Student Question
What is the role of sex in the story of Candide?
Quick answer:
In Voltaire's Candide, sex is portrayed negatively, often leading to dire consequences and reflecting the story's pervasive pessimism. Candide's attempt to kiss Cunegonde results in his capture and forced military service. Instances of rape and sexual exploitation highlight sex as a tool for punishment and torture. The narrative includes syphilis and perverse encounters, further emphasizing sex's destructive nature. By the novel's end, love and passion are absent, reinforcing the theme of sex as a bleak, disillusioning force.
Voltaire's novel Candide repeatedly expresses a negative view on sex. There are many instances where sex is used in a negative way throughout the book, all of which accelerate the story and perpetuate the pessimism felt throughout. For example, Candide is infatuated with a young woman named Cunegonde, and the two overhear Pangloss, who is a tutor in the Baron's castle, having sex with Paquette, a chambermaid. During this instance, Cunegonde entices Candide to kiss her, because they are both intrigued by what they heard in the bushes. However, as a direct result of attempting to kiss Cunegonde, Candide is captured, evicted, and forced into military service, at which point he is brutally beaten and nearly killed.
Later on, it is revealed that Pangloss has been infected with syphilis, a painful venereal disease, after his affair with Paquette. This is the second instance of sex having bad consequences, and...
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there is scant evidence to contradict this idea in the text. Multiple women in the book are raped prior to being killed, which depicts sex being used as a form of punishment and torture instead of a loving union between two individuals. Cunegonde is eventually sold to a Jewish merchant, who takes turns with an Inquisitor from the Portuguese Inquisition using her as a concubine.
Later on in the work, Candide encounters a couple of monkeys pursuing a couple of naked women. He believes the monkeys are attacking the women, so he kills them. It is later remarked that the monkeys may have been the women's lovers, which shows a perverse and corrupted side of sex that is almost as disturbing as much of the sexual violence depicted earlier.
At the close of the novel, Candide finally marries Cunegonde, but the passion and love have departed from the relationship, as they are now both pessimistic and Cunegonde has lost her beauty and vivacity. Voltaire depicts love between the married couple, and by extension sex, as being dull and fabricated. Sex is frequently used as a punishment, and it is shown to have disastrous consequences in this work.