Marat-Sade
Hey guys, I wanted to talk about the symbolism behind the title of the episode Marat/Sade.
In the episode, Becka kills her father in the same way that Marat was assassinated. In this scenario, Becka is therefore Charlotte Corday, who killed Marat because she opposed the violence he advocated (he called for the deaths of thousands of people he considered enemies of the French Revolution).
So you could think that, in this way, Becka/Charlotte Corday uses violence to stop the violence practiced by Gilead.
But I actually think Becka is much closer to Marat's ideology: violence is necessary against the oppressor. I am saying this because, although Charlotte Corday believed that killing the man she saw as the symbol and leader of revolutionary violence would put an end to the bloodshed, her act didn't really change anything. It kind of did the opposite, the famous painting was used as propaganda and the death was used to rile people up.
To me, in The Testaments, this death is going to be the catalyst for the people’s revolution in Gilead (or at least for the students)
In the play, the opposition between Sade and Marat isn't because Sade opposed the Revolution, but because he was an aristocrate, he believed that this violence would not change the system, and he remains deeply indivualidistic.
I'm actually trying to understand where the series is heading, because for me (sorry if this opinion shocks anyone, but I'm French lol), violence is necessary, and a dictatorship like Gilead can only be destroyed through violence. So I wonder why would they give Becka, Charlotte Corday’s role ?
Of course i don’t condone what Marat did but I do think without him the revolution couldn’t have happened.
I would love to know what you think about it.