Although it was true that the French Revolution of 1789 began because of economic, political, and social troubles for the masses, there were particular people who helped fuel the movement by increasing the anger of the French people. One of these people was Queen Marie Antoinette, who had become one of the most hated people in France by the time the Revolution came.

Marie Antoinette was born to the great Austrian empress Maria Theresa on November 2, 1755. As a young teenager, she was obliged to wed Louis XVI of France to symbolize an alliance made between Austria and France. Ironically, in the beginning of her marriage to the dauphin (the prince), Marie Antoinette was much loved by the French people for her kindness to peasants and her willingness to interact with her subjects. When Louis went hunting, peasants were sometimes trampled or accidentally shot. Antoinette, who was usually following in her separate coach, would always stop to help the injured person and even take him back to the palace to be treated. Antoinette was also known to dress up in rags and mill around the French streets with her friends, exploring what it felt like to be a commoner. Most people knew it was her, but they were happy that she was getting in touch with her future subjects so many played along. Yet, hatred arose in a seemingly acceptive society, and it did not emerge without reason.

As a queen, Antoinette was very discriminating about whom she stayed in close contact. She had a very close group of friends whom she often invited to the Trianon, her small house on the property of Versailles. By being so exclusive, Antoinette alienated many of the Court members. Angered, they soon began searching for ways to cause the downfall of the Queen. Antoinette had many faults to be revealed to the masses via numerous pamphlets, magazines, and brochures filled with degrading songs, poems, and cartoons.

Antoinette had many lovers outside her marriage. She was commonly called "the Austrian whore" for the countless men she entertained - from Arthur Dillon, the Duc de Lauzun, and Axel von Fersen, to the Baron de Besenval, the Prince de Ligne, and the Comte de Vaudreuil. "Antoinette even confessed herself that she led the life of 'a despicable prostitute': She spent the night before the coronation in 1775 on the Porte Neuve at Reims, an 'islet of love,' dressed as a Bacchante, copulating for three hours with a selected 'Hercules.' She learned new positions from the Comte d’Artois at the Trianon, and she experimented with her ladies of the household" (Schama, 225). In the defaming publications, Antoinette was portrayed as a sexual monster. As this fault became known to the masses, the Queen’s popularity rapidly decreased.

To the people, another infuriating shortcoming was Antoinette’s frivolous spending habits. They saw her as the bottomless pit where all their hard work and taxes disappeared, and they subsequently called her "Madame Deficit." The Queen was constantly buying numerous chateaux, clothing, and jewels. She never ceased to spoil her favorite circle of friends. Antoinette also had an almost uncontrollable love for gambling, which did not stop until she realized that she was spending money that she did not have. While the commoners stood in bread lines praying for food, they cursed the Queen who was living so comfortably in her grand palace. Widespread discontent resulted: in 1787 a painting of the Queen was not exhibited in the Salon in fear of violent antagonistic demonstrations. After this, Antoinette rarely went to the theater, and in the few occasions when she did, she was greeted with such loud hisses that she made sure to stay away in the future. Court members now showed their disgust with her openly, instead of hiding their true feelings. Antoinette was only left to ask, "What do they want of me? . . . What harm have I done to them?"

Pamphlets flooded the streets of Paris filled with harsh slander: "Our lascivious Queen, With Artois the Debauched, Together with no trouble, Commit the sweet sin, But what of it, How could one find harm in that? This fine pair, Have certainly convinced us, That the great King of France, Is a perfect cuckold, But what of it, How could one find harm in that?" (Schama, 221). Simulations of an autobiography of the Queen also proliferated the streets of Paris in 1781, 1783, and 1793 which included the degrading words:

This statement along with many other remarks made the Queen appear as a spendthrift whore who would stop at nothing to satisfy her appetites. Paris was full of grim accounts of Antoinette and her loathsome amusements.

Old stories of orgies in the gardens of Versailles were revived along with an alleged plot to make an alcoholic of her husband so that she and her lovers could deceive him more easily. References to "Madame Deficit," "the Austrian bitch," and "the Austrian whore" were everywhere. Cartoonists even ridiculed the overweight Louis XVI and his frivolous wife, portraying them gorging themselves at a sumptuous banquet while all around them their pinch-faced subjects held their empty stomachs and gazed hungrily at the food. Spiteful images of the Queen, emphasizing her long nose, sharp dark eyebrows, fat chin, and chubby cheeks, were posted all around the capital. She was described as faithless to her husband, cruel to her people, consumed by lust, and devoured by greed. One pamphlet called her "the Iscariot of France," and another said, "This Persophone wears the redoubtable head-dress of the Fourteenth Apostle , of the same character of Judas" (Schama, 229). In the propaganda, she is shown dipping her claws into a plate to steal and waste the treasures of France. She has hard eyes, traitorous and blazing, and flame and carnage are released from her nose. Her nose and cheeks are covered in pimples and colored slightly purple from tainted blood, and her mouth holds a disgusting tongue.

In 1789, when Antoinette was brought out to stand in front of hundreds of her subjects who were standing in the palace courtyards waiting to take her to Paris, they yelled, "There she is, the damned whore!" or "We want her head, never mind the body!" Through much propaganda, the French people had learned to despise the Queen they had once loved as a dauphine, and they now wished to persecute her until her death.

Marie Antoinette was a scapegoat during the years leading up to the French Revolution. Her reputation for infidelity and wastefulness was used by her enemies to infuriate the masses against the monarchy. She had been made a symbol of hatred to all of France. It is true that Antoinette did not deserve the degree of abuse she received from her subjects for she was not completely guilty of all wrongdoing - during her reign she continued to allow commoners to roam the royal lands, she supported various charities and helped many impoverished children obtain an education. Despite this, Antoinette could not erase her mistakes because the damage had already been done. She ultimately created her own demise.

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