Dramaturgy Notes

for The Revolutionists

Olympe de Gouges

Olympe de Gouges was one of the first women to fight for equal rights. She is best remembered for championing women’s rights in her “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen,” but her profound humanism led her to strongly oppose discrimination, violence and oppression in all its forms. She wrote pamphlets and plays on a variety of issues, including slavery, which she attacked as being founded on greed and blind prejudice. In this pamphlet she provides a declaration of the rights of women to parallel the one for men, thus criticizing the deputies for having forgotten women. She addressed the pamphlet to the Queen, Marie Antoinette, though she also warned the Queen that she must work for the Revolution or risk destroying the monarchy altogether. In her postscript she denounced the customary treatment of women as objects easily abandoned. She appended to the declaration a sample form for a marriage contract that called for communal sharing of property.

https://www.olympedegouges.eu/

http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/293/

Charlotte Corday

Charlotte Corday killed the activist and intellectual Jean Paul Marat in his bath. Though she was herself from a noble family, she had come to be a supporter of the French Revolution opposed to the Reign of Terror. Charlotte Corday was influenced by the Girondists and came to believe that the Jacobin publisher, Jean Paul Marat, who had been calling for the execution of Girondists, should be killed. On July 13, Charlotte Corday bought a wooden handled table knife and then went to Marat's home, claiming to have information for him. At first she was refused a meeting, but then she was admitted. Marat was in his bathtub, where he often sought relief from a skin condition.

https://www.thoughtco.com/charlotte-corday-3529109

Reign of Terror

During the times of the French Constitutional Monarchy two prominent radical groups fought for power: the Girondins and the Jacobins.  Of the two groups, though both were radical, the Girondins were less radical. During this time the group hoped to pass legislation allowing all blacks equal freedoms (The United States was a little behind on this…). As a result of all of these newfound politics of the Girondins, the Jacobins began to counter-react in opposition to the Girondins. The Jacobins were afraid that the revolution was going to fail. 

Behind the leadership of Robespierre, the Jacobins instituted a state of "Terror." Under this new rule of law, they would arrest, and often execute, anyone suspected of treason. Thousands of people were massacred and hundreds of thousands were arrested. Girdonins urged citizens to stop the violence while Jacobins encouraged the bloodshed.  The gap between Girdonins and Jacobins grew more and more with the Jacobins becoming the more powerful force. The main leader of the Jacobins was Jean-Paul Marat. Parisians loved him and cheered him in the streets.

http://westerncivguides.umwblogs.org/2011/09/25/jacobins-vs-girondins-during-the-french-revolution/

https://www.ducksters.com/history/french_revolution/jacobins.php

La Marianne

Marianne is the embodiment of the French Republic. Marianne represents the permanent values that found her citizens’ attachment to the Republic: "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." From 1789, sculptures and paintings began to use female figures as vehicles for the values of the French Revolution, chief among which is Liberty. She is a warrior symbolizing the idea that liberty is something that must be fought for. Marianne is supposed to encompass a wife, mother, and most prominently, an emancipated woman.

https://www.gouvernement.fr/en/marianne-and-the-motto-of-the-republic

Marie Antoinette

Queen of France before the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette is famous for being overthrown by revolutionaries and being publicly guillotined following the abolition of the monarchy. But how much do you know about her life? And did she really say "Let them eat cake"? According to popular legend, when Marie Antoinette was told that the French people were starving and they could not afford bread, she flippantly remarked: “Let them eat cake!” The quote, widely attributed to her, has become a symbol of the callous decadence of France’s monarchy on the eve of the French Revolution. It is now generally accepted, though, that Antoinette most likely never uttered these famous words. Instead they are thought to have been attributed to her by revolutionary propaganda keen to portray her as ignorant, distant and uncaring.

https://www.historyextra.com/period/georgian/marie-antoinette-facts-life-death-cake-buried/

French Revolution in Saint-Domingue

The spring of 1789 saw a tide of popular uprisings across Paris. The leaders of this revolution constructed a new government, the National Assembly, which formally adopted the “Declaration of the Rights of Man” in August of that year. The declaration asserted that “All men are born and remain free and equal in rights.” However, the fate of enslaved people in France’s American colonies remained uncertain.

The National Assembly faced lobbying from groups in support of slave owners and commercial interests and those favoring abolition, particularly the Friends of the Blacks or les Amis des Noirs. The Amis des Noirs argued for granting full rights to Africans and biracial people in the colonies who were already free and pressed for stopping the slave trade. Free people of color from the colonies explained to the Assembly that despite their legal freedom, they could not enjoy the full rights due to citizens of the French Republic. Commercial interests succeeded in blocking any clear assertion of rights and freedom for people of African descent in the colonies for several years. Eventually the growing revolution in Saint-Domingue finally forced the National Assembly to reevaluate its position. Representatives from Saint-Domingue passionately described enslaved people’s literal battles for freedom and justice. In February 1794, the French republic outlawed slavery in its colonies. Revolutionaries in Saint-Domingue secured not only their own freedom, but that of their French colonial counterparts, too.

http://slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/article/?id=A0065