Maximilien Robespierre

His beloved, Elisabeth Dupleix, who was still called his fiancée, worried about her betrothed. It was a strange love, a love for which there was no time. When Elisabeth asked Maximilien when they would finally live together, when a home would be established, Maximilien replied, "Wait a little, just a little while, the revolution will soon triumph." Robespierre lacked that crude lust for life, that unbridled fervor.

Residents of his hometown considered Robespierre awkward, pedantic, shy, overly serious, and extremely secretive. He had several short-lived romantic relationships in Arras, which he kept quiet.

In Paris, his coldness and impeccably correct manners seemed elegant, and "society" finally accepted him. He even became fashionable; many began to like his gloomy appearance and abrupt speech. They found traces of a misanthrope in him and deemed them "admirable." Several charming ladies set out to tame this wild man with the dreamy gaze. He began receiving messages from women almost daily. One of them was found, along with many others, in folders that stood on the fir shelves made to Robespierre's specifications:

Having become president of the Jacobin Club, he began to dress well, but somewhat old-fashioned: a cornflower-blue tailcoat, chinos, a wide silk belt in the national blue, white, and red colors, and a hat adorned with a tricolor plume. Maximilien's childhood was cloudless until the age of seven. But then everything changed. His mother died, and three years later, the head of the family, François Robespierre, left Arras and later France for reasons that remain unclear. He moved to Germany, lived for a time in Mannheim, then elsewhere, and died in Munich in 1777. According to the unanimous testimony of his peers and teachers, the Arras scholarship recipient led a secluded life within the confines of Parisian educational institutions. He was poor. The stipend established for him in Arras amounted to 450 livres a year; for life in the capital, this was negligible. He was poorly dressed and wore worn-out shoes. As a deputy of the Third Estate in the Estates General, Robespierre received 18 livres a day. He divided this sum into three parts, and carefully sent a third to his sister Charlotte, who remained in Arras. The other third, according to Robespierre's secretary, Pierre Villiers, went directly to Robespierre, to a person who idolized him; the rest he spent on his personal needs. At the height of his fame, nothing in his lifestyle changed: he continued to live in the same single room in the wooden one-story outbuilding of the carpenter Maurice Duplay on the rue Saint-Honoré. It contained only a walnut bed, covered with a blue and white flowered bedspread (made from Madame Duplay's dress), a table, and four straw chairs: the room served both as a bedroom and a study. Oranges were his favorite fruit: he ate a lot of them and prided himself on his ability to peel them quickly and skillfully.

He experienced none of the joys of capital life—he dined for thirty sous and rarely went to the theater, though he loved it. He took nightly strolls around Paris with his enormous dog, Brown, to whom he became particularly attached in the last months of his life.

The character of Maximilien Robespierre is characterized by the following traits: Heightened feelings of justice, nobility, self-esteem, pride, honor. Faith in oneself, in one's strengths and capabilities. From childhood, Robespierre was accustomed to being first in everything, which instilled these qualities in him. Perseverance and persistence in striving to achieve a goal. Selflessness. Robespierre did not seek personal enrichment and lived a rather ascetic life. Intolerance of other points of view. He took any disagreement with his own point of view painfully. Obsessed with the belief in the correctness of his idea, it seemed to him that the number of enemies around him was growing only because they were being poorly punished. gait: solemn in moments of triumph, he walked around the courtrooms without turning his head, and gave the impression of a man with enormous ambition.

He paid great attention to his clothes. His wardrobe was modest, but he took meticulous care of it.

Maximilien Robespierre's appearance was characterized by extreme meticulousness in matters of dress and appearance. His wig was always powdered, his frock coat was perfectly brushed and buttoned. He had vision problems, frequent nosebleeds, and suffered from nervous tics.