Here Candide is at a loss after deciding to marry Cunégonde and announcing his plans to the Governor. With a Spanish magistrate in pursuit of him for murdering the Grand Inquisitor, Candide was forced to flee and leave his lady behind. The Governor already confessed his passion and let her know he would marry her with or without approval of the church. Candide is unaware of this and still fears for her future as he must leave her behind.

Cacambo’s comment is referential to the consumptive nature women are discussed in. It is suggested that women are looked after by God, but raises questions about this God if he was looking after Cunégonde and the old woman when they were raped, pillaged, and mutilated. Is this an angry God? Is this God patriarchal and only supportive of women as accessories and objects?

Women were and are often still seen as objects to possess; what one man leaves behind, another will assume the rights to. The way Cacambo sees this, is that because another man will assume the responsibility of her, she will be taken care of—the quality of that care seems to be irrelevant.

Consent was not a term or idea recognized or discussed until well into the 20th century. Women had little to no agency to accept marriage proposals (much less deny them), especially when they lacked royal titles, wealth, stature, or family.

In Cunégonde’s case, though she had been a well-off lady before the fall of her house, no one recognized her as such after the tragedy as she had no proof, no male familial relations present to vouch for her or consent on her behalf. She was thus left at the mercy of men who thought her beautiful enough to claim.The same can be said for the Pope's daughter.

There is an interesting dynamic occurring in this scene with a lady of fashion, and her young daughter, in the mix in important financial affairs-- securing their wealth and clientele.

In Gillian Russell's article "Faro's Daughter's" he discusses female gamesters, politics, and finance discourse. Though Russell's focus is on Britain in 1760's, Voltaire's 1759 Candide is relevant to relate.

Gambling was obsessed over by all classes, as is evident in the disparity among the hostess, banker, and "poor people who tried to repair the cruelties of fate." However, gambling was indulged to the most dramatic and conspicuous extent by men and women of the elite who could afford to bet and lose the equivalent of millions of dollars at a night’s play. This behavior was condemned as a sign of “moral degeneracy and irresponsible of the fashionable classes" (481). Gambling was a form of luxury and display of wealth and anxieties were more acute during social and political upheaval.

Interestingly, though criticism existed in regards to male gamblers and their frivolous use of wealth, the main criticism was placed on the upper-class women of fashion who operated the Faro tables often referred to “Faro ladies.” Roles of women as guardians of the domestic virtues and the wealth of the nation were used to assert forms of limited power. Female involvement and roles were threats to aristocratic and middle-class men due to their control over entrepreneurial interests and to the established codes of feminine behavior.

Alternate translation: "..who had robbed him, affected his spleen and plunged him into the deepest melancholy"

The Four Humours including Blood, Phlegm, Black Bile, and Yellow Bile are metabolic agents in the human body that had to be balanced in order to maintain health.

According to Greek Medicine's classifications, Yellow Bile = The Choleric Humor, linked to the gall bladder, provokes, excites and emboldens the passions. Being inflammatory, irritating and caustic, it provokes anger, irritability, boldness, ambition, envy, jealousy and courage. Black Bile = The Melancholic Humor, linked to the spleen, makes one pensive, melancholy and withdrawn. It encourages prudence, caution, realism, pragmatism and pessimism.

According to The Anatomy of Melancholy by Democritus Junior: “As it is in a man's body, if either head, heart, stomach, liver, spleen, or any one part be misaffected, all the rest suffer with it: so is it with this economical body” (40).

In “The Angry Liver, the Anxious Heart and the Melancholy Spleen," Thomas Ots suggests that “grumbling anger corresponds with the spleen” and encourages his readers to “note the proximity of this concept to the Hippocratic notions of “choleric” and “melancholic” (41).

The villainy of mankind has been affecting Candide directly and indirectly while he suppresses his natural anger toward his misfortunes and constant obstacles in his path.