At the climax of Voltaire’s novel Candide, the main character Candide’s wife Cunegonde is enslaved in another country against her will. “A Bulgarian captain came in, saw me all bleeding, and the solder not in the least disconcerted. The captain flew into a passion at the disrespectful behavior of the brute, and slew him on my body.”(17) This image portrays Cunegonde being sexually abused and rescued by a member of the Bulgarian Army. This depicts the common theme between all of the female characters in the novel.
Voltaire’s novel tells the story of Candide’s travel through Europe after he was banished for kissing the Baron’s daughter, Cunegonde. The narrator for the most part is objective, but occasionally transforms into Candide’s Consciousness. As Candide travels on his own …show more content…
Cunegonde begins to describe the Bulgarian Army’s intrusion of the Baron’s Castle of Westphalia as well as the event of her rape as “the customary way of doing things.” (23) From the novel, the narrator displays the visual image: “Girls who had been disemboweled after having stated the natural needs of some of the heroes were breathing their last.”(9) Voltaire’s perspective of the female characters being raped is seen as “natural” and the rapist is known as the “hero” of the novel. Voltaire focusses on the little power women have in the novel.
The women in the novel understood that they did not have any influence and could only exercise influence through the men. The women in Candide such as the Old Woman, Cunegonde and Paquette are insignificant to the main events of the novel. The author grasps a male point of view and does not enable any of the female characters with intriguing qualities. The Old Woman, is said to be “world-weary” and is not worthy to have an actual label. Paquette claims to be attentive not on her duties as a chambermaid, but on the counts that she commits to men within the Baron’s Castle of
Voltaire’s novel tells the story of Candide’s travel through Europe after he was banished for kissing the Baron’s daughter, Cunegonde. The narrator for the most part is objective, but occasionally transforms into Candide’s Consciousness. As Candide travels on his own …show more content…
Cunegonde begins to describe the Bulgarian Army’s intrusion of the Baron’s Castle of Westphalia as well as the event of her rape as “the customary way of doing things.” (23) From the novel, the narrator displays the visual image: “Girls who had been disemboweled after having stated the natural needs of some of the heroes were breathing their last.”(9) Voltaire’s perspective of the female characters being raped is seen as “natural” and the rapist is known as the “hero” of the novel. Voltaire focusses on the little power women have in the novel.
The women in the novel understood that they did not have any influence and could only exercise influence through the men. The women in Candide such as the Old Woman, Cunegonde and Paquette are insignificant to the main events of the novel. The author grasps a male point of view and does not enable any of the female characters with intriguing qualities. The Old Woman, is said to be “world-weary” and is not worthy to have an actual label. Paquette claims to be attentive not on her duties as a chambermaid, but on the counts that she commits to men within the Baron’s Castle of