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Sheila Swain
Professor McLeod
Honors History 206
3 March 2005
Oral Presentation:
Charlotte Corday
Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont was born the fourth child of a noble, Norman family on July 27, 1768, in a village called Les Champeaux in France. As a child, she went to a Roman Catholic convent in Caen to be educated. While in the convent, she developed an interest in literature and enlightenment and she closely followed the events of the French Revolution, especially in those that occurred in Paris.
Charlotte Corday, often referred to as the Angel of Assassin, became legendary for the murder of Jean-Paul Marat, “the Friend of the People.” On July 13 in 1793, Corday visited Marat at his home in Paris and fatally stabbed him in the chest as he sat in his medicinal bath. Corday was immediately arrested, imprisoned, and put on trial. She confessed, and four days after the murder on July 17, 1793, she was guillotined in front of a large crowd of infuriated citizens.
Charlotte Corday strongly supported the moderate faction within the National Convention, known as the Girondins, and resented its opponents, a faction known as The Montagne. She viewed Jean-Paul Marat as the leader of the group and believed that he aspired to start a civil war in France. She despised him for his incessant demands for bloodshed and felt that if he ceased to urge the people of France to commit acts of violence, peace could be re-established. This hatred for Marat and his “constant cry for blood” motivated her to assassinate him in an attempt to save her country.
While in the Prison de l‘Abbaye awaiting execution, Corday wrote a lengthy letter to a friend named Barbaroux, a deputy to the National Convention. In the letter, which is headed “The second day of the Preparation of Peace,” Corday declares her hatred for Marat that peace in France should be restored by his death: “He was a furious beast, devouring the rest of France with the fire of civil war. Now, long live Peace…For two days I have been possessed inexpressibly by Peace; the happiness of my country is my own…” (Cher, 84). Her words in the letter illustrate that she believed Marat wanted and perpetuated a civil war in France and by killing him, she saved her country from certain destruction. Marat, responsible for not only the misfortunes in France, but also for the deaths of hundreds of people, needed to be stopped and it was her duty to stop him. He rallied people to revolt and told them that violence and murder would bring France freedom and concord, and she strongly opposed his ideas.
On the day she finished writing her letter to Barbaroux, July 16, 1798, she also wrote a short letter to her father in which she briefly defends her actions and says her goodbyes. In the letter she states, “I have avenged many innocent victims, I have prevented many other disasters. The day will come when the people, undeceived, will rejoice at being delivered from a tyrant…rejoice at my fate. The cause for which I die is a noble one” (Corday, 132). This shows that Corday believed the murder of Marat to be just: he encouraged rebellion and warfare among the people of France. She viewed him to be a preacher of hatred and unnecessary violence, a monstrous human being that personified evil and war. Her words, “I have prevented many other disasters,” confirms that she believed that killing him would end the violence and war in the Revolution and leave France in peace.
Charlotte Corday wanted peace in France and strongly believed that murdering Marat would bring an end to violence and war. She perceived Marat as an anarchist, a fiend who perpetuated a civil war in the country and the deaths of hundreds of people by the guillotine or other means for murder. The death of Marat would save France and she felt satisfaction rather than disgrace in her actions, as illustrated in a letter when she quotes a line from the playwright Corneille, “It is the crime that brings shame, and not the scaffold” (Corday, 135).
Works Cited
Charlotte Corday. 1996. Association Pays de Camembert Country.
24 Feb. 2005 .
Cher, Marie. Charlotte Corday and Certain Men of Revolutionary
Torment. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1929
Corday, Michel. Charlotte Corday. New York: E.P Dutton and Co., 1931.
Professor McLeod
Honors History 206
3 March 2005
Oral Presentation:
Charlotte Corday
Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont was born the fourth child of a noble, Norman family on July 27, 1768, in a village called Les Champeaux in France. As a child, she went to a Roman Catholic convent in Caen to be educated. While in the convent, she developed an interest in literature and enlightenment and she closely followed the events of the French Revolution, especially in those that occurred in Paris.
Charlotte Corday, often referred to as the Angel of Assassin, became legendary for the murder of Jean-Paul Marat, “the Friend of the People.” On July 13 in 1793, Corday visited Marat at his home in Paris and fatally stabbed him in the chest as he sat in his medicinal bath. Corday was immediately arrested, imprisoned, and put on trial. She confessed, and four days after the murder on July 17, 1793, she was guillotined in front of a large crowd of infuriated citizens.
Charlotte Corday strongly supported the moderate faction within the National Convention, known as the Girondins, and resented its opponents, a faction known as The Montagne. She viewed Jean-Paul Marat as the leader of the group and believed that he aspired to start a civil war in France. She despised him for his incessant demands for bloodshed and felt that if he ceased to urge the people of France to commit acts of violence, peace could be re-established. This hatred for Marat and his “constant cry for blood” motivated her to assassinate him in an attempt to save her country.
While in the Prison de l‘Abbaye awaiting execution, Corday wrote a lengthy letter to a friend named Barbaroux, a deputy to the National Convention. In the letter, which is headed “The second day of the Preparation of Peace,” Corday declares her hatred for Marat that peace in France should be restored by his death: “He was a furious beast, devouring the rest of France with the fire of civil war. Now, long live Peace…For two days I have been possessed inexpressibly by Peace; the happiness of my country is my own…” (Cher, 84). Her words in the letter illustrate that she believed Marat wanted and perpetuated a civil war in France and by killing him, she saved her country from certain destruction. Marat, responsible for not only the misfortunes in France, but also for the deaths of hundreds of people, needed to be stopped and it was her duty to stop him. He rallied people to revolt and told them that violence and murder would bring France freedom and concord, and she strongly opposed his ideas.
On the day she finished writing her letter to Barbaroux, July 16, 1798, she also wrote a short letter to her father in which she briefly defends her actions and says her goodbyes. In the letter she states, “I have avenged many innocent victims, I have prevented many other disasters. The day will come when the people, undeceived, will rejoice at being delivered from a tyrant…rejoice at my fate. The cause for which I die is a noble one” (Corday, 132). This shows that Corday believed the murder of Marat to be just: he encouraged rebellion and warfare among the people of France. She viewed him to be a preacher of hatred and unnecessary violence, a monstrous human being that personified evil and war. Her words, “I have prevented many other disasters,” confirms that she believed that killing him would end the violence and war in the Revolution and leave France in peace.
Charlotte Corday wanted peace in France and strongly believed that murdering Marat would bring an end to violence and war. She perceived Marat as an anarchist, a fiend who perpetuated a civil war in the country and the deaths of hundreds of people by the guillotine or other means for murder. The death of Marat would save France and she felt satisfaction rather than disgrace in her actions, as illustrated in a letter when she quotes a line from the playwright Corneille, “It is the crime that brings shame, and not the scaffold” (Corday, 135).
Works Cited
Charlotte Corday. 1996. Association Pays de Camembert Country.
24 Feb. 2005 .
Cher, Marie. Charlotte Corday and Certain Men of Revolutionary
Torment. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1929
Corday, Michel. Charlotte Corday. New York: E.P Dutton and Co., 1931.