The+Marquise+du+Châtelet

The Age of Enlightenment was a period of dramatic transformation. Even though drastic changes were established during this time, women of the eighteenth century continued to suffer the constraints of a male dominated society. Despite inequality ideals of the Enlightenment, an astonishing woman by the name of Gabrielle Emilie LeTonnelier de Breteuil du Chatelet Lomont took matters into her own hands, defying the odds and becoming an extremely respected intellectual.

=BIRTH and CHILDHOOD = The Marquise du Chatelet was born to Alexandra Elizabeth de Froulay and Louis Nicolas Le Tonnelier de Breteuil in 1706. In her early childhood, du Marquise showed great academic promise through her studies at home. As time progressed, this fine young woman evoked the essence of knowledge and prominently drowned herself in wisdom. Du Marquise proved to be a natural linguist, matering Latin, Italian, and English, while effectively embodying all aspects of philosophy and mathematics.

In 1725, at the early age of 19, du Marquise married one of the most prominent and powerful generals in the French Army, Marquis Florent-Claude Chastellet. During the first two years of their marriage, Emilie gave birth to a boy and a girl, and later the birth of another son followed when she was twenty-seven. Neither children nor her husband deterred her from fully indulging in the social life of the court. This relationship, though lacking charisma and love, motivated this young scholar to further pursue her interests in science and mathematics.

The influence of du Marquise throughout the Enlightenment period was undeniably revolving. The fact that intellectual and artistic works of powerful women were denied in public was viewed as a demeaning and unsettling issue through her eyes. Through the power of her academic strength, du Marquise confidently expressed her intelligence and shared her newfound ideas publicly in the early eighteenth century. As a beautiful, independent woman with a passionate nature, she became an inspiration through the way she single-handedly marked the “turning point” for women in society.

// I feel the full weight of the prejudice which so universally excludes us from the sciences; it is one of the contradictions in life that has always amazed me, seeing that the law allows us to determine the fate of great nations, but that there is no place where we are trained to think ... Let the reader ponder why, at no time in the course of so many centuries, a good tragedy, a good poem, a respected tale, a fine painting, a good book on physics has ever been produced by a woman. Why these creatures whose understanding appears in every way similar to that of men, seem to be stopped by some irresistible force, but until they do, women will have reason to protest against their education. ... I am convinced that many women are either unaware of their talents by reason of the fault in their education or that they bury them on account of prejudice for want of intellectual courage. My own experience confirms this. Chance made me acquainted with men of letters who extended the hand of friendship to me. ... I then began to believe that I was a being with a mind ... //

Her soulful aspiration that one day women intellectuals may be acknowledged and credited for their high personal efforts just as men were, stimulated immense success with regards to the work she accomplished. Besides the multitude of letters, notes and unpublished experiments, Du Marquise translated Oedipus Rex from Greek to French and published The Elements of the Philosophy of Newton in 1738, The institutions de Physique in 1740 and as well as a translation from the original Latin into French of Principia of Isaac Newton in 1759.  Du Châtelet is significant not only for her writings but also for what her life and accomplishments tell about the possibilities for a woman of her day. She devoted her time reading, studying, writing, publishing, and gaining valuable recognition in a world meant to be exclusively male. Her firm belief and support of equality amongst women was effectively expressed through her various scholastic contributions. It was through intellectual power that The Marquise du Chatelet positively aspired change and hope for women in a revolving world.