The clusters themselves constitute events. They are discourse, not story. This is not an epistolary novel. At the end of the gathered letters, the author refers to his invitation, the one he issued her in one of the frames found at the beginning. She addresses him in a letter that encloses all the letters, that is, the materials he requested: What an unpleasant job, putting a correspondence together!
She comments on their probable reception: If the letters are seen as fictional, the persecutors will remain unscathed.
If they are accepted as true, her enemies will suffer punishment by public opinion at least. Allowing for both readings sustains the potential for their being taken as authentic and thus for affecting public opinion. Furthermore, by evoking the first possibility—fiction is harmless--this author shows sympathy for the family that is being attacked and so polishes the ethos she took pains to establish in the introductory paragraphs: Another practice that works to increase the impression of verity reveals itself in the formal complications of letters-within-letters, a long-standing feature of the genre.
Once again, and this time in the story, a letter serves as testimony.
Olympe de Gouges
This is a simple and interwoven example of letter as proof. At another moment, he includes one of his own, written previously to her but not sent, attaching it to a missive written afterwards and showing that he has given up the feelings of annoyance against her expressed in the earlier one. It augments verisimilitude and demonstrates relationships by multiplying moments lived and spaces occupied. Other kinds of density build plausibility-as-truth. One is that of framing the work several times, of creating multiple doorways into its several and heterogeneous parts.
The technique increases solemnity, the sense of inevitability and the gravity of what follows. The latter then writes to the count and presents herself as equivalent to a third author whose name is Mme de Valmont and who is yet another incarnation of authorial authority. At no moment is the audience allowed to lose sight of the layers of sponsorship and thus of control.
The several beings acting in story and discourse reinforce the import of the case and reinforce each other. Hydra-like de Gouges both speaks from more than one subject-position and fuses them into one complaint. Another density arises from repeated invitations to explain her case. The expressions of desire for it may work to justify its existence in this loose form. The author asks Mme de Valmont for it and verifies the request with the count.
In the first four letters, she causes herself to be invited to write and thus reinforces the impression of its inevitability. In the third letter, for example, the count adds his urging. In addition to deploying many voices and multiple moments, the brief will thus demonstrate exemplary agency: The author appears to hope for inspiration to come from the brief to be prepared by Mme de Valmont of whom she has shown herself to be the double. A third strategy permitted by the epistolary form as de Gouges employs it is its topicality.
She intends to attract and hold the public, and the broadest explicit appeal to an audience and to change occurs in the preface. There, she puts herself on stage as an orator and addresses all women. Although she does not write directly of the accusations she will make against her own family, she appeals to those whom she repeatedly calls her very dear sisters.
She urges them to act in solidarity with each other in favor of their gender, for the rights of women of all social classes. A further use of topical reference informs a long section employing a certain romanced or novel-like tone romanesque , a concept that had undergone melioration and so had gradually become a synonym for amusement instead of outrageous fantasy. The young marquis is fickle, as well as easy to trick, and exhibits characteristics shared by other heroes who seek pleasure without responsibility.
The episodes described and created exhibits disguise upon disguise in both story and discourse.
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This, the longest packet of epistles, might be looked upon as an inserted epistolary novel, referring as it does to the many games of love and war carried out by literary means and which were by the s very familiar to readers. In the hand of the second and last mystery-woman, his sister criticizes the young marquis for his impulsiveness. This voice of the latest object of his desires, whom he has just accused of tricking him, complains of his superficiality and inconstancy: Your spite and your anger are not the effect of love; it is rather humiliated self- regard that drives you to despair.
After her opening paragraph she proceeds to her declaration, which she asks be reviewed and decreed by the National Assembly in their next meeting. Her preamble explains that the reason for contemporary public misfortune and corrupt government is due to the oppression of women and their rights. The happiness and well-being of society would only be insured once the rights of women were equally important as those of men, especially in political institutions.
In her document Gouges establishes the rights of women on the basis of their equality to men: Gouges also promotes the rights of women by emphasizing differences women have to men; however, differences that men ought to respect and take notice of. She argues that women are superior in beauty as well as in courage during childbirth.
Addressing characteristics that set women apart from men, she adds what she probably thought was logical proof to her argument that men are not superior to women, and therefore, women are deserving at least of the same rights. Her declaration bears the same outline and context as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, but Gouges either changes the word "man" to "woman" or adds "for both women and men.
Mémoire de Madame de Valmont, 1788 : roman
A main difference between the two declarations is that the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen emphasizes the protection of the written "law" while the Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen emphasizes protection of the "law" and "Natural Laws. Article X contains the famous phrase: She modifies article XI to say that a woman has the right to give her children the name of their father even if they be out of wedlock or the father may have left her. Gouges is passionate about this because she believed that she herself was an illegitimate child.
In her postscript, Gouges exhorts women to wake up and discover that they have these rights. She assures them that reason is on their side. Gouges asks, "What have women gained from the French Revolution? She exclaims that women should no longer tolerate this, they should step up, take action, and demand the equal rights they deserve.
Gouges calls the notion that women are lesser beings an "out-of-date" concept. In this, she shows strongly her Enlightenment perspective—to break from old, illogical traditions that are now archaic. She asserts that to revoke women's right to partake in political life is also "out-of-date.
Her last paragraph is titled a "Social Contract between Men and Women. The wealth of a husband and wife should be distributed equally. Property should belong to both and to the children, whatever bed they come from. If they are divorced, their land should be divided equally. She called this the "marriage contract. Near the end of the contract, Gouges requests creation of a law to protect widows and girls from men who make false promises.
This, perhaps, is the most important issue she deals with in France. In the postscript section of her document, Gouges describes the consequences for a woman who is left by an unfaithful husband, who is widowed with no fortune to her name, and of young, inexperienced girls who are seduced by men who leave them with no money and no title for their children. Gouges therefore demands a law that will force an unfaithful or unscrupulous man to fulfill his obligations to such a woman, or to at least to pay a reimbursement equal to his wealth.
One of the last arguments in her document is directed to men who still see women as lesser beings: She wrote numerous other works, and the olympedegouges. Her texts chart her battles against injustice and inequality, her belief that solidarity and cooperation should predominate, her hatred of dictatorships and the corrupting influence of power, her profound pacifism, her respect for humankind, her love of nature, and, of course, her desire that women be allowed a worthwhile role in society.
She pleaded against slavery and the death penalty, dreamt of a more equal society and proposed intelligent taxation plans to enable wealth to be more fairly divided.
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She called for a form of welfare state, trial by jury and reasonable divorce laws to protect women and children from penury. Believing in the power of drama to encourage political change she wrote several plays that ingeniously highlight contemporary concerns. French Wikisource has original text related to this article: Olympe de Gouges Olympe de Gouges. Les trois urnes , the poster by Olympe de Gouges that led to her arrest and execution. The execution of Olympe de Gouges.
Pierre Aubry de Gouges. Olympe de Gouges, — Women, like men, obey this rigorous law. The law must only impose those penalties that are strictly and obviously necessary and no-one may be punished, except under the force of a valid law which was in force prior to the act, and which can be used legally against women.
Olympe De Gouges: Biography, Legacy, Writings, and a List of Books by Author Olympe De Gouges
The free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the most precious rights of woman, since that liberty assures recognition of children by their fathers. The guarantee of the rights of woman and the female citizen implies a major benefit; this guarantee must be instituted for the advantage of all, and not for the particular benefit of those to whom it is entrusted.
For the support of the public force and the expenses of administration, the contributions of woman and man are equal; she shares all the duties and all the painful tasks therefore, we must have the same share in the distribution of positions, employment, offices, honors, and jobs. Female and male citizens have the right to verify, either by themselves of through their representatives, the necessity of the public contribution. This can only apply to women if they are granted an equal share, not only of wealth, but also of public administration, and in the determination of the proportion, the base, the collection, and the duration of the tax.
The collectivity of women, joined for tax purposes to the aggregate of men, has the right to demand an accounting of his administration from any public agent. No society has a constitution without the guarantee of rights and the separation of powers; the constitution is null if the majority of individuals comprising the nation have not cooperated in drafting it.
Property belongs to both sexes whether united or separate; for each it is an inviolable and sacred right. No one can be deprived of it, since it is the true patrimony of nature, unless the legally determined public need obviously dictates it, and then only with a just and prior indemnity. The alarm bell of reason is making itself heard throughout the universe; recognize your rights. The powerful empire of nature is no longer beset by prejudices, fanaticism, superstition and lies.
The torch of truth has dispelled all clouds of stupidity and usurpation. The enslaved man multiplied his forces but has had to resort to yours to break his chains. Once free he became unjust to his female companion.