Examples Of Satire In Candide

In Candide, Voltaire explores the ideas of paternalistic optimism and uses satire as a method of social commentary. His story follows the misery of one man as he pursues his one and only love and the happiness that he eventually finds. By framing the novel around a biblical story and having Candide lose and regain paradise, Voltaire suggests that one must cultivate their own perfect world as opposed to optimistically enduring the present in the hopes of a better future.

At the beginning of the novel, Candide is expelled from the baron’s magnificent castle due to his giving in to his personal temptation. This temptation being the young, “plump and amiable” Miss Cunégonde, who resided in the baron’s castle as well (11). Candide kissed Miss Cunégonde, was discovered by the baron, and expelled from the castle. The plot of the beginning of this novel parallels the biblical story of The Fall. Voltaire employed the use of a biblical allusion to stress the idea of Candide’s perfect world. The similarities are evident in several places. The baron’s castle, much like the Garden of Eden, was described as an, “earthly paradise” (14). Candide was living in a wonderful

paradise, acting upon the belief that this world is, “the best of all possible worlds” (12). This optimism is especially prevalent as there was no knowledge of evil in the Garden of Eden, until after the fruit was consumed. The diction of the words, “plump and amiable”, which describes Miss Cunégonde, further solidifies the similarities between Candide and The Fall (11). Fruit is often described as “plump” and this quality can often be reflected in temptation. These similarities function as a method of accentuating the perfection and heavenliness of Candide’s home. By making Candide’s home seem perfect, this provided contrast for what Candide’s life would become once he was expelled from the castle. By employing a biblical allusion, Voltaire made it understood that Candide was taking his destiny into his own hands. The parallel allows the reader to understand that by kissing Miss Cunégonde, or eating the fruit, Candide started anew. As opposed to staying in the castle, or garden, Candide was expelled from his “paradise”. However, this event was not positive. Candide was kicked out of the paradise the he held dear. Everything that happened afterwards traces back to that single event. Everything negative or positive. This event also functions as Candide’s “taking hold of his own destiny” which is ultimately how he cultivates his own garden at the end of the novel.
All of the events in the book following the beginning would not have happened if Candide hadn’t given in to his urges. This is stated at the end of the novel by Candide’s master, Pangloss. “All events are linked together in the best of all possible worlds” (130). Throughout the book, many unfortunate things happen to Candide. He is whipped, his ship sinks, and he is caught in an earthquake. All of these terrible things happened to him after he is driven from the magnificent castle. And the only reason Candide was expelled from the baron’s castle was because of his temptations towards Miss Cunégonde. By kissing her, and metaphorically eating the fruit, Candide chose his own destiny. This choice is reflected throughout the novel. Even after he has gone through many hardships, his thoughts still go back to Miss Cunégonde. This is of great importance because all of his adventures and mishaps began when Candide vowed to be reunited with Cunégonde. When he tries to find his love and cannot, he falls into, “a deep melancholy” (101). Yet even through all this hardship he still yearns to find Miss Cunégonde and regain his paradise. This is the equivalent of Candide choosing his own destiny and pursuing his own paradise, garden, instead of waiting for it to come to him. All these terrible things that Candide had to go through function as Candide’s driving factor to make his own paradise. Because of his own pain and strife, he cultivates his own garden and pursues his own happiness. Candide is not trying to return to the paradise that he once had at the baron’s castle. He is instead trying to create a new paradise for himself, desperately. Voltaire suggests that Cunégonde is this new paradise, the thing that Candide is seeking to cultivate. Instead of believing in the “best of all worlds” idea, Candide made his own paradise as opposed to waiting for it to come to him. Miss Cunégonde was essentially the reason that Candide was kicked out of the castle, or at least, Candide gave into his temptation towards Cunégonde and because of that he was kicked out.
However, the “desirable” girl that Candide fell for did not end up as lovely as she once was (2). At the end of the novel she had indeed grown, “very ugly” (130). The young and lovely girl that Candide had pursued so feverishly and who he had promised to marry, had grown ugly. Even though Candide didn’t want to marry Cunégonde anymore, he still chose to go through with it. This functions as Candide desperately trying to cling to the tiny amount of paradise he had left, except it had grown exceptionally ugly. This is also true in the biblical story of The Fall. The fruit from the tree of knowledge and the promise of knowing more than God himself is something we pursue even after we are kicked out of Eden. And when we finally achieve it we are disappointed, this aspect comes from Candide. Candide finally reunites with Cunégonde, but he is disappointed and unhappy. Both of those ideas function as Voltaire’s method of pushing the idea that one must cultivate their own garden. Clinging to the old temptations that originally got him kicked out of the baron’s castle would not bring Candide happiness.
Voltaire’s intentions for this novel were to comment on the paternalistic optimism that was evident in Candide and that was prevalent during his time.

Throughout the entirety of Candide, he makes comments on optimism and its faults. By framing the novel around a biblical story and having Candide lose and regain paradise, Voltaire suggests that one must cultivate their own perfect world as opposed to optimistically enduring the present in the hopes of a better future. In the novel this is evident, Candide pursues his own paradise, goes through hell, and cultivates his own garden once more. Through the cyclic nature presented, Voltaire shows that optimism does not a paradise make and that the only way one can truly have paradise is to take their destiny into their own hands and cultivate their own

garden.