Queen Marie Antoinette of France is best remembered for her legendary extravagance and her death: she was executed by guillotine during the Reign of Terror at the height of the French Revolution in 1793 for the crime of treason. Her life has been the subject of many historically accurate biographies and the subject of romance novels and films.

In biographies As were many people and events involved with the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette's life and role in the great social-political conflict were contingent upon many factors. Many have speculated about how influential she was on the nature of the revolution and the direction it eventually took. In light of the varying contingencies surrounding her life that made her a hated and despised figure in the revolutionaries' eyes as queen, she was viewed as a genuine model of the old regime, perhaps even more than her husband, King Louis XVI. Due to her frivolous spending and indulgent royal lifestyle, as well as her well-known desire to promote the Austrian empire, her caring, motherly nature was overshadowed, and revolutionaries only saw her as an obstruction to the Revolution.

The view on Marie Antoinette's role in French history has varied widely throughout the years. Even during her life, she was a popular icon of goodness and a symbol of everything wrong with the French monarchy, the latter being a view that has persisted to this day far stronger than the former. However, some would argue that the common historical perspective on Marie Antoinette is that she was yet another tragic victim of the radicalism of the Revolution, rather than a great symbol of French royal inadequacies. This view tends to sympathize with Marie Antoinette and her family's plight and focus more on the documentation surrounding the last months, weeks, and days before her execution, where she is more clearly seen as Marie Antoinette the penitent, caring mother rather than the defiant queen of France.

Some contemporary sources, such as Mary WollstonecraftWollstonecraft, 33–35. and Thomas Jefferson,Fraser, 457–458. place the blame of the French Revolution and the subsequent Reign of Terror squarely on Marie Antoinette's shoulders; others, such as those who knew her (her lady-in-waiting Madame Campan and the royal governess, the marquise de Tourzel, among them) focus more on her sweet character and considerable courage in the face of misunderstanding and adversity.Fraser, 129, 291. According to Campan, the queen was misunderstood by her subjects and the nobility at Versailles. Campan describes several people who, upon spending time with the queen, left with a more positive opinion of her. One such visitor, M. Loustonneau, the first surgeon to the king, was humbled when the queen remarked, "if the poor whom you have succored for the past twenty years had each placed a single candle in their windows, it would have been the most beautiful illumination ever witnessed."Campan, Jeanne-Louise-Henriette (2006). The Private Life of Marie Antoinette: A Confidante's Account. 1500 Books, LLC, p. 125

Immediately after her death, the picture painted by the libelles of the queen was held as the "correct" view of Marie Antoinette for many years, as the news of her execution was received with joy by the French populace, and the libelles did not stop circulating even after her death.Fraser, 442.

However, she was also considered a martyr by royalists both in and out of France, so much so that the Tower was demolished by Napoleon to get rid of all symbols of the oppression of the royal family.Fraser, 382. The queen's view as a martyr was generally held in the post-Napoleonic era and through the nineteenth century, though publications were still written. The ultra-republican work of Jules Michelet portrayed the queen as a frivolous spendthrift who single-handedly ruined France.Fraser, 455. This view is not widely accepted as accurate by most modern historians, though even the less biased contemporary sources quickly point out that the queen had faults that contributed to her condition.

The end of the nineteenth century brought about some more changes in how the queen was viewed, particularly in light of the (heavily censored) publication of Count Axel Fersen's Journal intime by one of his descendants; theories about a torrid decade-long love affair between queen and count has become an area of debate since then. In particular, the popular theory is that Louis Charles, the second Dauphin (who would ultimately die at the age of 10 from maltreatment), was Fersen's child and that the king was aware of it. Those who argue in favor of this theory point to the words of insiders who knew of the queen's alleged affair and the words of Fersen regarding the child's death, which indicate it to be a possibility.Hermann, chapter 6. Others argue the queen had a liaison, but it produced no child; others do not believe that an affair took place.

The twentieth century brought about the recovery of some items that belonged to the queen thought lost forever and a wave of new biographies, which began to show the queen in a somewhat more sympathetic light. Even those that were critical of the queen were more balanced than their eighteenth and nineteenth-century predecessors. Public perception was also aided in the twentieth century with the advent of movies based upon biographies of the queen, the most famous of them including the Oscar-nominated 1938 Norma Shearer feature Marie Antoinette (based upon the 1932 book Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman by Stefan Zweig) and the 2006 Kirsten Dunst feature Marie Antoinette (based upon the 2001 book Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Lady Antonia Fraser). Some modern historians consider the latter author's book to be the most thorough and balanced biography of the queen. However, it naturally builds upon earlier biographies, first-hand accounts, and even the infamous libelles which destroyed the queen's reputation. Another book was written by famous American novelist Upton Sinclair in the form of a play titled Marie Antoinette.

In film DateTitleDirectorPortrayed by1923 Scaramouche Rex IngramClotilde Delano 1930 Captain of the Guard John S. RobertsonEvelyn Hall1934 Madame Du Barry William DieterleAnita Louise1937 The King Without a Crown Jacques TourneurDoris Lloyd1938 Marie Antoinette W.S. Van DykeNorma Shearer1938La MarseillaiseJean RenoirLise Delamare1949 Black Magic Gregory RatoffNancy Guild1952 Scaramouche George SidneyNina Foch1954 Royal Affairs in Versailles Sacha GuitryLana Marconi1956 Marie-Antoinette reine de France Jean DelannoyMichèle Morgan1957 The Story of Mankind Irwin AllenMarie Wilson1959 John Paul Jones John FarrowSusana Canales1961 La Fayette Jean DrévilleLiselotte Pulver1970 Start the Revolution Without Me Bud YorkinBillie Whitelaw1979 Lady Oscar Jacques DemyChristine Böhm1981 History of the World, Part I Mel BrooksFiona Richmond1982La Nuit de VarennesEttore ScolaEléonore Hirt1989 La Révolution française Robert Enrico, Richard T. HeffronJane Seymour L'autrichienne Pierre Granier-DeferreUte Lemper1995 Jefferson in Paris James IvoryCharlotte de Turckheim2001 The Affair of the Necklace Charles Shyer Joely Richardson2006 Marie Antoinette Sofia CoppolaKirsten Dunst Marie-Antoinette, la véritable histoire Yves Simoneau, Francis LeclercKarine Vanasse2012 Farewell, My Queen Benoît JacquotDiane Kruger2014 Mr. Peabody and Sherman Rob MinkoffLauri Fraser2018One Nation, One King Pierre Schoeller Maëlia Gentil2022 Chevalier Stephen WilliamsLucy Boynton2023 Napoleon Ridley ScottCatherine Walker2023Jeanne du Barry Maïwenn Pauline Pollmann2024Le Déluge Gianluca Jodice Mélanie Laurent2025 The Rose of Versailles Ai Yoshimura Aya Hirano

In television In 1979–1980 TV anime version of The Rose of Versailles, she is voiced by Miyuki Ueda. Elizabeth Berrington played Marie Antoinette in the BBC sitcom Let Them Eat Cake Sue Perkins portrayed in the third episode of the second series of The Supersizers Eat (aired BBC One, 9:00 pm Monday 6 July 2009) Marie Antoinette appeared in an episode of Johnny Bravo, where she spoke with a French accent. In The Addams Family, Wednesday Addams has a headless doll named Marie Antoinette. In My Life as a Teenage Robot, Marie Antoinette is created by Uncle Wizzly as a Historionic. In Toy Story, Buzz Lightyear has tea with a headless doll named Marie Antoinette. Alice Lowe and Jessica Ransom played Marie Antoinette in the CBBC's Horrible Histories. Jayne Meadows played Marie Antoinette in 1977 episodes of the PBS series Meeting of Minds. In 2016, the drag queen Detox Icunt portrayed her in Episode 3 of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (season 2). In episode 3 of The Swiss Family Robinson: Flone of the Mysterious Island, Marie Antoinette's story is depicted. A fictional version of Marie Antoinette is portrayed by Courtney Ford in Season 5 of The CW's superhero series Legends of Tomorrow. Marie Antoinette appears in an episode of Animaniacs (2020 TV series) voiced by Melissa Rauch with a French accent. In Marie Antoinette, Emilia Schüle played the title role. In AppleTV's Franklin, She is played by Maria Dragus.

Casual media references Marie Antoinette has been referenced in numerous motion pictures and television shows, usually as a figure to denote extravagance or doomed beauty.

Some of the more notable examples include the movie adaptation of Gone with the Wind, in which a portrait of the Queen hangs above Scarlett O'Hara's bed in her new mansion in Atlanta. In The Addams Family Values, Wednesday Addams dresses up her new baby brother as Marie-Antoinette and attempts to guillotine him for crimes against the Republic.

In the CW American drama Gossip Girl, a sketch looking very much like Kirsten Dunst in the role of Queen Marie-Antoinette decorates the bedroom of the main character, Blair Waldorf. In the second series of Sex and the City, when Charlotte York criticizes one of her friends for delusively believing that they live in a classless society, Carrie Bradshaw refers to her as a Marie Antoinette. During the wedding of Melanie and Lindsay in Queer as Folk, a decadent French dessert is given as an option for their dinner by a French caterer, to which Melanie sarcastically quips: "And just how much for Marie-Antoinette's last meal?" In the fourth series of Desperate Housewives, Katherine went to a Halloween party thrown by a young gay couple who just moved to the neighborhood. One of the hosts quipped it is appropriate that the domineering Katherine came as a "self-important queen who lost all her power."

In the Gareth Russell novel Popular, one of the lead characters throws a sweet 16 birthday party with a Marie Antoinette theme but is upstaged by one of her guests when she arrives in a costume worn by Kirsten Dunst in the 2006 movie.

In Robert Asprin's Another Fine Myth, there is a pseudo-quotation as an epigraph to chapter 8: "In times of crisis, it is of utmost importance not to lose one's head." —M. ANTOINETTE

In Pixar's Toy Story, at the tea party in Hannah's room, Buzz Lightyear (as Mrs. Nesbitt) refers to his headless doll companions as "Marie Antoinette and her little sister."

In Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Celestia Ludenberg references that she believes in her past life she was Marie Antoinette.

In Into The Dark, Maggie wears a Marie Antoinette costume to a Halloween party.

In the AMC supernatural horror drama The Terror, George Henry Hodgson wears a Marie Antoinette costume to Carnivale.

Prior to the Revolution, opponents of the French monarchy regularly circulated pornographic propaganda alleging that Marie Antoinette was engaged in lesbian relationships with the and the . While the rumors of Antoinette's sexuality were unfounded, they lead to her being interpreted as an early lesbian icon in works by gay authors, such as Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness (1928) and Jean Genet's The Maids (1947).

In historical fiction