Charlotte Corday (play)

Research Status: Moderate Last Updated: 2025-01-23 Diary Coverage: Up to 1880-11-05

"Charlotte Corday" was a theatrical production that Marie attended with Saint-Amand on the evening of November 5, 1880. She notes she was "feeling fairly well" that evening.

Historical Charlotte Corday: Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont (1768-1793) was the Norman noblewoman who assassinated Jean-Paul Marat in his bathtub during the French Revolution (July 13, 1793). She was guillotined four days later. Her act became one of the most famous episodes of the Revolution, immortalized in Jacques-Louis David's painting "The Death of Marat" (1793).

Theatrical representations: Charlotte Corday's dramatic story inspired numerous plays in the 19th century. The play Marie saw was likely one of several dramatizations popular in the 1870s-1880s that presented Corday as either a heroine or fanatic, depending on the political perspective.

Marie's attendance at this play about a bold, decisive woman who took dramatic action may have resonated with her own sense of ambition and frustration at the limitations placed on women.