on my terms :).

 So after having done with all these research, I feel nothing for her but a complete sympathy. It's like how people misconstrued Jesus back then as the false Messiah.

 Please read related blogs: 

Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)