Hope or Disappointment

“It was wonderful how quickly these gentlemen can strip people; but what surprised me more was that they put their finger into a place where women normally admit nothing but a siringe-tube.”(Pg 51)That quote has both irony and absurdity (as in crazy) clearly. What exactly defines a gentleman? What I know is that it means that a man is educated, has good manners, is sensitive, is civilized and respects others especially women. In the quote the men are doing the opposite of being a gentleman, yet they are called that way. Isn’t that a bit ironic?

These men didn’t even care if they were princesses or just the fact that they were women, they just wanted to find diamonds or things that would bring them wealth and took away the dignity of the women.  What impresses me the most is that in that sentence the word “wonderful” was incorporated. How is the world wonderful which has a positive connotation to all of the people (or most) with an act so humiliating and indignant? How could the old lady be thinking about “how wonderful” it was that some men were stripping her? THAT is absurd.

This women is an example a mature experienced women, and she has gone through so many things in life that she has lost hope and isn’t optimistic anymore. I think here Voltaire is contrasting the old women, Abigail, with Candide. Candide had… Luck, lots of luck in his life. Things turned out the way he wanted most of the times, and if they were not the way he wanted at least they were getting there. Abigail in the other hand lost everything she had and had to become a slave. She went through so many obstacles and adversities in life that she became a pessimistic person. Well not exactly pessimistic but she wasn’t as naïve as she was before.

I think one of the things that bothered Voltaire the most was that sometimes people pretend to know it all. People pretend to be in your shoes, but they will never know how you feel or what you think about life after something very painful has happened to you. We expect people to know what it feels but they have no way of knowing so their only way of trying to make YOU feel better is by being optimistic. By showing you that maybe they are not as strong as you are but that they have hope in you, hope in life and hope in the future.