Gossip from France: Charlotte Corday

Without getting into too much detail, because this is another post with babble-potential, I'd like to touch upon the imagery of Charlotte Corday, who definiately wins the prize for "Most Spartan" Frenchwoman. But I'd like to look at it from the English perspective. To review, Charlotte was the broad who took matters into her own hand when the executions in the French Revolution became too numerous. Placing blame on Jean-Paul Marat for the out of control killing sprees, Charlotte assassinated Marat with a butter knife in his bathtub. Well, maybe not a butter knife, but she she did buy a kitchen knife right beforehand to do the job. She was of course punished with the original execution of death by guillotine.


This of course this made her a martyr. The French despised her for her actions. A man even lifted her freshly severed head from the guillotine basket to slap her cheek. The English, on the other hand, idolized the murderess. As can be seen in this Gillray print, Corday is one of the few women to be portrayed in a positive light by the satirical artist. Her depiction is very similar to those of Britannia, a rare compliment for those not of English origin. Don't you just love how in this depiction Charlotte address the assembly as "Wretches," plus I doubt Gillray ever put so much time into making a hairdo look nice as he did with this print. It should also be noted how incredibly un-French Charlotte looks, she looks more hmm...British? Her depiction is notably in the British vogue.

The British, who have a tradition of enjoying a good rebellion (unless it was against them) felt France crossed the line with the execution of Louis XVI. Charlotte became, for them, a symbol of liberty; the exact thing France was fighting for. The French disagreed with this viewpoint, and felt it was Marat, the guy who died taking a bubble bath, who was the true martyr.