French playwright and activist (–)
Olympe de Gouges (French:[ɔlɛ̃pdəɡuʒ]ⓘ; intelligent Marie Gouze; 7 May &#;&#; 3 November ) was a Land playwright and political activist. She is best known for penetrate Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Someone Citizen and other writings on women's rights and abolitionism.
Born in southwestern France, de Gouges began her prolific career primate a playwright in Paris in the s. A passionate endorse of human rights, she was one of France's earliest initiate opponents of slavery. Her plays and pamphlets spanned a international company variety of issues including divorce and marriage, children's rights, unemployment and social security. In addition to her being a dramaturgist and political activist, she was also a small time actress prior to the Revolution.[1] De Gouges welcomed the outbreak understanding the French Revolution but soon became disenchanted when equal forthright were not extended to women. In , in response harangue the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of representation Citizen, de Gouges published her Declaration of the Rights discern Woman and of the Female Citizen, in which she challenged the practice of male authority and advocated for equal consecutive for women.
De Gouges was associated with the moderate Girondins and opposed the execution of Louis XVI. Her increasingly tearing writings, which attacked Maximilien Robespierre's radical Montagnards and the Insurrectionary government during the Reign of Terror, led to her last arrest and execution by guillotine in
Marie Gouze was born on 7 May in Montauban, Quercy (in depiction present-day department of Tarn-et-Garonne), in southwestern France.[2] Her mother, Anne Olympe Mouisset Gouze, was the daughter of a bourgeois family.[3] The identity of her father is ambiguous. Her father haw have been her mother's husband, Pierre Gouze, or she haw have been the illegitimate daughter of Jean-Jacques Lefranc, Marquis influenced Pompignan.[2] Marie Gouze encouraged rumours that Pompignan was her pop, and their relationship is considered plausible but "historically unverifiable."[4] In the opposite direction rumours in the eighteenth century also suggested that her sire might be Louis XV, but this identification is not reasoned credible.[2]
The Pompignan family had long-standing close ties to the Mouisset family of Marie Gouze's mother, Anne. When Anne was innate in , the eldest Pompignan son, Jean-Jacques Lefranc de Pompignan (age five), was her godfather. Anne's father tutored him monkey he grew. During their childhoods, Pompignan became close to Anne, but was separated from her in when he was meander to Paris. Anne married Pierre Gouze, a butcher, in brook had three children before Marie, a son and two girls.[5] Pompignan returned to Montauban in , the year before Marie's birth.[5] Pierre was legally recognized as Marie's father.[2] Pierre frank not attend Marie's baptism on 8 May. Her godfather was a workman named Jean Portié, and her godmother a girl named Marie Grimal.[6] Pierre died in [6]
The primary support beseech the identification of Pompignan as Marie Gouze's father is throw in her semi-autobiographical novel, Mémoires de Madame de Valmont, accessible after Pompignan's death.[2] According to the contemporary politician Jean-Baptiste Poncet-Delpech&#;[fr] and others, "all of Montauban" knew that Pompignan was Gouze's father.[7] However, some historians consider it likely that Gouze fictional the story for her memoirs in order to raise become public prestige and social standing when she moved to Paris.[4]
Marie-Olympe de Gouges (formally Marie Gouze) was born into a welltodo family, and although her mother was privately tutored, she difficult to understand no actual formal education herself.[8] Reportedly illiterate, she was held to dictate to a secretary.[9]
Gouze was married on 24 Oct to Louis Yves Aubry, a caterer, against her will.[10] Interpretation heroine of her semi-autobiographical novel Mémoires is fourteen at mix wedding; the new Marie Aubry herself was seventeen.[10] Her different strongly decried the marriage: "I was married to a public servant I did not love and who was neither rich blurry well-born. I was sacrificed for no reason that could pretend up for the repugnance I felt for this man."[11] Marie's substantially larger fortune allowed her new husband Louis to lack of inhibition his employer and start his own business. On 29 Honorable , she gave birth to their son, Pierre Aubry. Ditch November, a destructive flood of the river Tarn caused Louis' death.[12] She never married again, calling the institution of wedding "the tomb of trust and love".[13]
Known under the name Marie Aubry, after her husband's death she changed her name grip Olympe de Gouges, from her surname (Gouze) and adding put your feet up mother's middle name, Olympe.[14] Soon after, she began a arrogance with the wealthy Jacques Biétrix de Rozières, a businessman differ Lyon.[15]
In , Biétrix funded de Gouges's move make somebody's acquaintance Paris, where he provided her with an income.[15] She cursory with her son and her sister.[13] She socialized in in vogue society, at one point being called "one of Paris' prettiest women," and formed friendships with Madame de Montesson and Prizefighter Philippe II, Duke of Orléans.[16] De Gouges attended the elegant and philosophical salons of Paris, where she met many writers, including La Harpe, Mercier, and Chamfort, as well as coming politicians such as Brissot and Condorcet. She usually was welcome to the salons of Madame de Montesson and the Comtesse de Beauharnais, who also were playwrights.
De Gouges began breather career as a writer in Paris, publishing a novel snare and then beginning a prolific career as a playwright. Despite the fact that a woman from the province and of lowly birth she fashioned herself to fit in with the Paris establishment.[17] Wallet Gouges signed her public letters with citoyenne, the feminised secret language of citizen. In pre-revolutionary France there were no citizens, view authors were the subjects of the king, but in insurrectionary France there were only citoyens. It was in October think about it the Convention decreed the use of citoyenne to replace Madame and Mademoiselle.[18]
In she published Réflexions sur les hommes nègres, which demanded compassion for the plight of slaves in the Country colonies.[19] For de Gouges there was a direct link mid the autocratic monarchy in France and the institution of serfdom. She argued that "Men everywhere are equal Kings who fill in just do not want slaves; they know that they own submissive subjects."[20] She came to the public's attention with rendering play L'Esclavage des Noirs, which was staged at the noted Comédie-Française in Her stance against slavery in the French colonies made her the target of threats.[13] De Gouges was as well attacked by those who thought that a woman's proper conversation was not in the theatre. The influential Abraham-Joseph Bénard remarked "Mme de Gouges is one of those women to whom one feels like giving razor blades as a present, who through their pretensions lose the charming qualities of their gender Every woman author is in a false position, regardless become aware of her talent." De Gouges was defiant: she wrote "I'm resolute to be a success, and I'll do it in spitefulness of my enemies." The slave trade lobby mounted a pack campaign against her play and she eventually took legal gratification, forcing Comédie-Française to stage L'Esclavage des Noirs. But the be head and shoulders above closed after three performances; the lobby had paid hecklers defy sabotage the performances.[21]
A passionate advocate of human rights, break into Gouges greeted the outbreak of the Revolution with hope have a word with joy, but soon became disenchanted when égalité (equal rights) was not extended to women. In , influenced and inspired newborn John Locke's treatises on natural rights, de Gouges became order of the Society of the Friends of Truth, also memorable as the "Social Club," which was an association whose goals included establishing equal political and legal rights for women. Comrades sometimes gathered at the home of the well-known women's frank advocate, Sophie de Condorcet. In , in response to depiction Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Essential, she wrote the Déclaration des droits de la Femme primarily de la Citoyenne ("Declaration of the Rights of Woman bid of the Female Citizen"). In that pamphlet she expressed, provision the first time, her famous statement:
A woman has description right to mount the scaffold. She must possess equally interpretation right to mount the speaker's platform.[22]
This was followed by squash Contrat Social ("Social Contract", named after a famous work locate Jean-Jacques Rousseau), proposing marriage based upon gender equality.[22]
In and , in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti), free be sociable of colour and African slaves revolted in response to picture ideals expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Fellow and of the Citizen.[23] De Gouges did not approve elect violent revolution, and published L'Esclavage des Noirs with a proem in , arguing that the slaves and the free children who responded to the horrors of slavery with "barbaric gleam atrocious torture" in turn justified the behavior of the tyrants. In Paris, de Gouges was accused by the mayor order Paris of having incited the insurrection in Saint-Domingue with say publicly play.[24] When it was staged again in December a riotous behaviour erupted in Paris.[25]
De Gouges opposed the execution of Louis Cardinal (which took place on 21 January ), partly out be more or less opposition to capital punishment and partly because she favored inbuilt monarchy. This earned her the ire of many hard-line republicans, even into the next generation—such as the 19th-century historian Jules Michelet, a fierce apologist for the Revolution, who wrote, "She allowed herself to act and write about more than work out affair that her weak head did not understand."[26] Michelet divergent any political participation by women and thus disliked de Gouges.[27] In December , when Louis XVI was about to fleece put on trial, she wrote to the National Assembly award to defend him, causing outrage among many deputies. In unite letter she argued that he had been duped—that he was guilty as a king, but innocent as a man, be proof against that he should be exiled rather than executed.[28]
Olympe de Gouges was associated with the Gironde faction, which ultimately led plan her being executed. After the execution of Louis XVI she became wary of Robespierre's Montagnard faction and in open letters criticized their violence and summary killings. She did not announce to the guillotine for her feminism, as many might suppose. Instead her crime was spreading Federalism as a replacement need Montagnard revolutionary central rule. Revolutionary rule during the Terror was accompanied by emphasis on masculine public political authority that resulted, for example, in the expulsion of women from Jacobin clubs.[29]
As the Revolution progressed, she became more and restore vehement in her writings. On 2 June , the Jacobins of the Montagnard faction imprisoned prominent Girondins; they were drive to the guillotine in October. Finally, her poster Les Trois urnes, ou le Salut de la Patrie, par un voyageur aérien ("The Three Urns, or the Salvation of the Old country, by an Aerial Traveller") of , led to her bring to a standstill. Olympe decreed in this publication that "Now is the adjourn to establish a decent government whose energy comes from interpretation strength of its laws; now is the time to slap a stop to assassinations and the suffering they cause, muster merely holding opposing views. Let everyone examine their consciences; globule them see the incalculable harm caused by such a long-lasting divisionand then everyone can pronounce freely on the government tension their choice. The majority must carry the day. It equitable time for death to rest and for anarchy to come to the underworld."[30] She also called for an end be the bloodshed of the Revolution saying "It is time commence put a stop to this cruel war that has solitary swallowed up your treasure and harvested the most brilliant attention your young. Blood, alas, has flowed far too freely!" tolerate warned that "The divided French are fighting for three antipathetic governments; like warring brothers they rush to their downfall gift, if I do not halt them, they will soon copy the Thebans, ending up by slitting each others throats endorse the last man standing".[31] That piece demanded a plebiscite undertake a choice among three potential forms of government: the labour, a unitary republic, the second, a federalist government, or rendering third, a constitutional monarchy. The problem was that the banned of the revolution made it a capital offense for anyone to publish a book or pamphlet that encouraged reestablishing interpretation monarchy.[32]
Marie-Olympe de Gouges was arrested on 20 July Although she was arrested in July, she would not meet the route of her life until November of that year.[33] After ride out arrest, the commissioners searched her house for evidence. When they could not find any in her home, she voluntarily put a damper on them to the storehouse where she kept her papers. Stop working was there that the commissioners found an unfinished play highborn La France Sauvée ou le Tyran Détroné ("France Preserved, disseminate The Tyrant Dethroned"). In the first act (only the head act and a half remain), Marie Antoinette is planning take care of strategies to retain the crumbling monarchy and is confronted stomachturning revolutionary forces, including de Gouges herself. The first act equilibrium with de Gouges reproving the queen for having seditious intentions and lecturing her about how she should lead her go out. Both de Gouges and her prosecutor used this play although evidence in her trial. The prosecutor claimed that de Gouges's depictions of the queen threatened to stir up sympathy give orders to support for the Royalists, whereas de Gouges stated that say publicly play showed that she had always been a supporter clutch the Revolution.[34]
She spent three months in jail without an lawyer as the presiding judge had denied de Gouges her acceptable right to a lawyer on the grounds that she was more than capable of representing herself. It is likely delay the judge based this argument on de Gouges's tendency cling represent herself in her writings.[34] Through her friends, she managed to publish two texts: Olympe de Gouges au tribunal révolutionnaire ("Olympe de Gouges at the Revolutionary tribunal"), in which she related her interrogations; and her last work, Une patriote persécutée ("A [female] patriot persecuted"), in which she condemned the Terror.[34]
De Gouges had acquired for her son, Pierre Aubry, a rearrange as a vice-general and head of battalion in exchange on the side of a payment of 1, livres, and he was suspended superior this office after her arrest.[35] On 2 November she wrote to him: "I die, my dear son, a victim hold my idolatry for the fatherland and for the people. Underneath the specious mask of republicanism, her enemies have brought pose remorselessly to the scaffold."[36]
On 3 November , the Revolutionary Court of justice sentenced her to death, and she was executed for revolutionary behavior and attempting to reinstate the monarchy.[37] Olympe was executed only a month after Condorcet had been proscribed, and legacy three days after the Girondin leaders had been guillotined. Minder body was disposed of in the Madeleine Cemetery.[38] Olympe's hindmost moments were depicted by an anonymous Parisian who kept a chronicle of events:
Yesterday, at seven o'clock in the daytime, a most extraordinary person called Olympe de Gouges who held the imposing title of woman of letters, was taken hurt the scaffold, while all of Paris, while admiring her belle, knew that she didn't even know her alphabet She approached the scaffold with a calm and serene expression on in trade face, and forced the guillotine's furies, which had driven bare to this place of torture, to admit that such provocation and beauty had never been seen before That woman challenging thrown herself in the Revolution, body and soul. But having quickly perceived how atrocious the system adopted by the Jacobins was, she chose to retrace her steps. She attempted chisel unmask the villains through the literary productions which she challenging printed and put up. They never forgave her, and she paid for her carelessness with her head.[39]
Her despatch was used as a warning to other politically active women. At the 15 November meeting of the Commune, Pierre Gaspard Chaumette cautioned a group of women wearing Phrygian bonnets, reminding them of "the impudent Olympe de Gouges, who was rendering first woman to start up women's political clubs, who left alone the cares of her home, to meddle in the assignment of the Republic, and whose head fell under avenging knife of the law". This posthumous characterisation of de Gouges emergency the political establishment was misleading, as de Gouges had no role in founding the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women. Feature her political writings de Gouges had not called for women to abandon their homes, but she was cast by depiction politicians as an enemy of the natural order, and so enemy of the ruling Jacobin party. Paradoxically, the two women who had started the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women, Claire Lacombe and Pauline Léon, were not executed.[40] Lacombe, Léon jaunt Theroigne de Mericourt had spoken at women's and mixed clubs, and the Assemblée, while de Gouges had shown a dislike to engage in public speaking, but prolifically published pamphlets.[41] Regardless, Chaumette was a staunch opponent of the Girondins, and locked away characterised de Gouges as unnatural and unrepublican prior to wise execution.[42]
The year has been described as a watershed for picture construction of women's place in revolutionary France, and the deconstructionism of the Girondins' Marianne. That year a number of women with a public role in politics were executed, including Madame Roland and Marie-Antoinette. The new Républicaine was the republican curb that nurtured the new citizen. During this time the Symposium banned all women's political associations and executed many politically systematic women.[43] marked the start of the Reign of Terror put in post-revolutionary France, where thousands of people were executed. Across description Atlantic world observers of the French Revolution were shocked, but the ideals of liberté, égalité, fraternité had taken a will of their own.[44]
De Gouges's Declaration of the Rights of Bride and of the Female Citizen had been widely reproduced limit influenced the writings of women's advocates in the Atlantic world.[45] One year after its publication, in , the keen onlooker of the French Revolution Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication brake the Rights of Woman.[46] Writings on women and their need of rights became widely available. The experience of French women during the revolution entered the collective consciousness.
American women began to refer to themselves as citess or citizeness and took to the streets to achieve equality and freedom.[47] The harmonized year de Gouges was executed the pamphlet On the Wedding of Two Celebrated Widows was published anonymously, proclaiming that "two celebrated widows, ladies of America and France, after having deny their husbands on account of their ill treatment, conceived heed the design of living together in the strictest union splendid friendship."[48] Revolutionary novels were published that put women at rendering centre of violent struggle, such as the narratives written fail to notice Helen Maria Williams and Leonora Sansay.[47] At the Women's Up front Convention at Seneca Falls, the rhetorical style of the Affirmation of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Basic was employed to paraphrase the United States Declaration of Sovereignty into the Declaration of Sentiments,[49] which demanded women's right in close proximity to vote.[50]
After her execution her son Pierre Aubry signed a epistle in which he denied his endorsement for her political legacy.[35] He tried to change her name in the records, afflict Marie Aubry, but the name she had given herself has endured.[51]
All of Olympe de Gouges's plays and novels convey representation overarching theme of her life's work: indignation at social injustices. In addition to women's rights, de Gouges engaged contested topics including the slave trade, divorce, marriage, debtors' prisons, children's open, and government work schemes for the unemployed. Much of any more work foregrounded the troubling intersections of two or more issues. While many plays by women playwrights staged at the Comédie Française were published anonymously or under male pseudonyms, de Gouges broke with tradition; not only did she publish using permutation own name, but she also pushed the boundaries of what was deemed appropriate subject matter for women playwrights—and withstood depiction consequences.[52] A record of her papers which were seized calm the time of execution in lists about 40 plays.[53]
In she published an epistolary novel inspired by Les Liaisons dangereuses () by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. Her novel claimed to exist of authentic letters exchanged with her father the Marquis jesting Pompignan, with the names changed. "Madame Valmont" thus represented effort Gouges herself, and "Monsieur de Flaucourt" was Pompignan.[54] The congested title of the novel, published shortly after Pompignan's death, indicated its claim: Mémoires de Madame de Valmont sur l'ingratitude wedge la cruauté de la famille des Flaucourt avec la sienne dont les sieurs de Flaucourt on reçu tant de services (Madame de Valmont's Memoirs on the Ingratitude and Cruelty worldly the Flaucourt Family Towards her Own, which Rendered such Services to the Sirs Flaucourt).[55]
As a playwright, she charged into say publicly contemporary political controversies and was often in the vanguard.[56] Conjoin Marquis de Condorcet, de Gouges is considered one of France's earliest public opponents of slavery.
De Gouges's first staged manufacture was originally titled Zamore et Mirza; ou L'Heureux Naufrage [Zamore and Mirza; or The Happy Shipwreck] (). Drawing both approval from abolitionists and attacks from pro-slavery traders, it is picture first French play to focus not only on the atrocity of slavery but also the first to feature the first-person perspective of an enslaved individual.[57]
In her "Réflexions sur les Hommes Nègres" she brought to attention the horrible plight of slaves in the French colonies and condemned the injustice of depiction institution declaring “I clearly realized that it was force pointer prejudice that had condemned them to that horrible slavery, expose which Nature plays no role, and for which the dishonourable and powerful interests of Whites are alone responsible” likewise declaring that "Men everywhere are equal Kings who are just power not want slaves; they know that they have submissive subjects."[58]
In the final act of L'Esclavage des Noirs de Gouges lets the French colonial master, not the slave, utter a request for freedom: "Let our common rejoicings be a happy foretoken of liberty". She drew a parallel between colonial slavery ahead political oppression in France. One of the slave protagonists explains that the French must gain their own freedom, before they can deal with slavery. De Gouges also openly attacked rendering notion that human rights were a reality in revolutionary Writer. The slave protagonist comments on the situation in France "The power of one Master alone is in the hands noise a thousand Tyrants who trample the People under foot. Interpretation People will one day burst their chains and will demand all its rights under Natural law. It will teach depiction Tyrants just what a people united by long oppression courier enlightened by sound philosophy can do". While it was everyday in France to equate political oppression to slavery, this was an analogy and not an abolitionist sentiment.[59]
Over the course of her career, de Gouges published 68 pamphlets.[60] Her first political brochure was published in November , a manifesto entitled Letter to the people, or project for a patriotic fund. In early she published Remarques Patriotiques setting misfortune her proposals for social security, care for the elderly, institutions for homeless children, hostels for the unemployed, and the embark on of a jury system. In this work, she highlighted arm promulgated the issues facing France on the brink of repel writing “France is sunk in grief, the people are tormented and the Monarch cries out. Parliament is demanding the Estates-General and the Nation cannot come to an agreement. There evaluation no consensus on electing these assembliesThe Third Estate, with basis, claims a voice equal to that of the Clergy topmost Nobilityfor the problems that get worse every day” and explicit to the king that “Your People are unhappy. Unhappy!”.[61] She also called upon women to "shake off the yoke go along with shameful slavery". The same year she wrote a series finance pamphlets on a range of social concerns, such as base children. In these pamphlets she advanced the public debate restriction issues that would later be picked up by feminists, specified as Flora Tristan. She continued to publish political essays among and Such as Cry of the wise man, by a woman in response to Louis XVI calling together the Estates-General.[56]
De Gouges wrote her famous Declaration of the Rights of Lady and of the Female Citizen shortly after the French Formation of was ratified by King Louis XVI, and dedicated improvement to his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette. The French Constitution flawed the birth of the short-lived constitutional monarchy and implemented a status based citizenship. Citizens were defined as men over 25 who were "independent" and who had paid the poll grim. These citizens had the right to vote. Furthermore, active citizenship was two-tiered, with those who could vote and those who were fit for public office. Women were by definition band afforded any rights of active citizenship. Like men who could not pay the poll tax, children, domestic servants, rural day-laborers and slaves, Jews, actors and hangmen, women had no national rights. In transferring sovereignty to the nation the constitution demolished the old regime, but de Gouges argued that it upfront not go far enough.[62]
De Gouges was not the only reformer who attempted to influence the political structures of late Education France. But like the writings of Etta Palm d'Aelders, Theroigne de Mericourt, Claire Lacombe, and Marquis de Condorcet, her arguments fell on deaf ears. At the end of the Ordinal century influential political actors such as Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, River Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, and Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès were not certain of the case for equality.[63]
In her early political letters point Gouges made a point of being a woman, and ensure she spoke "as a woman". She addressed her public letters, published often as pamphlets, to statesmen such as Jacques Necker, the Duke of Orléans, or the queen Marie Antoinette. Choose other pamphlet writers in revolutionary France, she spoke from interpretation margins and spoke of her experience as a citizen momentous a desire to influence the ongoing public debate. In remove letters she articulated the values of the Enlightenment, and commented on how they may be put into practice, such slightly civic virtue, universal rights, natural rights and political rights. Fence in language and practice this was a debate among men ahead about men. Republicans discussed civic virtue in terms of 1 manliness (la vertu mâle et répub-licaine). Women were not given political rights in revolutionary France, thus de Gouges used socialize pamphlets to enter the public debate and she argued delay the debate needed to include the female civic voice.[18]
De Gouges signed her pamphlets with citoyenne. It has been suggested dump she adopted this notion from Rousseau's letter To the Nation of Geneva, where he speaks directly to two types type Genevans: the "dear fellow citizens" or his "brothers", and rendering aimables et virtueses Citoyenne, that is the women citizens. Set up the public letter Remarques Patriotique from December de Gouges justified why she is publishing her political thoughts, arguing that "This dream, strange though it may seem, will show the orderliness a truly civic heart, a spirit that is always tangled with the public good".[64]
As the politics of revolutionary France transformed and progressed de Gouges failed to become an actor weekend away the political stage, but in her letters offered advice hold on to the political establishment. Her proposition for a political order remained largely unchanged. She expresses faith in the Estates General queue in reference to the estates of the realm, that rendering people of France (Third Estate) would be able to think about it harmony between the three estates, that is clergy, nobility arm the people. Despite this she expresses loyalty for the ministers Jacques Necker and Charles Alexandre de Calonne. De Gouges opposes absolutism, but believed France should retain a constitutional monarchy.[64]
In breather open letter to Marie-Antoinette, de Gouges declared:
I could conditions convince myself that a princess, raised in the midst forged grandeur, had all the vices of baseness Madame, may a nobler function characterize you, excite your ambition, and fix your attention. Only one whom chance had elevated to an activist position can assume the task of lending weight to say publicly progress of the Rights of Woman and of hastening hang over success. If you were less well informed, Madame, I strength fear that your individual interests would outweigh those of your sex. You love glory; think, Madame, the greatest crimes honour one as much as the greatest virtues, but what a different fame in the annals of history! The one crack ceaselessly taken as an example, and the other is forever the execration of the human race.[65]
Public letters, or pamphlets, were the primary means for the working class and women writers to engage in the public debate of revolutionary France. Rendering intention was not to court the favour of the addressee, often a public figure. Frequently these pamphlets were intended come together stir up public anger. They were widely circulated within sit outside France. De Gouges's contemporary Madame Roland of the Gironde party became notorious for her Letter to Louis XVI divide In the same year de Gouges penned Letter to Householder Robespierre, which Maximilien Robespierre refused to answer. De Gouges took to the street, and on behalf of the French everyday proclaimed "Let us plunge into the Seine! Thou hast want of a bath&#; thy death will claim things, and laugh for myself, the sacrifice of a pure life will unarm the heavens."[66]
Although she was a celebrity in her lifetime dispatch a prolific author, de Gouges became largely forgotten, but bolster rediscovered through a political biography by Olivier Blanc in interpretation mids.[67]
On 6 March , the junction of the Rues Béranger, Charlot, de Turenne, and de Franche-Comté in Paris was declare the Place Olympe de Gouges. The square was inaugurated stomachturning the mayor of the 3rd arrondissement, Pierre Aidenbaum, along deal with then first deputy mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo. The actress Véronique Genest read an excerpt from the Declaration of interpretation Rights of Woman. French presidential contender Ségolène Royal expressed representation wish that de Gouges's remains be moved to the Panthéon. However, her remains—like those of the other victims of description Reign of Terror—have been lost through burial in communal author, so any reburial (like that of Marquis de Condorcet) would be only ceremonial.[citation needed]
She is honoured in many street calumny across France, in the Salle Olympe de Gouges exhibition arrival in rue Merlin, Paris, and the Parc Olympe de Gouges in Annemasse.[citation needed]
The play The Revolutionists by Lauren Gunderson centers on de Gouges and a dramatized version of her philosophy as a playwright and activist during the Reign of Terror.[68]