Enlightenment Ideals And Gender In Voltaire's Candide

The Enlightenment may be termed both a period and a process. Periodically, it spanned the mid-seventeenth to early-nineteenth centuries and, simultaneously, it describes a process undergone by man to employ his own understanding. At the fount of Enlightenment thought was an emphasis on the independent use of reason. In line with the concept of a great Chain of Being, the prevailing view was that man had a capacity for rational thought and could exert moral autonomy, differentiating himself from the instinct and emotion-led level of the animal. Enlightenment ideals included reason, self-control, modesty and virtue. Regarded as divine attributes granted to ease man’s struggle to achieve perfection; one may ascertain that these values were intended for all people to appreciate. Attaining an

As a member of this group, Voltaire challenged the alleged superiority of the male sex, maintaining that there was little difference in mental ability between the sexes, “women are capable of all that (men) are”. His novel Candide is well-known for its scathing satire of optimism, however it also offers a platform for Voltaire to proclaim his views on the conflict between Enlightenment ideals and gender. Subverting the popular idea that behavioural traits were founded upon biological sex; the text’s protagonists, Candide and Cunégonde, exhibit a wide range of male and female attributes. Candide is naïve and sincere, whilst Cunégonde is contrastingly assertive and aggressive. Indeed it is she who first seduces Candide, “Cunégonde dropped her handkerchief, Candide picked it up. Innocently she took his hand”. As their story progresses, Voltaire highlights the uniformity of human nature by depicting a variety of characters- male and female, young and old- all of whom suffer together at the hands of