Candide: Women’s Roles In Society In Voltaire’s Candide, Cunegund serves as the main character as Candide’s love interest in the story. Cunegund transforms throughout the story from a beautiful princess to an ugly woman that has been taken advantage of by many men at the end of the story. In this transition of Cunegund, the audience sees what role women play in society during this time period. In the beginning of the novel, Cunegund is living a privileged life of being a young princess, as she is the daughter of the Baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh. Cunegund is very young, naïve, and extremely beautiful. “She is seventeen years of