Question

How do the experiences of the women in Candide differ from those of the men?

I need enough information to be able to write a 3 page paper.

Answer 1

• The experiences of women have been depicted as victims suffering from violence and cruelty.The women characters have not been the main focus since men have been more in focus playing a significant part.Women characters were merely support male characters,and not really well defined.
• Women experiences in Candide have been graphically presented in a manner showing exploitation of women.The sad and horrendous experiences of women,being raped and forced into sexual slavery gives readers a view of the author's stance on women.
• The author used these experiences of women to highlight the imminent dangers the women are suscpectible to and struggle with.Women in the 18th century existed for the pleasure of men and were subjugated to these men.
• Women were depicted weak and damsel in distress,who need a male to help them.They were depicted naive,who were unable to make decisions without someone helping them.
• Cunegonde accepts her fate as a woman,she knows she has few options if she wishes to survive in the male dominated world.She accepts the sexual slavery,understanding her fate and status as woman during that time.
• Women in the 1800s had very few choices for make progress in life. They could either marry well or they could become the mistress of a powerful and wealthy man or both.  Women were valued for their beauty and could only succeed if they had a pretty face to recommend them for slavery or prostitution.Men enjoyed the superior status over women.
• Women were seen as objects who could be bartered by men for their pleasure,and the woman had no say in this.They had less rights and basically no voice and courage to fight for themselves.
• Also it is this apparent lack of character development by the author which illustrates the insignificance of women roles in 18th Century society.Even the author did not dig deeper into character development of women and just restricted it too physical characteristics and being the weaker gender.