Was Marie Antoinette....?

Question

extremely sheltered, or do you feel she really didn't care about her people?

Answer 1

I think that during this point a lot of royalty was sheltered. They had no concept of what it was like in "the real world". I never like to justify anyones actions but I do beleive that Marie Antoinette and Anne Boylen each got the bad end of the deal.

The way I was taught was that when Marie Antoinette was told that the people didnt have enough flower to make bread, she told them to make cake...not knowing that cake was made from flour.
I am not sure if this is true (and I know it is not in the new movie), but I do think that through her upbrining and education she did not have a grasp on the everyday problems of the people.

Answer 2

she did care and her famous quote in English let them eat cake isn't as bad as it sounds , at the time the french lower classes obtained up to 90% of their calories from bread, she used a french word to indicate a sweet bread not technically a cake. It suited the revolutionaries to slander her which they did and you believe. She was Austrian and not french and used as women of the upper classes were as a tool for alliances , she had no say in her marriage and the french people hated her from the start without reason.
It is often assumed that even an absolute king rules without any check on his powers. in the case of the french king his tax base was constrained by the aristocracy , who he needed to rule and tradition, he did try to reform the tax system on a more equitable basis but was resisted at every turn. he tried to control the price of bread but that didn't work. As queen she did not have power and there was little she could do, the french economy was in trouble and the taxation system needed reform and the monarchy simply didn't have the power to do it

Answer 3

Oh girl, she's too sheltered! What a crazy beaicht! She is abusive of her husband's power. Now who wouldn't knw that cake is made out of flour?

Answer 4

extremely sheltered more than anything. it might be that she didnt care all that much about her people, but i think it was because of her lack of exposure to the "normal people". if someone told her that peasants were starving, she might have discarded that because she couldnt imagine someone starving when she always had food.

Answer 5

Probably a combination of both, the way she grew up and the enviroment in which she was raised made that when she was an adult she just didn't care.

Answer 6

extremely sheltered

Answer 7

a mixture of both. a bit arrogant but this is probably from being too sheltered.

Answer 8

She was ignorant and uninformed.

Answer 9

Just not too bright....