Candide and The Three Spinners - Free Essay Example

In my opinion, Voltaires Candide opposed the ideas of Mary Wollstonecraft and the Enlightenment period. He demonstrates the inadequacy of women and portrayed them to be weak and inferior. The Three Spinners gives young impressionable girls the idea that there is a guy out there that would treat them like the Prince treated the girl in the story, and give her everything she could want, if she was beautiful. This is an unrealistic and unhealthy view in any relationship, no matter what the so-called benefits are. However, if you are not beautiful, The Three Spinners tells girls that if you would hard, you will be a desirable catch for marriage. I feel that both stories show you how women had extremely little alternatives if they wanted to survive or advance in life. Women either had to marry, become a mistress to a powerful man (sometimes both), or they had to be able to work hard in a skill trade to be able to survive. Neither of these stories supported the ideas of Mary Wollstonecraft and the Enlightenment period regarding equality for women. I feel that Voltaire did not value women equality when he wrote Candide. To me it felt that the women in Candide were just vulnerable characters that did not truly provide to the story. The women were rated by their looks with no acknowledgement of their intelligence at all. Each of the women, Cunegonde, Paquette, and the Old Woman, all fell victim to rape and/or sexual exploitation, that Voltaire appears to describe rather indifferently. I think that Voltaire tended to mock the womens hardships and focused on the helplessness of the women. Lets start with Cunegonde. She is the first female character to be mentioned in Candide. She is Candides cousin, the daughter of a wealthy German Baron and is described as fresh, plump, and desirable. (101) Cunegonde is your classic damsel-in-distress; entirely dependent on men to save, protect and provide for her. However, where Candide is naive and does not seem able to make decisions without the input of the people he is with at that time, Cunegonde is realistic and knows that she needs to use her beauty and sexuality to her benefit if she wants to survive. Paquette is the second female to be mentioned in Candide. Now the first time we read about her, Cunegonde sees her having sex with Pangloss. Paquette was described as that pretty maidservant to our august Baroness. (106) She is described after that by Pangloss as a whore who gave him syphilis. When Candide sees her again in Venice, she is working as a prostitute trying to make a living. Again, you have another female character seen for her sexuality verses her intelligence. The Old Woman is the daughter of Pope Urban the Tenth and the Princess of Palestrina. (115) She grew into a very beautiful woman who was engaged to be married to a prince. Until the mistress of her prince killed him. When she left the land she was living at, her ship was attacked, and everyone was killed, and she was raped. She was sold into slavery. She was used because of her beauty and sold from one man to another. The Old woman is later seen as Cunegondes advisor of some sorts though I dont think that is how Voltaire intended her to be. Cunegonde asked for a quarter-hour to collect herself, consult the old woman and make up her mind. (119) While she reunites Candide and Cunegonde, she is also the reason Cunegonde choses to marry the Governor instead of her love Candide. My lady, you have seventy-two quarterings and not one penny; if you wish, you may be the wife of the greatest lord in South America, who has a really handsome moustache; are you going to insist on your absolute fidelity? You have been raped by the Bulgars, a Jew and an Inquisitor have enjoyed your favors; miseries entitle one to privileges. I assure you that in your position I would make no scruple of marrying My Lord the Governor and making the fortune of Captain Candide. (119-120) The Old Woman seem to push what is equivalent of sex sales. Personally, I felt that the Old Woman made Cunegonde feel guilty about doing what she h ad to survive life. It seems that she was jealous that Cunegonde was reunited with her love, while the Old Womans love died before they were even married. In Candide, the women are portrayed as using their sexuality to leave their horrendous situations is by becoming someones mistress or wife. The way Voltaire was indifferent regarding the womens rape can point to his belief that women are inferior to men. For Voltaire to be such a crucial supporter of reason and the fact that he did not rely on others for guidance, then why do we not see him promoting womens equality within his writings? Spinning seems to have a large significance in the story of The Three Spinners as it is a represents womanhood. The mother in the story is angry and embarrassed that her daughter is lazy and refuses to do any spinning. She believes that her daughters unwillingness to spin thread would make her an undesirable candidate to be someones wife. If a person was poor, it was a womans ability to work hard to find a husband. Spinning would prove that the daughter was capable of hard work and was able to manage a household. How else would a woman be a good candidate for marriage if she could not provide proof she could manage a house? It was the mothers fear that her daughter would never marry that she decided to lie to the Queen. The Queen valued hard work and because of the lie the mother told, the daughter was promised a marriage to the Prince. The Three Spinners did teach to young girls that hard work is a value recognized by even the royalty. And that if they would work hard, it would be recognized and rewarded. However, the mother lied to the Queen and the daughter tricked the Queen into believing she was a hard worker. If it was not for the elderly spinners in the story, the daughter and mother would have been found out to be frauds. With the task of spinning finished, the daughter went onto to marry the Prince. It was at the wedding that the Prince met the spinners as the daughters aunts. The three spinners represent the results of hard work, because of spinning, they had physical deformities. Because of these deformities, the Prince told his wife she would never have to work again. The Three Spinners tells us that beauty and hard work are prized in society. If you are a beautiful woman, you do not have to work hard to find a suitable husband to marry. However, if you are an unattractive woman, if you work hard you will find a husband to marry. And while hard work is a good thing, in The Three Spinners, women are still being told they are not good enough if they do not fit into what society expects of them. Considering that one of the main ideas of Mary Wollstonecraft and the Enlightenment period is women equality, I feel that neither of the stories gave a good woman empowerment feeling to them. The 1800s gave women insufficient powers and that they needed men to be able to have any type of influence in life. These stories showed how little women had.