Voltaire is a French
Enlightenment writer who used his writing to question, attack, challenge, and
change his society because of that he
was known as an evil person. He was exiled most of his life out of France. So,
he lived most of his life travelling mostly in Europe. When he went to
Switzerland, he wrote the story Candide under a fake name because of
what the novel discusses and challenges the optimism philosophy and women role
at that time (Fraser, 2012, p172,173). Voltaire used the novel Candide to
not just to attack the optimism philosophy and challenge their
believers ,but also to highlight women’s position and their role in the society
in the 18th century. He used three female characters in his novel. Cunegonde, Paquette
and the old women who reflected the social practices at that time, like what it
is called as tradition marriage which is based on two families or institution
arranged marriage by the head of the two families or the institution because of
common political or financial benefit (Neil,
2012, p6). Also, to reflect on the cultural beliefs, women are as sex objects,
their values are based on their external beauty, ignoring the value of their
intellectual capacity, and what was represented in Candide’s characters
as flat females with no change except in their appearance, that is why females
in Candide have little complexity in the novel.
In the 18thcentury,
Alexander Pope and Leibniz are two philosophers who were rationalists. A
century which was built on god’s awareness, who knows everything, and perfect
who can do nothing wrong, unlike humans who have limited knowledge and are
imperfect creatures. They claimed that
the existing of suffering and pain in the world are because whatever it is
happens. It happens because of the great God of the world since he is aware of
it. But in case of something bad happened like the Lisbon Earthquake, it
happened because of the god, and it is his plan that we are not aware of it (Fraser, 2012,p 179, 181). So, how much sufferings and
pain we have faced, we have to believe that it all happened because of god
which is clear on what Pope has said “Whatever is, is Right”. He also said “All
partial evil , universal good” (Fraser, 2012,p182, 183). While they gave
religious reasons for human being why they are being malicious toward one
another, the existing of greed, cruelty, and warfare because our nature has
been corrupted since the original sin which made us
responsible for the existing of all bad things. Also, our will that have always led us to act
badly. Meanwhile for the existing of diseases, pains, and hunger because of the cause and effect in
the world. If you did something bad, something terrible will happen to you as
well as the opposite (Fraser, 2012,
p183, 184).On the other hand, there is Voltaire who has seen their beliefs of
optimism are wrong, and against it
because it bluffs and tricks
people. His philosophy is based on empirical which means he concludes and draws
his philosophy from his previous experience in life. Moreover,
he created Candide to carry his opinion of optimism, while making Pangloss
carries Leibniz and Pope Philosophy. Dr Pangloss who invited, convinced and
kept repeating, not just to the leading character, but also to the rest of the
characters about optimism and how it all for the great god, while they examined
it by what they were going through in the novel. The characters have examined
Leibniz and Pope’s philosophy of optimism by making them go through sufferings
that happened in reality like Lisbon Earthquake and the Seven Years War. He also used Pope’s words against him and
Leibniz “This is all for the best” responding to the sufferings that happen; like
when he said it after the Earthquake, which clearly made fun of them. Moreover,
it reflected his thoughts on optimism, and to make us re-think of optimistic
philosophy. What is the best for all of them? What could be the best concluding
from an Earthquake that killed thousands of people? And if God is good or bad?
Is he really the one who is responsible for everything bad that have happened, and
happening to us? And why god does this to us? (Fraser, 2012, p.178,179). At the
end of the story, Voltaire gives us his opinion and his conclusion by Candide
who concludes that, humans being can do something good in this world and not
all sufferings are caused by god or neutral, but there are also a lot of
sufferings that was caused by humans. Moreover, humans need to work on their
garden so they can work, create, and make their own happiness. ( Nisbet, 2013,
P. 179).
Voltaire was considered
to be one of the first writers who speaks on behalf of women in the 18th
century. He gives them voice to tell their own stories from their own
perspective. Voltaire has discussed the
concept of women at that time when they are
being treated as sex objects, slaves to the male society. Also who have
no equality, or opinions in their life through three characters Cunegonde,
Paquette and the old woman. They have been through a lot in their journeys in the novel, and their
development to emphasize the unfairness
treatment to women at that time. As I said before women were ranked based on
their beauty leaving no space for other skills to flourish. For example ,first
is Cunegonde who is in the beginning of the novel was described as “rosy-
cheeked, was fresh, plump and appetizing’’ while Candide described her as
“extremely beautiful” comparing it with the end when Voltaire said that “she unaware of how ugly she had
become, no one have told her” while Candide described her and said “ her eye bloodshot, her breasts sunken, her
cheeks lined , her arms red and chapped, was seized with horror announce she is became ugly and have no intention on
marring her out of love anymore but
because he made a promise to her which make clear that when her beauty gone his
love for her gone as well” (Voltaire and C uffe 2006, p3,88,89) . Second is the
old woman who was un-named by
Voltaire even though she was once a princess, who had a high class life, but
later on she had gotten a lot of sufferings by getting raped, stabbed, and sold
as a slave after she was gotten bored of by her master, and described as being
old and ugly (Voltaire and Cuffe 2006, p.24, 25). Lastly is Paquette who was no more than “a pretty and
obedient brunette”, which suggested that they were flat characters that we do not
know anything about their personalities or the way they think. Moreover, we
only know their appearances in which we can make convictions of the flat
characters in the novel, and the role of women in the 18th
century. Women were forced to have flat
position in society, no matter of them or their family position. From the three
characters that was gave in Candide, we can see
that the class and values in their society, compared to men was depended on
their beauty. Beauty means
everything in the 18th
century, in which women gets married if
they were beautiful and belongs to high
class, and if they do not they become a mistress to men in high position as
well, or become a prostitute for a living (Voltaire and Cuffe 2006, p. 4, 88, 89). From here I can see that Voltaire is trying
to attack and send a message to his society to highlight the attitudes about
the gender role of women in their society trying to stop it and to bring
equality to women. Their story’s development suggested that, women can survive like
how the women in Candide did. For example, Voltaire gave them the
opportunity to narrate in his novel so that we can hear their voices,
inequality, and the unfairness that they have been through. Also, the reader of
that time fall sympathy for them, and tried to bring them their rights.
(Voltaire and Cuffe 2006,p,19,25).
The first female in Candide’s
novel is Cunegonde, a woman who have been through a lot of sufferings and
terrible experiences. She watched her father getting cut by his throat by buglers, then her mother got
chopped into pieces, and she is being rapped. She was taken as a prisoner and
was treated as maid, slave, and mistress. She got sold several times after her
master’s got bored of her. Voltaire has pictured her as a sex object, being
shared between two men (Voltaire and Cuffe 2006, p19, 20). What she went
through have made a relationship connection to her name, which gave her
different meanings. The first is Henry II, virtuous wife which clearly have a
sexual signal. Second is that it has
some kind of a reference which is a sexual plaything (Fraser, 2012,
p.185).Cunegonde’s character has
similarities and differences from fairy tales. The similarities are both
have beautiful appearances, and very
desirable to men. While the differences
are by the extravagant sufferings,
and the struggles that
Cunegonde have been through to make fun
of fairy tales, and to clarify that they do not have a realistic story, and
there is no such thing as living happily ever after which is an impossible
thing in real life. Another difference is that Candide did not propose to her
out of love, but out of pity. That is the reason that shows us that she is not
a romantic heroine. We can see how
Voltaire contrasted the ideas of optimism
through Cunegonde’s sufferings. If whatever
suffering happens to the individuals it is all for the greater good. We
here ask ourselves, What is the good thing that could come out of suffering like that? At the end of the novel
Cunegonde was delivered by Candide who
paid for her freedom then married her, and lived in the Garden, but it is not
like any other gardens such as ‘’the Garden of Eden’’ or the garden in
‘’Thunder-ten-tronckh’’. It is in the garden that Candide and other characters
had to work to achieve their own happiness. Cunegonde in this garden worked as
pastry chef.
Second character is Paquette as a female in the 18th
century who was a maid, had no high class family nor a man to marry her. The
only thing that she could ever survive with is by being a mistress to Pangloss.
She got seduced by her confessor, then
left the castle. She became a
mistress to a doctor and got beaten by his jealous wife. She went to prison, and
to get out of it, and
she had to become a mistress to the judge. It gave us a peak and focused our
attention on how she was being without a husband at that time which was an
impact on her. The most important point is that she worked as a prostitute to
survive, not by her choice, but because
of the cruel world; she said to Candide “Yesterday I was beaten by an officer
of the law; today I must seem in good humor to please a monk” (Voltaire and
cuffe 2006, p,73).The significance of
Paquette is that she is an extreme example for all the women in the
novel. We can generalize her character to
any other women to tell the reason why they are being like that,
agreeing to be a mistress to men who only see them for their physical beauty no
matter who they are or what is their position. Men who are buying, selling, raping and kidnapping
women. The reason that Paquette accepted
to be a prostitute even though she was disgusted, and did not want to be like
that, her awareness of the level of men
and women in her society shows how much powerful she is. The reasons of the
existing of the unfairness to women at
the time can be for cultural and for their traditions, boys and girls who
educated them, the difference, and the possession of men and women in the
society. The other reason is the education, in the 18th century
women who had the chance to get some education they did not get educated about their own rights or
their value as part of the society. The third reason is that there was no laws
at that time to protect women, like what we saw with Paquette (Bates, D, J
1995, p8 to 10). There is also a religious reason, like in Christianity, a
person who has the highest position in church are possessed by men like pope, while sisters are taking care
of the orphans, they think that women have to be obedient to God, family,
husband, and society. Now I see Paquette from a new perspective, she did not do
whatever she wanted, but she did what her society forced her to do, and she did
what she has to do, as well as to reflect on what women have to do to survive( (Bates, D, J 1995, p 41) At the end of the
story, Paquette was delivered by Candide, who gave her money and then she
wasted them. After that she went and lived with Candide, Cunegonde and the rest
of the characters in the Garden as well. She is working as an embroidered (Voltaire
and cuffe 2006, p93). So, women’s status at that century were possessed by men,
either that man is their family, husband, lover, or costumer, there was no
escape from that ugly truth. Until a writer like Voltaire highlights it and
tries to change it.
In conclusion we find that it is clear that Voltaire
have approached the gender role through the characterization of Cunegonde and
Paquette. It shows how women were
treated in the 18th century, from having inequality to misconduct,
and what the society, and the cultural forced them to go through.
References
-Nisbet, H. B. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. 1st ed. Oxford, U.K.:
Oxford University Press, 2013. Print.
-Fraser, R, (2012). Voltaire, Candide, or optimism in: The Renaissance
and long eighteenth century. 1sted: The Open University.
-Voltaire, and Cuffe, T. (2006) Candide or Optimisim. 1st ed London: penguin group.
-Wanddering Mind, The Position of Women in Voltire’s Candide Sakridge.
Umwbloge.org , date of access 11/25/2016
-Bebrah
J, Bates, B,A. , 1995 The Portrayal of Women in Selected Contes of Voltaire
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