Purity and truthfulness have lost themselves. Candide (candid) has taken a turn for
the worst. After some chapters that used
humor and jocose satire, the novel has become dark. What does Voltaire want to accomplish with
this radical change?
“In the end I saw my mother and all our Italian ladies torn
limb from limb, slashed, and massacred by the monsters who fought them.”
Notice how Voltaire chooses the words wisely. He says, “In the end” as if to say that after
that nothing else is relevant. The story
could be stopped with the conclusion of this bloody episode. Furthermore, he makes the reader visualize
this horrific act by describing it with pinpoint accuracy.
Some might say that Voltaire is taking his turn to criticize
women. He has joined the club of those who think they are inferior. This may seem true, but it isn’t what he
wanted to accomplish. We must remember
that at the time when the book was written, women were not the activists that
they are today. In some cases, they were treated poorly. So this isn’t what Voltaire wanted to
portray. This can be proven, or
disproven, with the following description of the Old Woman. “White as a lily, and as firmly and elegantly
molded as the Venus de Medici’s.” He is
objectifying women as sexual elements, but he praises them. He describes the woman with class, pun
intended, and compares them to highly esteemed things. The first is a lily, which we know, is, by
nature, beautiful. The second is the
Venus de Medici’s, a sculpture that depicts the Greek goddess of love:
Aphrodite. Do you still think he thinks
they're rubbish?
Voltaire is starting to remind me of Quentin Tarantino. Both of them boast a satirical style, they’re
not afraid of being crude and graphic, and they always want to leave the
reader/viewer with an obscure message.
In reference to that second point, about the crudity, Voltaire’s
depiction of the slaughter of women is as gruesome as the ear-cutting scene in
Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs.
I look forward to finding out where this
spectacle will take the plot of the book.
Moreover, I look forward to a scene where Voltaire goes all out and
empowers a character to depict exactly what he thinks of the world.
(viewer discretion is advised)
Mateo,
ResponderEliminarWhat a great blog post. I find the relation between of Voltaire and Tarantino to be strong as well. Both use strong scenery to leave the audience shocked and so make them understand their point. In Reservoir Dogs, when Mr Blonde starts dancing and torturing the cop, it’s quite funny. With the little we know of Mr Blonde, we know he is crazy and shot almost 10 cops in the heist. Yet his dancing and the way he treats the cop is ironic and absurd. The satire makes us understand that some criminals are mad and they hate cops, no matter what their names are. Another relation between the director and the French philosopher worth establishing is the adoration for women. A similar scene to the one you mentioned in your blog “White as a lily…” occurs in Inglorious Basterds with a static shot of a woman using lipstick, depicting female adoration.