In Voltaire's novel, Candide, three
themes stand out in the old woman's tale.
The old woman has
not always been a servant; in fact, she was once a member of the nobility—the Princess
of Palestrina. The first theme I would identify would be that being born to greatness
does not guarantee lifelong happiness. For instance, the old woman speaks of her
betrothal to a prince of Massa-Carrara.
I was about to reach the peak of my happiness
when an old marchesa who'd once been my prince's mistress invited him to her house for
chocolate. He died in less than two hours, with horrible
convulsions.
The second theme
is that even when we feel that our lives are terrible, or our experiences the worst we
can imagine, there are always others who have had more trials, more pain, than
we.
For example, even as Candide and Cunégonde despair over
their dire straits, the old woman's tale shares experiences far worse than their own,
which they cannot deny.
The third theme is found in the old
woman's reaction to what she has experienced:
I've wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but
I still love life. That ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our most pernicious
inclinations. What could be more stupid than to persist in carrying a burden that we
constantly want to cast off, to hold our existence in horror, yet cling to it
nonetheless...
In other
words, even when we feel our lives are at their worst, there is a love of life that
persists within, driving us forward, refusing to release the very thing that causes us
so much pain. Perhaps the old woman is intimating that although we may feel very low,
our spirit fights to survive.
There may be other themes
present in the old woman's story, but these are the three that stand out the most for
me.
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