Candide Optimism Analysis

Voltaire. Candide, Or, Optimism. London: Penguin, 2006. Print. Candide or Optimism: A Novel Criticizing Numerous Ideologies

Who is the savant Voltaire and what philosophies did he criticize in his novel Candide or Optimism? François-Marie Arouet otherwise called Voltaire is a French philosopher who composed many articles, books and ballads amid the enlightenment period. A lot of his works were censored by the French because of the way that he besmirched everything and anything that had to do with religious corruption and the justice system.To battle the restrictions placed on him at the time, Voltaire had quite a bit of his works printed abroad, and he distributed them under a shroud of accepted names and nom de plumes. His acclaimed novella

In his novel, Voltaire examines the abuse of women during the eighteenth century through the female characters in the novel. Cunegonde, Paquette, and the Old Woman endure sexual abuse and assault paying little mind to riches or political associations. These characters have almost no unpredictability or significance in Candide. With his portrayal of Cunegonde, Paquette, and the Old Woman, Voltaire satirizes the role of women and highlights the ineptitude of women during the eighteenth century. Cunegonde is the young daughter of a well off German lord. She is depicted as “extremely beautiful”(Voltaire 4) and is frequently referred to as “the beautiful Cunegonde”(Voltaire 39). She is the epitome of a damsel-in-distress meaingg that she is completely dependent of the insurance of men, also she is weak hearted fainting at anything that may cause her distress. Be that as it may Voltaire does not fault Cunegonde on her candor of her femininity. Cunegonde could be considered admirable due to the fact that shes’s doing what needs to be done in order to survive like any othere women would have done during that time, even thought she is consistently being raped. Voltaire makes what is considered heinous and monstrous in to something that could be seen as a completely normal occurrence. What I find funny is that Voltaire was an activist for the rights of women yet he protrayed the female characters as being once beautiful and wealthy i.e the old women being the daughter of Urban Pope X and Cunegonde daughter of a German Baron or being a tramp in the case of Paquette which proves how well Voltaire utilizes