Chapter 8 - The History of Cunegonde
- Chapter 1 (23)
- Chapter 2 (9)
- Chapter 3 (21)
- Chapter 4 (19)
- Chapter 5 (22)
- Chapter 6 (10)
- Chapter 7 (14)
- Chapter 8 (11)
- Chapter 9 (14)
- Chapter 10 (9)
- Chapter 11 (12)
- Chapter 12 (16)
- Chapter 13 (5)
- Chapter 14 (6)
- Chapter 15 (4)
- Chapter 16 (3)
- Chapter 17 (6)
- Chapter 18 (8)
- Chapter 19 (6)
- Chapter 20 (6)
- Chapter 21 (0)
- Chapter 22 (0)
- Chapter 23 (2)
- Chapter 24 (0)
- Chapter 25 (0)
- Chapter 26 (0)
- Chapter 27 (0)
- Chapter 28 (0)
- Chapter 29 (0)
- Chapter 30 (0)
This page contains a running transcript of all conversations taking place in Candide organized by chapter. Click through the menu on the left to view the comments in each section of the book. Click “Go to thread” to see the comment in context. You can also browse comments by reader.
Total comments in book: 226
With this you see Candide’s ignorance and naiveté. After Cunegonde’s outbreak of the horrors that has taken place once Candide was exiled, Candide chooses a rather frivolous way of responding. most people would have apologized for what has happened or feel remorse but it seems as though Candide doesn’t grasp the severity of what has happened; it’s almost as if he feels that since she is alive, all is well. This contrast gives a powerful stance on the injustice of the role of the woman, which you see more of with the story of the old woman, for men cannot understand the situations a woman will find herself in especially in times of war.
Go to threadVoltaire’s blunt presentation of this chilling scene, which was all too common in war, satirizes the propensity of humans to rationalize violent acts as “usual”.
Go to threadI have found this as an interesting and reoccurring theme throughout the novel. I think that this is a main topic Voltaire is satirizing. The specific instance fiction does not meet reality through the process in which Cunegonde strictly reacts to the situation. The characters through the entire novel seem to not be aware of the actions that they have done or have been done to them. Another instance of this is in Chapter 15 when Candide killed his former master and says “I’m the kindest man in the world, yet I have already killed three men”. After stating this he flees and the book moves forward. Voltaire uses this non-luminary device to add a sense of humor to the novel
Go to threadIt is almost incredible that a person that has suffered as many indignities and losses as Cunegonde would find something as innocent as a kiss as reason enough to cling to life. Her reunion with Candide is like an opiate, which eases the pain of her dreadful experiences. The mention of something as mundane as hunger exemplifies her continuous physical and spiritual will to endure.
Go to threadThe horror and terrifying circumstances that Cunegonde was in seem a bit absurd. The inferiority of women to men is visibly evident in the previous lines. She is treated as an object that can be sold and traded. The situation becomes even stranger and to a sense comical when Candide’s responds to the description of the wound on her thigh, “I hope I shall see it.” This line not only adds comical relief, but also represents his primitive stage of his reeducation toward evil and equality.
Go to threadAs a longtime reader of classical and neoclassical texts, I find Cunegonde’s relation here fascinating. Her insistence that “A modest woman may be ravished once, but her virtue is strengthened by it” flies in the face of literary representations of rape from antiquity through the eighteenth century. The classical standard, of course, is the chaste Lucretia, the Roman matron raped by Sextus Tarquinius, the corrupt son of the last king of Rome, who desired to violate Lucretia because of her reputation for virtue. Lucretia then committed suicide in order to preserve her modesty. Frequently, the raped woman is an insupportable anomaly, especially when women’s sexual value is determined by their virginity or marital chastity.
But Cunegonde insists that her virtue stems from her modesty, a personal rather than physical quality, a distinction that clearly separates the violation of her “self” from the violation of her “body.” This fairly unusual move has important consequences: it both allows Cunegonde to relate a story that would otherwise be nonnarratable, and enables her to live her life without the stigma of violation. That Cunegonde is raped and doesn’t die undermines familiar narratives in which the modest, raped heroine perishes in order to maintain the fiction of bodily sexual virtue.
Go to threadThe matter-of-factness with which Voltaire describes Cunegonde’s rape is chilling: although she doesn’t realize it at the time, rape is “the usual practice of war.” This is one of the many interesting moments in the text where fiction approaches reality. Although Cunegonde’s narrative is rather fantastic, rape itself is only surprising in its banality, especially in the context of warfare. As we will learn moving forward, almost all of the main female characters are subject to sexual violence of some kind.
Go to threadI also love this interpretation of “Glitter and Be Gay” from Robert Carsen’s production of Candide which has toured Europe over the past several years.
The song becomes associated with Marilyn Monroe’s “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (and Madonna’s “Material Girl” music video). The reference could not be reversed: neither of those iconic actresses could take on the high notes in “Glitter and Be Gay.” Marilyn was famous for her breathy coo; Madonna was once famously compared to “Minnie Mouse on helium.” I would really, really like to hear Mariah Carey’s take on “Glitter and Be Gay,” though, given her past history… she has sung some thematically similar version of this song on Butterfly and The Emancipation of Mimi.
Go to thread“Maybe I can have the jewels, the champagne, that extensive wardrobe,” Blackwell explains Cunegonde’s attempt to make sense of the situation. “Perhaps it is ignoble to complain. She goes back and forth!” This is the virtuosic part of the song, when Cunegonde tries to convince herself of how she’ll “show her noble stuff, by being bright and cheerful.”
Pearls and ruby rings
Ah, how can worldly things
Take the place of honor lost?
….
Can they dry my tears?
Can they blind my eyes to shame?
“The lyrics are great,” Blackwell says as she’s remembering the lines and acting out Cunegonde’s story. “They really do say it all.” I ask if the aria’s virtuosity is the musical equivalent of all those baubles, where any actress can glitter and be gay. “Yes, exactly! That’s it. It’s an endurance piece.”
Go to thread“Everything around her is disaster,” said Blackwell. “This dire, dire circumstance of her family being killed, she has seen Candide tortured…
“Forced to bend my soul,
Go to threadTo a sordid role.”
I spoke to Harolyn Blackwell, who played Cunegonde on Broadway in the 1997 revival of Leonard Bernstein’s operetta, about her thoughts on the heroine. We talked about how Cunegonde is a fuller role in the operetta. “There’s a more optimistic look on life for Cunegonde. She goes through all these tribulations…” She began to sing lines from the final song of the show, “Make Our Garden Grow”: “I thought the world was sugarcake…”
“Yes, we both thought that,” Blackwell explained, taking on the voice of Cunegonde as she reminds Candide what they have both learned on their travels. “But this is what life is about. Through that optimism there’s a practical way of living.”
Cunegonde’s rape and subjugation become a show-stopping aria, “Glitter and Be Gay” in Bernstein’s operetta. In Voltaire’s telling, Cunegonde takes control of the story as she narrates her story for two chapters. In Bernstein’s operetta, she rules the stage. “I think ‘Glitter and Be Gay’ says it all,” said Blackwell. Here Blackwell became Cunegonde once again: she sang the lyrics of the song as her explanation of the character. Think of these annotations for this chapter as musical annotations…
Go to thread