Portrayal of women in Candide

¶ … women in Candide

Candide is a satire written by French philosopher Voltaire in 1759 during the period known as the Enlightenment. Examining Candide in the context of Western thought and movements, there is no doubt that the work is highly critical of many of the social institutions of the time. Still, while criticizing many of the societal aspects, Candide is not free from the biases and "unenlightened" thoughts that the revolutionary movement in France was based upon. While it is apparent that Voltaire is not visibly working toward any revolutionary sentiments in Candide and is merely pointing out flaws in society, it is interesting to note how ingrained the popular cultural notions of the Enlightenment are not even expressed in the text. The most noticeable case concerns his treatment of women in Candide. While there were many views espoused during the period of the French Revolution about the rights of women, it must be observed that even a progressive thinker like Voltaire did not always hold views aligned with such ideas.

The eighteenth century novel written by Voltaire, Candide, was one of the greatest works of arguably the most important philosopher during the Enlightenment. Using Candide for the purpose of illustration, Voltaire was able to criticize the beliefs and established views of his time without directly opposing them. He uses the characters and plot to satirize these views and also relay his own beliefs at the same time. Throughout Voltaire's Candide women are often presented as being victims and are often suffering because of acts of cruelty and violence. In this sense, this does not allow them to be fully developed characters, particularly when contrasted to the males in the novel. From Cunegonde to the old woman, to the told experiences of other women in the text, the reader cannot help but question why Candide might have chosen to present women in this manner, and what this means in the context of philosophy which sought to free people rather than keep in subservient roles. Thesis: This essay strives to examine the way women are presented in the novel, and to discuss how they are not developed as characters and do not serve any purpose but to be either romantic interests or the unfortunate victims of violence -- sexual or otherwise.

Professor Stromberg points out that many of the philosophers were against the idea of revolution -- they were so far set in the aristocratic cultural norms of the society to think outside of it -- even if they were used to criticizing it. Voltaire and other similarly minded philosophers did not consider women as equals. They believed women to be weak and thus unable to run their household or fulfill certain societal tasks. Such sentiments masked a deeper underside of the patriarchal attitudes of the day more than their polished way of setting apart a few exceptions of women leaders would readily demonstrate. The women in Candide make no exception as they show weak and defenseless character traits. While on the one hand it seems as though it many be a progressive move to point out how women constantly run the risk of being subject to often violent male desire (as we see in the stories of rape, enslavement, and general submission on the part of women) it seems more the case that Voltaire considers them to be weak and ineffectual creatures -- using sex to obtain their desires and serving as vessels of disease.

Candide is full of uncommonly graphic accounts of the sexual exploitation of women. Black (1990: 177) argues that Voltaire employs bodily references throughout Candide in order to concretize his treatment of violence, philosophy, and sexuality. The three main female characters -- Cunegonde, the old woman, and Paquette -- are all raped, forced into sexual slavery, or both. Both the narrator's and the characters' attitudes toward these events are strikingly nonchalant and matter-of-fact. Voltaire uses these women's stories to demonstrate the special dangers to which only women are vulnerable. Candide's chivalric devotion to Cunegonde, whom he wrongly perceives as a paragon of female virtue, is based on willful blindness to the real situation of women. The male characters in the novel value sexual chastity in women but make it impossible for women to maintain such chastity, exposing another hypocritical aspect of Voltaire's Europe.

On the other hand, some critics (Scherr 1993) have argued that both Voltaire's personal life and his masterpiece, Candide, attest his respect for women's experience and his belief in equality and reciprocity between the sexes. Both genders endure parallel ordeals, conflicts, and challenges and meet them with a common fortitude. At several junctures Cunegonde, Paquette, and the Old Woman more aptly reflect Voltaire's buoyant, "bisexual" temperament than the men, who invariably, like Candide and Pangloss, engage in passionate defense of absurd philosophical dogmas; argue illogically, like the young Baron expounding his aristocratic prerogatives; or cynically evaluate people and events, like Pococurante and Martin: "I do not know,' said Martin, 'what scales your Pangloss would use to weigh the misfortunes of men and to estimate their sufferings. All I presume is that there are millions of men on earth a hundred times more to be pitied than King Charles Edward, the Emperor Ivan, and the Sultan Achmet'" (Voltaire 134). It has also been argued that both of Voltaire's protagonists, Candide and Cunegonde, exhibit a wide range of both "male" and "female," aggressive and passive, personality traits (Scherr 275).

In Voltaire's Candide, women are used to accentuate the exploitation of the female race in Voltaire's Europe. In the course of the story, we meet several different women, each of whom provides an account of intense suffering and hardship. Cunegonde, for example, was the daughter of a German baron. At the outset, she is described as a beautiful young woman. However, by the end of the story, her physical beauty has diminished as a result of the persecution and abuse she suffered. Cunegonde was also raped and taken as a sex slave: "Alas! My dear,'said she, 'unless you have been raped by two Bulgarians, stabbed twice in the belly, have had two castles destroyed, two fathers and mothers murdered before your eyes, and have seen two of your lovers flogged in an auto-da-fe, I do not see how you can surpass me'" (Voltaire 39). In addition, she was a victim of cannibalism and her face has clearly made a turn for the worse. The old woman, as we know her, was the daughter of a Pope. She provides perhaps the most disturbing story, which includes the death of her spouse, rape, and cannibalism: "Imagine the situation of a Pope's daughter aged fifteen, who in three months had undergone poverty and slavery, had been raped nearly every day, had seen her mother cut into four pieces, had undergone hunger and war, and was now dying of the plague in Algiers." (Voltaire 46) Voltaire's satire is evident as he demonstrates that not even strong political affiliation could save her from suffering.

The third character, Paquette, was originally a chambermaid for Cunegonde's mother. Her story is filled with tales of prostitution and affliction. In fact, Paquette serves as a wake up call for Candide who is shown that life is made up of both positive and negative, and forced to acknowledge that excessive optimism only results in blindness and narrowness of perspective. While a depressed Candide is talking to his friend Martin, a monk and a pretty girl pass by. The former challenges his friend that at least they have to be happy, so he invites both to dinner. However, once she starts discussing her life, Paquette reveals that life had not been joyous. She had been abused by a man she did not love, imprisoned for the murder of the wife of a physician, and she had taken up the undesirable trade of whoring. The monk, Friar Giroflee, proves just as unhappy as Paquette as he really despises the monasteries. In the end, Candide loses the bet. Each of these women highlights the oppression and sexual abuse endured by females in Voltaire's satiric critique of Europe. In essence, they act as submissive recipients of action who possess very little complexity or importance.

Voltaire's Candide captures the extremes of human suffering, providing a disparaging account of what many of us would deem an unbearable cross to carry. While the author's message was not to glorify his characters for their resilience, the reader will clearly feel humbled after learning of the intense suffering that the characters in Voltaire's novella endure. In particular, it is the story of the old woman, who perhaps best explains the spirit of the characters, when she says "A hundred times I wanted to kill myself, but I always loved life more." Considering that she has been raped repeatedly and essentially gone from riches to rags, her passion for life should remain unquestioned. The old woman's story serves a dual purpose. Her sufferings illustrates a vast array of human evils that contradict Pangloss's optimistic view of the world. She has lived through violence, rape, slavery, and betrayal and seen the ravages of war and greed. The old woman's story also functions as a criticism of religious hypocrisy. She is the daughter of the Pope, the most prominent member of the Catholic Church. The Pope has not only violated his vow of celibacy, but has also proven unable and unwilling to protect his daughter from the misfortunes that befell her.

Candide also displays this sense of hope in light of his many hardships. He honors his commitment to marry Cunegonde at the end of the story despite the physical abnormalities that have plagued her. Cunegonde is a young and beautiful woman at the beginning of Candide. Mirroring Candide's naive optimism, their love plays out in unrealistic romantic cliches: a blush, a dropped handkerchief, a surreptitious kiss behind a screen. However, this romance in the shelter of the Baron's estate is too far removed from reality to last, and Candide's veil of ignorance cannot last either. The baron soon discovers the tryst and expels Candide from this garden of bliss. Up until their meeting in Chapter 29, Candide - who had not seen Cunegonde's transformation - believes she is still the innocent, beautiful girl she was at the beginning of the story: "Candide, that tender lover, seeing his fair Cunegonde sunburned, blear-eyed, flat-breasted, with wrinkles around her eyes and red, chapped arms, recoiled three paces in horror, and then advanced from mere politeness" (Voltaire 141). Ironically, Cunegonde does not know she is now ugly either, as "no one had told her so" (Ibid 97). She reminds Candide of his matrimonial intentions, and Candide, who is finally awakened to the brutality of the world, agrees to marry her, although she becomes "uglier every day... shrewish and intolerable" (Ibid 98). Her ugliness symbolizes the end of Candide's empty dreams as it shatters his unrealistic hope for perfection. Her beauty had symbolized Candide's ideal for happiness throughout the novel. However, in the end she proves a useful member of the small society in which she lives on Candide's farm. She becomes a good pastry cook and finds pleasure and satisfaction in work.