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The old woman, whom Candide first meets in Lisbon, is Cunégonde’s servant. Despite the unpredictable journeys that the characters endure throughout the novella, the old woman remains loyal to her mistress and does all she can to keep Candide and Cunégonde safe. The old woman plays an integral role in reuniting Candide with Cunégonde after their first separation, an act which reinvigorates the passion he has for her. Perhaps even more importantly, however, is the impact that the old woman’s backstory has on the novella’s primary arguments. While on their journey to Buenos Aires, she explains to Candide and Cunégonde that she has lived a very difficult life, suffering in almost every way imaginable. Each horror she endures allows Voltaire to critique a different aspect of humanity and expand on arguments introduced in other scenes. The old woman is the daughter of a pope and a princess, a position which invites an examination of both religious figures and the aristocracy. The fact that Pope Urban X has a daughter at all implies a blatant disregard for the laws of the church, and the extreme wealth that surrounds the old woman as she grows up highlights the overindulgent nature of the aristocracy.
While Voltaire rebukes these groups elsewhere in the novella, the continual misfortune that the old woman faces suggests that these supposedly ideal social conditions are useless in preventing suffering. She goes on to experience the loss of her husband, sexual violence at the hands of pirates, senseless and brutal warfare, life as a sex slave, the plague, and cannibalism. This seemingly endless list emphasizes the pervasiveness of suffering and cruelty among mankind, and yet the old woman tells Candide and Cunégonde that she loves life. In one of the novella’s more genuine moments, she suggests that humans have an innate will to live that no degree of pain can fully extinguish. Her reflections offer a note of optimism among a series of bleak events, reminding the reader that life is worth living despite its inevitable challenges. Even when she is able to finally live a peaceful life at Candide’s farm, the old woman continues to embrace this philosophy by staying busy and finding a sense of purpose.
