Essay on Women in Voltaire’s Candide

    Candide on the surface is a witty story. However when inspected deeper it is a philippic writing against people of an uneducated status. Candide is an archetype of these idiocracies, for he lacks reason and has optimism that is truly irking, believing that this is the best of all possible worlds. Thus Voltaire uses a witty, bantering tale on the surface, but in depth a cruel bombast against the ignoramuses of his times.

Prior to and throughout the late middle ages, women have been portrayed in literature as vile and corrupt. During this time, Christine de Pizan became a well educated woman and counteracted the previous notions of men’s slander against women. With her literary works, Pizan illustrated to her readers and women that though education they can aspire to be something greater than what is written in history. Through the use of real historical examples, Christine de Pizan’s, The Book of the City of Ladies, acts as a defense against the commonly perceived notions of women as immoral.

In Voltaires?s Candide, the main character, Candide, fails to live happily because he is looking outside of himself and his circumstances to do it. Voltaire says through Candide's ultimate discovery that happiness in many ways depends on a person's attitude. Voltaire's philosophy expressed through Candide's final realization is that "We must cultivate our garden," which is the key to happiness(p.585). By cultivating our garden, Voltaire means that we must make the best of our situation in the present moment. We accept what we are given in life and work to make the best of it. It all has to do with our perspective on life. We do not find happiness somewhere else or by philosophizing about it, we open our eyes to the

Voltaire’s Candide portrays an exaggerated image of human cruelty and suffering in the world. Specifically, Voltaire criticizes people’s lack of willingness to prevent suffering, and their tendency to accept the idea that there is nothing anyone can do about human outcomes. He upholds his belief that practical ways of solving problems generate improvement. He believes that human indifference and inaction cause suffering to carry on. Voltaire’s believes that naïve optimism, absolute pessimism, cruel indifference, and lack of reason hinder positive and constructive change.

Cunegonde was a beautiful young woman, she was the daughter of the Baron, and is constantly being pursued by Candide throughout the whole story-which really is about him finding his way back to her the whole time. Cunegonde grew up in the Castle of Baron Thunder-Ten-Tronckh which was located in Westphalia. She grew up rich, getting all the nicer things in life, and didn’t have to worry about anything until one day, Candide got banished from the castle and that’s where it all started going downhill. Cunegonde was separated from Candide, her home got attacked, and her family was murdered. From there, Cunegonde is passed around through a couple of men: The Bulgarian, Captain Don Issachar, The Grand Inquisitor, Don Fernando, and others. Candide ends up feeling like she isn’t as beautiful after he gets her back in the end, and really just is not attracted to her like he used to be. In fact, in the end, there is a description of how ugly she really is while she is running to Candide after their time apart. There is also a line that says “in fact, Candide had no real wish to marry Cunegonde” (Voltaire 411) when in the beginning he talks about his love for her non-stop. But now that she’s been raped, abused, and used for whatever, he thinks she’s ugly and really doesn’t want to marry her but thinks that it is a good decision. At the same time, Cunegonde understands that she isn’t very powerful and doesn’t have a lot of options. So, if she wishes to survive, she must use her beauty to her advantage. Women in the 18th century didn’t have a lot of options if they wanted a “good” life after marriage. They married someone who could take care of them since they legally couldn’t have jobs. This quote “A women’s gender and marital status were the primary determinants

Voltaire’s Candide can be understood in several ways by its audience. At a first glance it would appear to be simply a story blessed with outrageous creativity, but if you look deeper in to the novel, a more complicated and meaningful message is buried within. Voltaire uses the adventures of Candide as a representation of what he personally feels is wrong within in society. Written in the 18th century (1759), known commonly as the age of enlightenment, Voltaire forces his audience to consider the shift from tradition to freedom within society. He achieves this by exploring the reality of human suffering due to

Voltaire's Candide is a novel that is interspersed with superficial characters and conceptual ideas that are critically exaggerated and satirized. The parody offers cynical themes disguised by mockeries and witticism, and the story itself presents a distinctive outlook on life narrowed to the concept of free will as opposed to blind faith driven by desire for an optimistic outcome. The crucial contrast in the story deals with irrational ideas as taught to Candide about being optimistic by Pangloss, his cheerful mentor, versus reality as viewed by the rest of the world through the eyes of the troubled character, Martin. This raises the question of whether or not the notion of free will is valid due to Candide’s peculiar timing of his

Voltaire also criticized the corruption found in the clergy of the Catholic Church. An old woman took care of Candide after his flogging in Lisbon and reunited him with his long lost love, Cunegonde. While on a ship, the three exchanged stories of their adventures and the troubles that they had faced. In the beginning of the old woman's story she said, "I am the daughter of Pope Urban X and the Princess of Palestrina" (42). She then talked about the magnificent palace that she grew up in and the riches that she enjoyed and how she was betrothed to a prince of Massa-Carrara. This story was mentioned in Candide because it showed the corruption of the Catholic clergy. The pope, a man who was supposed to be celibate and follow the example of Christ, instead

On November 21, 1694, Francois-Marie Arouet, otherwise known as Voltaire, was born in Paris. The youngest of five, son to Francois and Marie Arouet, Voltaire grew

He sees firsthand the results of violence and rape, page 6 “There several young virgins, whose bodies have been ripped open, after they had satisfied the natural necessities of the Bulgarian heroes, breathed their last….The ground about them was covered with the brains, arms, and legs of dead men”. Moreover, two of the female characters, Cunegonde and the Old Woman are also subjected to rape and servitude as a result of warfare. Most of the violence in the novel Candide is as a consequence of continuous warfare and struggle for power. On page 95, the Old Woman remarks “ I would like to know which is worst, to be ravished a hundred times by Negro pirates, to have one buttock cut off, to run the gauntlet among the Bulgarians, to be whipped and hanged at an auto-de-fe, to be dissected, to be chained to an oar in a gallery..”. All of these atrocities highlight the consequences of warfare in the 17th century, and exhibits Voltaire’s view of the world as absolutely chaotic in terms of the violence experienced by many of the characters in the novel, with so much suffering inflicted on all them that it becomes almost comical due to the frequency of their

In Candide, Voltaire writes about a guy named Candide, he has faced and achieved many things in his life. As the story progresses, you will see that Candide has the opportunity to travel often while enduring many adversities on his journey to reconnect with the woman of his dreams, Cunégonde, whom he planned to marry. Candide describes her as, “Her daughter, Cunégonde was a buxom girl of seventeen with a fresh, rosy complexion altogether seductive” (Voltaire 19). Throughout the story, it is seen that the people of the towns, along with the government and the churches he would visit, mistreated Candide. Voltaire’s compilation of events endured by Candide on his voyage to find his first true love, Cunégonde, shows a difficult task. Candide struggles through the voyage are halted by encounters with the people, churches, and government.

The narrative techniques, features of language and context Voltaire used when writing Candide tells us a lot about this book and what Voltaire was trying to achieve in writing it. Candide is told by a third person narrator who is not a main character in the book and is completely outside of the storyline. The title page of Candide implies that the book was found and translated by Doctor Ralph who is our narrator. This is a fiction created by Voltaire to distance himself from the book and to help the reader to understand the satirical nature of Candide.

Candide is a good-hearted, but very naïve young man from Westphalia. From the very beginning Candide had his eyes on a beautiful woman named Cunegonde who is the Baron’s daughter. Candide was chased from Westphalia after being caught stealing an innocent kiss from

How do the experiences of the women in Candide differ from those of the men? How do their reactions to those experiences differ from those of the men?

Paquette is the chambermaid of Cunegonde’s mother. She has an affair with Pangloss and gives him syphilis. Candide, one day, sees a young woman and a young man walking arm in arm and they look extremely happy. He realizes that it is Paquette and the man is a monk named Brother Giroflee. Paquette confirms that she gave Pangloss syphilis and a surgeon took her in and cured her, she ended up becoming his mistress. The surgeon’s wife was jealous and beat Paquette every day. The surgeon grew tired of it and poisoned his wife while treating her for a cold. Her family sued him, so he fled the city. Paquette was sent to prison but the judge freed her on the condition that she would become his mistress. After he grows tired of her, she ends up being a prostitute just so she can get by and says she was “forced to continue this terrible profession that you men find so pleasant, while to us women, it is but an abyss of misery.” (Voltaire 400). She is very bitter about her situation. She reveals that brother Giroflee is one of her clients. Candide ends up feeling sorry for the both of them and gives them a large sum of money. Just like Cunegonde, although Paquette wasn’t born into the luxurious life, she is raped and beaten many times. All the women claim that they are the “most unfortunate creatures in the world” (Voltaire 400), but until the end, Paquette is the only one who thinks she has been done wrong her whole life. She feels powerless and when her beauty is gone, then what? She