Gender Inequality In Candide

Gender Racism and Class Hierarchies

Voltaire deliberately created the female characters in Candide of minor importance to the actions of the story. The narrator holds the nineteenth century - male perspective that Women exist only for the pleasure of men and are properties owned by men. So that he does not Obligate the women of any remarkable or redeeming qualities. Women are valued only for their beauty and can only succeed if they have pretty face. They could either marry or mistress or both of a well, rich and powerful man. for instance, Cunegonde “rosy-checked” becomes the mistress of the, a Bulgar captain, Grand Inquisitor “a Jew, named Don Issachar”, and the governor of Buenos Aires. As being their mistress she was guaranteed a comfortable life, but do make no mistake about, it is a life of sexual exploitation. When

Cunegonde was propositioned by the governor, she was free to choose between staying faithful to her love, Candide, or being the governor’s mistress for having better life.

On the other hand, Paquette is simply described as “a pretty and obedient brunette.” not for her duties as a chambermaid, but for he readiness to submit to the dominance of men in the baron’s castle. In fact, Paquette is the only woman who can be regarded with sort of bitterness. For that she had to work as a prostitute in order to make a living. She was “forced to continue this terrible profession that men find so pleasant, while for women it is a hell of misery and humiliation.” And in deep discounting and disgrace, Voltaire refers to The Old Woman, as being “ugly” and “world-weary” not even earned such a name. The women of Voltaire’s Candide emphasize the exploitation of females in the 1800s. Cunegonde, Paquette, and the Old Woman are raped, forced into prostitution, and sexually exploited by religious and politics leaders. This perspective highlights how little power and human rights women possessed at that time. In similar terms, Voltaire used a classic tool of satire, makes the nobility’s concern over

the subtleties looks absurd and empty about the belief in “natural” superiority by birth. The baron’s sister, for instance, has refused to marry Candide’s father, who she had an affair with, because he only had seventy-one quarterings (noble ancestries) in his coat of arms, while she had seventy-two This exaggeration Voltaire uses throughout the novel to expose the irrationality of various beliefs.