Melissa's Blog

For my paper topic, I would like to further investigate a certain aspect of Marie Antoinette’s life. I felt that Marie Antoinette, though a French queen, was still strongly connected to her Austrian ties. Therefore, I focused my topic to Marie Antoinette’s role in improving the influence Austria had in France. I narrowed this even further to look in particular at the first few years of her reign, which took place around 1775–1780. However, as I continued to research, I found that, though she was being pressured by her family, Marie Antoinette actually had little political influence over her husband, who was avidly anti-Austrian. In fact, as I continued to read, I began to generate a question: Did the pressure placed on her by her family to become involved in political affairs ultimately lead to the frivolous behavior and costly diversions she would later be well-known for? Or, was it the social rather than the political aspect that caused such a reaction?

I hypothesize that it was because of the amount of political responsibility Marie Antoinette was given, most likely from the very beginning, which caused her to find other means of escaping every day life. Going even further, I believe that it was the political burden that was to blame, at least partly, for the severe drop in Marie Antoinette’s popularity that occurred later in her life. In conclusion, my paper will defend Marie Antoinette as a woman who suffered from her political commitment to her family.