Absurdity In Chapter Twelve

Chapter twelve has many absurd things. It tells the tale of the old woman, and not no my surprise, she had been through some ridiculous events. She first talks about what happens to castrated children. ""I was born at Naples", he told me, "where they castrate two or three thousand children every year. Some of them die, some acquire a more beautiful voice than any woman has, and others become Prime Ministers"" (p 54). I understand why they would have a nicer voice than a woman's. We just learned in Biology that when there isn't production of testosterone, there can't be secondary sexual characteristics, such as deepening of voice or facial hair. The sentence follows with: "others become Prime Ministers". This is completely unexpected. It's sudden but hilarious at the same time. Voltaire finds a very amusing way to make fun of the Prime Ministers, by comparing their voice to a child's. Children's voices are mostly ignored, so we can deduce Voltaire makes fun of how Prime Ministers are ignored too.

The next absurdity in the book, is on page fifty-six: ""Cut just one buttock off each of these ladies", he said, "and that will provide you with a delicious meal; if you find you need more, you can have as much again in a few days time"". Killing the women for food alone is outraging. But cutting of one buttock from each of them is outraging and absurd. Remembering the old lady saying "I can hardly keep my seat with only one buttock"(p. 46), and now knowing why, makes me laugh a little. I'm amazed at Voltaire's creativity and ability to break the boundaries. The reason why the old lady has only one buttock would have never occurred to me.

The last absurd scene I found in this chapter was on the following page. We had already come across this before. The old lady says, "I have grown old (with only half a behind), in misery and shame, but I have never forgotten that I am the daughter of the Pope". The target is clearly the church. A Pope having a daughter? That's a terrible accusation. This sentence is a great example of satire. It's very ironic for a Pope to have a daughter, very absurd for the old lady to have one buttock, and a great target to the Catholic religion. Keeping in mind Voltaire was a leading philosopher and writer of the Illustration, his target to the Catholic Church fits his life perfectly.

Without a doubt, Voltaire is a satire master.