What's the big deal about Marie Antoinette's famous misquote, "Let them eat cake"?

Question

I don't get what the big fuss is all about. What is it supposed to mean?

Answer 1

France was starving, literally. The poor complained to her that there was no flour left for bread and they were starving.

She was rich and therefore had all the flour she needed.

Her reply to their request was essentually, if there is no bread, "Than let them eat cake," thus it is sarcastic since cake requires flour too.

He response showed a callous indifference to the suffering of millions.

That's why it is such a big deal.

Answer 2

The last gentleman said it was sarcasm. No. It was monarchy idiocy. There is no proof or real account that she even said it. All accounts that say she did say it are right on track with what the other answerer said.

In essence, the quote is used to symbolize that government, particularly the Hapsburgs who ruled most of Central Europe at the time through one family member or another, did not understand the plight of the common man. The monarchy did not realize how poor and destitute most of society, aside from the aristocracy, really was.

Answer 3

She never said it....anyway. If the poor have no bread to eat, how in the world will they afford cake? I believe it was her rash assumption that everyone had the riches of the royal family, and her overlooking of poverty-stricken France, that brought the French Revolution on.

Answer 4

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Charles Dickens novel describes the french revolution as a horrible time when people would lick wine off the streets just to have some form of food and drink. For her to have allegedly said such a comment showed insensitivity on her part.

Answer 5

She did not say that.