Character Catalog

Founding text of feminism, written as a mirror of the Declaration of the Rights of Man of 1789. Olympe de Gouges proclaims the equality of rights between men and women and demands women's access to political citizenship.

Anti-slavery play performed at the Comédie-Française, denouncing the slave trade and slavery in the French colonies. One of the first openly abolitionist dramatic works in France.

Militant pamphlet in favor of the abolition of slavery, published the year preceding the Revolution. It bears witness to Olympe de Gouges's early commitment to the rights of oppressed peoples.

Philosophical novel in which Olympe de Gouges defends women's rights and criticizes social inequalities through a fictional narrative of Oriental inspiration, a fashionable genre in the 18th century.

Prefatory text of the Declaration addressed to Marie-Antoinette, in which Olympe de Gouges calls upon the queen to support the cause of women and to use her influence in favor of equality.

Last text written shortly before her execution, in which she reaffirms her convictions and her fidelity to her ideals of freedom and equality in the face of the death that awaits her.

Woman is born free and remains equal to man in rights. Social distinctions can only be founded on the common good.

Madame, little accustomed to the language used to Kings, I will not employ the flattery of courtiers to address this work to you. My aim is to speak to you frankly.

Laws were made by men alone, and they have always sought to enslave women, as though they had not been created to share their virtues and their glory.

I die, my fellow citizens, a victim of my passion for the fatherland and for the people. Its enemies, wearing a hypocritical mask, have led me to the grave.

A town in southwestern France where Marie Gouze was born in 1748. She spent her early years there before forging a new identity in Paris.

A hub of political and cultural life where revolutionaries, philosophers, and men of letters gathered. Olympe de Gouges frequented this neighborhood to spread her ideas and meet influential figures.

The national theatre where Olympe de Gouges's anti-slavery play 'L'Esclavage des Noirs' was performed in 1789, after years of resistance from the colonial lobby.

The site where Olympe de Gouges was guillotined on November 3, 1793, during the Reign of Terror. It was also where Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette had been executed.

The meeting place of the Constituent Assembly and later the National Convention. Olympe de Gouges submitted her petitions and her Declaration of the Rights of Woman to its members, none of which were ever debated.

The daily tool of Olympe de Gouges, who wrote dozens of pamphlets, plays, and political declarations. Her written output is remarkable for a woman who had learned to read and write late in life.

Pamphlets and newspapers circulated widely during the Revolution. Olympe de Gouges published her political texts and declarations in them, reaching a broad audience across Paris.

Olympe de Gouges used public posting to spread her political ideas through the streets of Paris. It was precisely one of these posters proposing a vote on the form of government that prompted her arrest in 1793.

Women involved in the Revolution often wore outfits in tricolour colours or adorned with cockades. Olympe de Gouges attended clubs and revolutionary gatherings dressed according to the codes of her era.

Olympe de Gouges literally took this founding text and rewrote it article by article to include women, thereby creating her own Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen.

Lighting in the 18th century relied on candles and oil lamps. Olympe de Gouges often wrote her many texts at night, in her Parisian apartment.