Women as Victims and Symbols in Voltaire's Candide

Introduction: Voltaire, the Enlightenment, and Gender

Candide is a satire by Voltaire published in 1759 during the period known as the Enlightenment. Examining Candide in the context of Western thought and its intellectual movements, there is no doubt that the work is highly critical of many of the social institutions of the time. Yet, while criticizing numerous societal aspects, Candide is not free from the biases and "unenlightened" assumptions that the revolutionary movement in France was ostensibly working to overcome. While it is apparent that Voltaire is not openly working toward revolutionary sentiments in Candide and is merely pointing out flaws in society, it is interesting to note how certain popular cultural notions of the Enlightenment are never even expressed in the text. The most noticeable case concerns his treatment of women.

While many views were 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. Candide was one of the greatest works of arguably the most important philosopher of the Enlightenment. Using Candide for purposes of illustration, Voltaire was able to criticize the beliefs and established views of his time without directly opposing them. He uses characters and plot to satirize these views while also relaying his own beliefs. Throughout the novel, women are often presented as victims suffering because of acts of cruelty and violence — a condition that prevents them from being fully developed characters, particularly when contrasted with the male figures in the story.

From Cunegonde to the Old Woman, to the experiences of other women recounted in the text, the reader cannot help but question why Voltaire chose to present women in this manner, and what this means within the context of a philosophy that sought to free people rather than confine them to subservient roles. This essay examines the way women are presented in the novel and discusses how they are not developed as characters and serve no purpose other than to be romantic interests or the unfortunate victims of violence — sexual or otherwise.

Philosophers, Patriarchy, and the Status of Women

Many of the Enlightenment philosophers were opposed to the idea of revolution — they were so deeply embedded in the aristocratic cultural norms of their society that they could not think beyond them, even while criticizing those norms. Voltaire and other like-minded philosophers did not consider women as equals. They believed women to be weak and therefore unable to manage their households or fulfill certain societal tasks. Such sentiments masked the deeper underside of patriarchal attitudes far more than the polished practice of singling out a few exceptional women leaders would readily suggest.

The women in Candide are no exception: they exhibit weak and defenseless character traits. While it might at first appear progressive to draw attention to how women constantly run the risk of being subjected to violent male desire — as seen in the stories of rape, enslavement, and general submission — it seems more accurate to conclude that Voltaire regarded women as weak and ineffectual creatures who use sex to obtain their desires and who serve as vessels of disease.

Sexual Exploitation and the Female Body in Candide

Candide is filled with uncommonly graphic accounts of the sexual exploitation of women. Black (1990: 177) argues that Voltaire employs bodily references throughout Candide in order to give concrete form to 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. 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 particular 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 prize sexual chastity in women yet make it impossible for women to maintain such chastity — exposing yet 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 attest to his respect for women's experience and his belief in equality and reciprocity between the sexes. Both genders, they contend, 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 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).

The Stories of Cunegonde, the Old Woman, and Paquette

In Candide, women are used to accentuate the exploitation of the female sex in Voltaire's Europe. In the course of the story, several different women each provide 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-fé, I do not see how you can surpass me" (Voltaire 39). In addition, she was a victim of cannibalism, and her appearance has clearly deteriorated.

The Old Woman, as she is known, 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 here as he demonstrates that not even strong political or ecclesiastical affiliation could protect her from suffering.

The Old Woman's story serves a dual purpose. Her sufferings illustrate a vast array of human evils that contradict Pangloss's optimistic worldview. She has lived through violence, rape, slavery, and betrayal, and has witnessed the ravages of war and greed. Her story also functions as a criticism of religious hypocrisy. As the daughter of the Pope — the most prominent figure in the Catholic Church — she reveals that her father not only violated his vow of celibacy but also proved unable and unwilling to protect her from the misfortunes that befell her. The spirit of her character is perhaps best captured 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 fallen from wealth to destitution, her passion for life is remarkable.

The third character, Paquette, was originally a chambermaid for Cunegonde's mother. Her story is filled with tales of prostitution and affliction. Paquette serves as a wake-up call for Candide, who is shown that life contains both positive and negative dimensions and is forced to acknowledge that excessive optimism results only in blindness and narrowness of perspective. While a despondent Candide is speaking with his friend Martin, a monk and a pretty girl pass by. Martin challenges his friend that at least those two must be happy, so Candide invites both to dinner. Once she begins speaking, however, Paquette reveals that life has been far from joyous. She had been abused by a man she did not love, imprisoned for the murder of a physician's wife, and had taken up the unwanted trade of prostitution. The monk, Friar Giroflee, proves just as unhappy as Paquette — he genuinely despises monastic life. 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 passive recipients of action who possess very little complexity or narrative importance.

Conclusion: Women as Victims and Literary Devices

In Voltaire's Candide, the accounts of three women serve to exemplify questions of gender status in Voltaire's Europe. The stories of Cunegonde, Paquette, and the Old Woman highlight the suffering of women during this period. Yet women are strangely represented in the novel — at once appearing as helpless victims while also displaying remarkable strength. It seems, however, that the "strength" these women demonstrate may not be a statement about women's inner power but rather a reflection of the fact that they have no choice but to adapt to a gruesome and misogynistic situation. The Old Woman, after recounting her terrible life story, insists that she does not believe in self-pity — she was merely telling her story to pass the time.

Although there are many female victims in Candide, none of them appear aware of the injustices committed against them or against their sex, and they moreover conform to an abundance of stereotypes — gold-diggers, prostitutes, battered old women. Collectively, the three women and their tales are used to demonstrate that regardless of financial status, political roots, or physical appearance, women are destined to encounter hardship. The tension between Voltaire's satirical critique of society and his reproduction of its gendered assumptions remains one of the most thought-provoking dimensions of Candide for contemporary readers, and it serves as a reminder that even the sharpest critical minds of an era are rarely free from that era's deepest prejudices.