Examples Of Satire In Candide

Unapologetic humorous satire is the main goal in Voltaire's novella “Candide”. Positive concepts such as love, religion, and optimism are cast in a negative and comedic fashion under his pen. The one area in life that is ridiculed mercilessly is optimism. This is a continuous theme throughout the story. Candide, the title character and main protagonist, is a wide-eyed lad that has become indoctrinated in an over-zealous philosophy of optimism. All credit is due to the “brilliant”, aptly named, philosopher Dr. Pangloss (his surname in Greek translates into “all tongue”). Throughout Candide's ridiculous wonky adventures that would make Lewis Carroll read on in envy, Candide maintains the same level of optimism. His over optimistic nature renders him very naive and quite gullible. As endearing a characteristic as it is, it becomes increasingly infuriating when some large, cataclysmic, misfortune unfolds, he survives, shrugs, and says it is for the best that these things happen.

More specifically, the Leibnizian Optimism way of thinking. This is the same philosophy that Candide and Dr. Pangloss preach. The notion that all events good or bad are all part of God's grand plan is an absurd concept to accept. Voltaire takes this idea to the absolute extremes in his novella. He makes the optimists Candide and Dr. Pangloss experience torture, unjust executions, rapes, robberies, and violent acts of nature. Still, their philosophy of the best of all possible worlds persists to be their reasoning for all these misfortunes. At the end of the story, Candide finally sheds this philosophy that so firm a grip over him after purchasing a farm and marrying the now horrifically disfigured Cunegonde. Voltaire seems to portray that optimism, at least the Leibnizian Optimism, is an absurd method of viewing the world as it has no context and application for the real