Let Them Eat Cake Significance

Let them eat cake is the traditional translation of the french phrase qu ils mangent de la brioche spoken in the 17th or 18th century by a great princess upon learning that the peasants had no bread.

Let them eat cake significance.

Let them eat cake is the most famous quote attributed to marie antoinette the queen of france during the french revolution. It is widely attributed to marie antoinette 1755 93 the queen consort of louis xvi. The story goes that marie antoinette queen of france was informed that her subjects were starving because they had no bread. It was first told in a slightly different form about.

The usual interpretation of the phrase is that marie antoinette understood little about the plight of the poor and cared even less. This phrase is more accurately translated as let them eat brioche as the original french phrase contains no mention of cake gâteau. Because cake is more expensive than bread the anecdote has been cited as an example of marie antoinette s obliviousness to the conditions and daily lives of ordinary people. The original french is qu ils mangent de la brioche that is let them eat brioche brioche is a form of cake made of flour butter and eggs.

She is supposed to have said this when she was told that the french populace had no bread to eat. That aside what s even more convincing is the fact that the let them eat cake story had been floating around for years before 1789. The phrase let them eat cake is the translation of the old french saying qu ils mangent de la brioche which literally means let them eat brioche.