marie antoinette's childhood essays

Enter Your Search Terms to Get Started! Marie Antoinette--A Victim of Marie Antoinette–A Victim of Misfortune Just shortly after Marie Antoinette entered the world, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, had big plans for her youngest Daughter. An alliance was to be set up between Austria and France with the marriage of Marie and Louis XV’s grandson. At the young age of 14, Marie’s childhood ended as she ascended to France to become the future queen. Unfortunately, her life as queen was far less grand and exquisite as expected. Throughout her reign, Marie would endure an unaffectionate husband, vicious rumors, and a fierce revolution that would lead up to her public execution. Some historians believe Marie Antoinette was responsible for her own demise. However, it is obvious that Marie was France’s scapegoat at a time of revolution. Even in the beginning, Marie’s future husband, King Louis XVI, paid little attention to the attractive and zealous young duchess. Marie was quick to adapt, though, and she became immersed in hobbies of her own. At the beginning of his reign, the king had a condition rendering him unable to father a child. The public was not aware and began to blame the queen for the absence of an heir. The king finally underwent a procedure three years into his rule and shortly after, a daughter was born. A few years later, she produced a son. Her duty as Queen of France, it would seem, was over. Marie had little concern for the ceremonies and traditions of life at Versailles. She enjoyed the company of only a select few court members, which caused fierce competition for the queen’s favor. She built her own Chateau and garden on the grounds of the palace, a seemingly frivolous expenditure, to escape the hectic schedule and inane proceedings of Versailles. Her frequent absence and clique-style friendships made her ripe for gossip and parody, and she was often.
IVAN KLIMA remembers himself as a child in Prague, under Nazi occupation, when Jews were forbidden, among other things, to go to the movies: About that time, Walt Disney's 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' came to Prague. The temptation was too powerful to resist; I went and sat through the whole movie in terror of being discovered and cruelly punished. Snow White, as it happens, was a famously frightening film for American children as well, but the fearful historical circumstances of Mr. Klima's childhood went far beyond the fairy-tale terrors of evil queens and poisoned apples. This collection of essays, The Spirit of Prague, testifies to a personal experience of history in the 20th century lived under the as cendancies of both Hitler and Stalin. Mr. Klima was transported in 1941, at the age of 10, to the concentration camp of Terezin -- Theresienstadt -- where he was lucky enough to survive for four years, until the arrival of the triumphant Russian Army. Such was what Mr. Klima calls the unconventional childhood of one of the most important modern Czech writers. His novels are already well known in English translation -- including works like Love and Garbage, Judge on Trial and Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light -- novels of conscience that trace the twisted history of Communism in Czechoslovakia. The essays in this volume reveal more about Mr. Klima's moral values and artistic preoccupations. The title should not mislead the reader; this is not a work of touristic entertainment about Prague, for the author's intellectual agenda is hardly the charm of that beautiful city. The opening essay begins by invoking the terrors of Snow White under Nazi occupation, and the concluding essay offers Mr. Klima's reflections on the torture machine in Kafka's In the Penal Colony. The essays indicate the perceived continuities of the Czechoslovak historical experience.
From New World Encyclopedia Previous (Marianne Moore) Marie Antoinette (November 2, 1755 – October 16, 1793), the Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria, was later titled, Marie Antoinette, Queen of France and Navarre, as the queen consort and wife of Louis XVI of France. She was the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa of Austria. She was married to Louis XVI at age 14 in a move to seal a favorable alliance between France and Austria. She was the mother of the lost Dauphin (Louis XVII), named so because of rumors regarding his uncertain demise during the infamous Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. Marie Antoinette is remembered for her legendary excesses, and for her death: she was executed by guillotine in 1793 for the crime of treason. In recent years some modern historians have attempted to exculpate her image; many of her excesses were common practices among other European royalty of that era; additionally, she displayed tremendous loyalty and courage during the dark and tempestuous days of the French Revolution. Childhood Marie Antoinette at the age of 12 Marie Antoinette (who was given the Latin baptismal name of Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna) was born at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. She was the fifteenth child, and eleventh (and last) daughter, of Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa. Her siblings included an older sister Maria Carolina of Austria, a younger brother Maximilian, and three older brothers Joseph, Leopold and Ferdinand Karl, all of whom had already begun to exert their influence over the Hapsburg Empire. Marie Antoinette's sisters were quickly married off to the heads of European royal houses—Maria Christina to the regent of the Austrian Netherlands; Maria Amalia to the prince of Parma; and her favorite sister, Maria Carolina, to King Ferdinand of Naples. In 1748, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed with.