Can you imagine what it would be like to go from the life of your dreams to an absolute nightmare? Well, this is what happens to Cunégonde's waiting-woman. She was born a pope's daughter and lived in an immense castle. She married the man of her dreams, the one she loved "to the point of idolatry." However, this man died two hours after the wedding. So the now-widowed bride, left with her mom to mourn him in Gaeta, but her ship was attacked by pirates. Her life became a total wreck then.
I find it unbelievable how Voltaire takes any chance he can to criticize either the Church or the Aristocracy. Aren't popes forbidden from having sexual relationships? But this one apparently couldn't help himself and had a child. Way to maintain the Church's sincerity and stick to his vows. In addition, Voltaire makes fun of nobles by giving Buenos Aires's most important nobleman a long name and then saying he "had a degree of pride appropriate to one who bore so many names." The sarcasm is evident, and so is his hate towards these people in society.
Not only does he use satire to criticize society's elite, but also to show that women are treated as objects. First, the woman, her mother, and their servants are all raped while traveling to Gaeta. It is not outright said that they were raped, though. Voltaire just says that these men "put their fingers into a place where we women normally admit nothing but a syringe-tube," and leaves the interpretation to the reader. In addition, once they reach Morocco, men begin to fight for the women and end up dismembering them. Nice way to choose a winner, I must say. The woman is the only one left alive, and wakes up to a man trying to rape her. (Can't these men control themselves? It's one rape after another!) Nevertheless, they become friends and both the woman and the reader begin to trust this man. But as soon as one does, he sells the woman. So apparently, not even the nicest man can treat a woman like an actual person. Then, the woman is moved to Azov, which is sieged. So then the soldiers try to eat the women in the fortress. Fortunately, a "pious and compassionate"priest convinces them to "cut just one buttock of each of these ladies." It's truly nice of him, isn't it? Again, Voltaire is using irony to prove his point.
Although this woman has gone through terrible occurrences, she refuses to pity herself, something I truly admire. Most people, as it is even shown in the book, think their lives are awful and that they are great beings for upholding all this suffering. I must say, Im no exception and neither are most of the people I know. It is true, some people are more dramatic about it than others, but still everybody has thought at some point or another that their life is full of problems. So I do look up to the woman and how she is at no point seeking to have anybody say "Oh! You're so brave! You've been through so much!", but just believes these stories will reduce boredom. Maybe it's something we should all start doing: Stop self-pity. Pity solves nothing, so we might as well do anything else instead.
Grabriela, I also noticed how women were severely discriminated in the book. I think that it is very important to emphasize, as you did, that even the nicest of men betrayed women. This shows that in this time period women were definitely taken for granted and that Voltaire does criticize society.
ResponderEliminarI liked the way you touched on several of the important aspects the book covers, and how you mixed these events with your personal opinion. Your blog entry also helped me make the connection that The Declaration of Rights of Man and of Citizen also appeared during Voltaire´s time and were a fundamental document during the French Revolution. Chauvinism was very present at the time (as is evident throughout the story) and the examples you mentioned above clearly demonstrate this.
ResponderEliminarYou are right Gabriela. Throughout the whole book, Voltaire show us how badly women are treated. You have made me realize how we can not only see this through the old woman's story but also through Conegonde. She is a victim of war, raped, sold as a slave various times and treated as a piece of property, not as a human being. I believe Voltaire is expressing this through various characters because it was how women were treated in this time period and is surely criticizing it.
ResponderEliminar