Lady Liberty Leading The Troops: The French Revolution

The French Revolution started as a push for equality, and, though it lead to the death of many and changed the way people around the world thought about France as well as themselves, it eventually brought the change the French people wished to see. I think that while the revolution was not a complete success, it definitely brought many of the changes that the people of France wished for.

The painting Lady Liberty Leading the Troops depicts the bloodier stage of the revolution under the rule of the National Convention. As the title suggests, a bare-breasted woman lifting the tricolour flag of France and holding a gun is leading a group of men over piles of the bodies of the deceased. Lady Liberty’s bare chest could represent her nurturing of the revolution, and perhaps the “true” men of France. The flag is brightly coloured among the dull red, white, and blue tones apparent in the rest of the painting, and Lady Liberty’s musket portrays the violence needed to reach their vision of France, represented by the brightly coloured flag. The paintings dull but very apparent use of red,

Especially during the Reign of Terror, many innocent people were murdered. This, however, was caused by the mass hysteria of the French people. The Terror was a period of time when nobody was safe; just an accusation of saying or doing something against the revolution could have you sentenced to death by guillotine. A similar situation can be seen in the people of Salem in the late 1600’s- mass hysteria engulfed the town, and the townspeople blamed their neighbors for witchcraft to have the opportunity to buy their land, or, even worse, simply because they didn’t like them. The same thing most likely ended up happening during the French Revolution, and could have caused many of the murders during the