Candide Chapter 11-12 Summary

In Chapters Eleven and Twelve, the old woman tells her story of misfortune. She was originally the daughter of the pope and a princess. She was engaged to the handsome prince of Massa-Carrara, but his mistress poisoned him before the wedding. Her mother decided to travel with her to another estate, but their ship was intercepted by pirates. The pirates searched them, raped them, and took them to Morocco as slaves. When they arrived, however, there was a battle going on and the natives tried to steal the booty from the pirates. This resulted in all the other ladies being torn into pieces, as she hid behind the captain. Finally, everyone died and she lay in a pile of corpses. She dragged herself to a tree and passed out, waking to a eunich trying rape her. She told him her story and passed out again. He took her to his home and took care of her, discovered that he had worked as a musician at her mother ' s chapel, and promised to take her with him back to Italy. Instead he sold her to the dey of Algiers, and soon the black plague hit. She survived, but was sold to various traders and ended up under the ownership of an aga of the Janizaries. He was sent to battle and took his harem with him to live in a fort. Eventually, their army was stuck in the fort and had to resort to eating the women for food rather than surrender. However, a Muslim chaplain convinced them to cut one buttock off each woman rather than kill them, saying Heaven will be pleased and help will come if they do. Ironically, the Russians arrived and killed every Janizary soon after they finish their meal. When she healed, she traveled all over Russia and considered

suicide on numerous occasions, but realized she loved life too much. She resents her inclination to live and says she has only heard of twelve people who have actually gone through with killing themselves. When she finally ended up as a servant for Cunegonde, she became more interested in her affairs than her own. She