Throughout Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire’s Candid or Optimism, the author uses satire and great exaggeration to point out some of the ways society viewed women: “After the diamonds and gold, we women were the most prized possessions.” (Voltaire 536). With this words, the old woman tried to explain to Candid and Cunegonde how her people viewed her and thought of her in particular. I think she was trying to impress them-while she may have, the old woman did not impress the reader of today’s society. Today, women have the same rights as men, they can vote, go to school, choose between a carrier and a family and most importantly (in most civilized societies) women are worth more than diamonds and gold. If a friend was telling me her story, and she said this quote, that she was 3rd place in her husband’s life, I would tell her that is wrong and that they both need help. Voltaire also displays a lot of passion in this story. Candid keeps justifying everything that has gone wrong by the thoughts of his teacher Pangloss, especially towards the end when he reconciles with Cunegonde. Candid tried to explain Cunegonde what a man could do for love when he gave her his reasons for killing the Jew and a prelate. “My dear girl, replied Candide, when a man is in love, jealous, and just whipped by the Inquisition, he is not longer himself.” (Voltaire 533). I think today’s society views love the same way, however everyone (like Cunegonde) knows that killing for passion is not the right thing to do.
It has definitely been a common theme in all three of our readings that women were considered property. I think Candide is actually one of the least biased stories though, I don’t imagine Voltaire really viewed women differently from Swift, but he was at least fairly even in his satire of people of both genders. I think that when the old woman is telling her story to Candie, Voltaire shows that he at least understood to some extent the hypocrisy of men towards women. When she is telling how she came to be a slave she remarks that “Similar scenes were occurring, as is well known, for more than three hundred leagues around, without anyone skimping on the five prayers a day decreed by Mohammed” (Voltaire 536). While Voltaire was not specifically addressing the women/men relationship in society, I think he is calling foul on the hypocrisy of society, which certainly extended to their treatment of women.
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