Candide Blog #2

Phelps, Sydney; Entry #2
Dear Rachel,
     I am in agreement with you that Voltaire does condemn a lot of religions in this book for being hypocritical or cruel. He condemns Catholicism, Protestants, Islam and he also observes the cruelty and absurdity of the Inquisition. In the auto-da-fe ritual, "Candide was flogged in time with the singing, the Biscayan and the two men who had refused to eat pork were burned, and Pangloss was hanged"(31). Voltaire seems to make a judgment on the cruelty of the Inquisition and these public penances of the auto-da-fe. (I researched what an auto-da-fe was and got my information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-da-f%C3%A9).  He also makes them seems cruel by the absurd "crimes" that they committed. He says they were punished for not eating pork and for talking and listening with an air of approval-- which are ridiculous reasons to be killed or tortured. The reason why Voltaire is so judgmental to religions is that he is a deist and believes in a universal and impersonal God. In the introduction Voltaire says, "I shall blame every nation that has abandoned the universal God for all these phantoms of private gods"(5).
   I was surprised that Cunegonde was alive and returned in the story. I thought she had died and just had been another tragedy in Candide's life. I believer her situation adds to the exaggeration of people's sufferings and life and also brings to light the absurdity of women being traded and sold like slaves and the cruelty of women being treated like property. I think the woman's stories are also very similar to those of Cunegonde's and add to the denial of optimism because of all the evil in the world. (I again got some information of the woman's significance in the story from sparknotes.com).
   I believe that Candide wishes Pangloss was with him very often because terrible things are happening to him and Cunegonde and he can no longer explain these terrible events with Pangloss' philosophy. Candide starts to question the philosophy and says, "If this is the best of all possible worlds, what are the others like?"(31). Later on, he also says that, "it's the New World that's the best of all possible worlds"(41). But, it seems as though Candide discovers that the New World is no better than Europe because he has to flee and leave Cunegonde in Buenos Aires and he ends up killing Cunegonde's brother. The woman that accompanies them has a worldview based off of her experience in this world and she acknowledges the evil in the world, which Candide fails to acknowledge.
   The woman's talk of suicide almost reminds me of Hamlet's "to be or not to be" speech. She says, "what could be more stupid than to persist in carrying a burden that we constantly want to cast off?"(49). Her reasoning for suicide is similar to Hamlet's, in the aspect that life is so full of burdens and sufferings that it almost seems reasonable to want to end your life. The woman does not believe in optimism like Candide or Cunegonde, rather she is rather pessimistic of this world because of her sufferings. Despite her pessimism, the woman still has hope and "loves life", so she does not commit suicide. I think this reveals that the woman has a strong and courageous character.
  I think Voltaire mentions rape so much because it is a terrible thing to happen to a woman. It just reinforces the idea that this world is full of evils and is not the "best possible world". I think Voltaire also addresses the issue of women being treated like property, being sold, raped, and enslaved.