Women have always been large part life. In fact, they are the ones that keep it going which is why some argue that women should be greatly respected. This idea has been around since the beginning of time, but unfortunately they have been treated the exact opposite and it was not up to the 1850’s that women got their rights. Before this time they were used as tools and had no say in anything important. It did not matter if they were smart or not nor did it matter if they beautiful or ugly, they were always lower than men. Voltaire uses Cunegonde, the old woman, and Paquette to show their mistreatment and the mistreatment of all women. They were raped and abused regardless of their wealth or political stance. These characters are not very complex …show more content…
As, she relies on men completely and requires someone to come or attempt to save her. She lives by the stereotype and obeys whoever she belongs to at the time. She accepts her position in society better than Candide. She knows that she is a woman in the 18th century and has few options if she wants to survive. She does not ask any questions or make any philosophies, as the men in the story do. Her acceptance of her sexual slavery shows her beliefs and understandings of the few options she has. In the 1800’s women essentially had two options for a “good” life; marry a wealthy man; become a mistress of a powerful man and sometimes both. Cunegonde gets the option to differ from the stereotype, but she chooses not to. She had to decide between being faithful to her love; Candide, or a life with the governor. The Governor guaranteed her a “comfortable” life, but she will be sexually exploited and will have to follow his orders. To add on to this the old woman, her companion. Another woman accustomed to the stereotype, said: “You have it in your power to be the wife of the greatest nobleman in South America, who has a splendid mustache. Are you in the position in which you can flaunt the luxury of unflinching loyalty? You were raped by the Bulgars; a Jew and an Inquisitor have enjoyed your favors. Misfortunes bestow certain rights. I confess that were I in your …show more content…
Which is caused by the narrator having a male perspective. The narrator does not give the women and credit or redeeming qualities. All the women follow a general stereotype. If they tried to break away from the stereotype, they would me more important and influential characters. Paquette, a chambermaid in the Baron’s castle, is described as “a pretty and obedient brunette” (5). She is identified obedient not because of her job as a chambermaid, but because she is willing to exploit her soul and body to the men around the castle. In regards to the old woman, she doesn’t even have an actual name, which does not matter since is ugly and useless. The old woman has the mindset that she is; an object; a mistake; a disgrace. That her time has passed as a beautiful useful woman. All the rape and abuse has physically affected her and she is out of luck. In fact, she is lucky if men talk to her, or even look at her without
Cunegonde was painted as a woman who was not so strong. In chapter 7 after meeting candide, cunegonde collapsed on the sofa (Voltaire pg. 365). This is a way of saying that she as a woman was not strong which is what made her faint in a moment of sorrow, pain and anxiety. No man was ever said to faint in the book when they got anxious or pain because they never really had to go through those emotions it was only attributed to women as we saw through cunegonde.
The experiences that we face in life vary from person to person and one of the greatest differences occur between men and women. In Voltaire 's novel Candide a great deal of the experiences that each of the characters face is unique to them, but the experiences of the women differ greatly to those of the men. The way the two sexes handled those experiences also varied and reflected a satirical view of the times in which Voltaire lived. The differences in events between the men and women can be seen in a few key points that are seen throughout the Novel.
When looking at the women in Voltaire’s “Candide”, a reader will see that this lines up exactly to the characters actions and traits. Trying to define the females of “Candide” is important because we can begin to understand the motives and reasoning behind each decision and thought that is made. These women understand that they have no real voice or power to change the world. The only way they can make an impact on the world is through the body of a man. These women may not have had the most successful or happy life, but they made the best life they could despite the hardships they had to
Cunegonde is the daughter of a wealthy German lord. She is described as “extremely beautiful” (Voltaire. 5) and is repeatedly referred to as “the fair Cunegonde.” (39). She is the typical damsel-in-distress: a woman who is completely reliant on male protection and often fainting at the sight of anything the least bit distressing. She is a vapid beauty and completely obsequious to whomever she happens to belong to at the time. However, Voltaire does not blame her foolish naiveté on her femininity. Candide himself is terribly innocent and is unable to make decisions without the advice of a third party. In a way, Cunegonde accepts her situation in life better than Candide does. She knows that as a woman in the eighteenth century she has few options if she wishes to survive and she is not above using her beauty to her advantage. She never questions or philosophizes like many of the male characters. Her acceptance of the sexual slavery she finds herself in belies an understanding of the limited options women had at the time.
In Constantinople, Cunegonde and the old woman were both slaves and were treated horribly by the men there. It was not until Candide purchased them that they finally gained their independence. Later, the old woman tells of being raped and mutilated in an ordinary, relaxed tone and describes it as being “common”. Voltaire expresses in the aforementioned scenes, that women were beheld as property belonging to men. Cunegonde, being shared by the Grand Inquisitor and the Jewish merchant, is also an example of this. Voltaire’s views regarding the treatment of women were similar to those of Montesquieu in his book The Persian Letters, where he specifically discussed the men of Paris and their views on a woman’s place and purpose in society.
For instance, in Candide it states, “A lady of honor may be raped once, but it strengthens her virtue”(32). Cunegonde has been raped and sold multiple times, but it seems like she’s still positive in her life. Women in our time period would have panicked and would have felt ashamed that they were raped, but Cunegonde wasn’t. Cunegonde describes her struggle as if it was a dramatic struggle in trying to resist the Bulgar soldiers, but she doesn’t think of it as an unusual thing to happen. Voltaire tries to tell us that women at that time period were vulnerable. Because of that, Cunegonde is blinded by the real situation of women. In Cunegonde's life she has only experienced rape and being sold so, it’s highly unlikely that her perspective of women being raped will change. Women probably felt offended because Cunegonde is basically saying how it’s better to be raped more than once in order for you to be virtuous. Besides women, some men probably felt responsible for how women were treated and all of this happened was due to men feeling superior to women. Voltaire uses the idea of rape being virtuous, so more people are aware of how serious rape is. Women being raped multiple times makes you think that women are blinded by how they are treated instead of actually realizing what the real problem is. Without a
The female characters in Molière’s Tartuffe display feminist behaviors years before the feminist movement emerged historically. Many of their actions, words and behaviors are completely out of character for women of their time. Moliere makes a strong statement with this play by presenting female characters that go against convention. The gender inequality when the Enlightenment began was extreme. The women in this play try to fight against this inequality and in the end it is the patriarch of the family that is fooled by Tartuffe yet most of the female characters remain un-fooled throughout the play. Two of the female characters in this play, Doreen and Elmire play significantly different roles in the home. They have different personalities, different household duties and drastically different social standing. As different as these women are, they both show signs of early feminism. To various degrees they fight for want they believe is right. Dorine speaks her mind openly and does not hold anything back. Elmire is sneakier and uses her sexuality to get what she wants.
The women in Candide are seen to men as property. Men look upon their women as gold prizes that can be thrown out whenever they are finished with them or when they don’t pertain the same value as they once did. The women of this novel have no say in what their futures have in store for them. “A Bulgarian captain came in, saw me all bleeding, and the soldier not in the least disconcerted. The captain flew into a passion of disrespectful behavior of the brute, and slew him on my body. He ordered my wounds to be dressed, and took me to his quarters as a prisoner of war. I washed the few shirts he has, I did his cooking; he thought me very pretty…In three months’ time, having lost all his money, and being grown tired of my company, he sold me to a Jew, named Don Issachar, who traded to Holland and Portugal, and had a strong passion for women” (Voltaire 17). This exert
So why after all these years we, the public, now discover her true identity. Alluding to a novel written by Voltaire titled Candide, the lovely Cunegonde experiences the same thing Gula had gone through. By similarity, Cunegonde and Gula, both, have lived complex lives with many fateful encounters. In Gula’s case, she had to escape from her birth country of Afghanistan, face the deaths of her parents, and beget an unborn child. On the other hand, Cunegonde faced the slaughter of her dear parents and brother, and her most respected Pangloss, the insolence of a horrible Bulgar soldier and the knife wounds he gave her, her work as a cook to the Bulgar captain. Although the events Gula has gone through events pale in comparison to the events Cunegonde has been through (or one can argue the other way around), Gula chooses to remain humble and stare down the people for forming an opinion upon her while Cunegonde finds it amusing that others have discovered more pain than she has. This example is clearly
The Enlightenment is known as the revolution that brought to question the traditional political and social structures. This included the question of the woman’s traditional roles in society. As the public sphere relied more and more ?? and the advances in scientific and educated thinking, women sought to join in with the ranks of their male counterparts. Women held gatherings known as salons where they organized intellectual conversations with their distinguished male guests. Seeking to further their status, enlightened women published pamphlets and other works advocating for educational rights and political recognition. Even with this evolution of woman in society, many still clung to the belief that the role of the woman was solely domestic. The females that spoke up were usually deemed unnatural. However these women used the time period of reason and science that allowed them the opportunity to break away from their domestic roles and alter the view of women in society.
Throughout the Ancien Regime, women were hardly considered to be people capable of rational thought, and the disorder of the revolutionary government meant that much of the planned policy that may have helped women was never enacted. This disorder also meant that women, many of whom had been speaking out for gender equality, were silenced as terror swept the nation. While it is easy to look at these events through a bitter feminist lens, the Revolution was built on top of ideas that had existed for centuries, and although the revolutionaries moved to erase the old order; deeply ingrained prejudices are not easily erased. In the beginning, the French Revolution did intend to exclude women from the universal struggle for “liberty, equality,
To our knowledge women were not then known to be intelligent- they held the work of their homes and nothing else. I will first explain how women were seen by men and what they were entirely valued for. After I have given the facts on that, I will explain the path to equality- how they came about doing so. Which was lead in part by women distributing their own literary works. I will give examples of works of the women that gave insight on how tough it really was for them and how they shouldn’t have been looked down upon.
This inferiority of women to men and how men thought less of women back then relates back to my mention of the Elizabethan Era. The Elizabethan Era was 1558-1603; Shakespeare wrote the play, Julius Caesar, in 1599. The Elizabethan Era was an era when Queen Elizabeth was in reign. “Elizabethan Women were subservient to men.” (Elizab. Women., par 1). It shows that the time period that this was written has an effect on why Calpurnia was treated the way she was treated.
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 Candide and friends 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. 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, as you may remember, was also raped and taken as a sex slave. In addition, she was a victim of cannibalism and her face has clearly made a turn for the worse. Essentially, her once beautiful physique has undergone a complete transformation.
This fact plays a crucial role in the mood of the play. If the reader understands history, they also understand that women did not really amount to any importance, they were perceived more as property.