How Does Candide Represent The 7 Deadly Sins

In Candide, Voltaire depicts that every man’s goal is to find happiness and they often confuse happiness with money and lust which are considered seven deadly sins. Voltaire represents many characters that commit the seven deadly sins and for which they have to suffer for. People in the world are not happy with what they have and they desire more, which leads them to face consequences. Most characters commit some kind of sin in order to find happiness. In Candide many characters have to face the consequence for their misdeeds , which shapes Candide to be the person he is and Voltaire also alludes to the garden of eden that Candide is searching for. Voltaire creates an allusion to the story of adam and eve in his satirical novel for he expresses

that just as adam and eve were tempted to eat the fruit of knowledge out of curiosity the characters in this novel were tempted to commit acts for their personal desires which violated human morale.

In the beginning of the book, Candide has everything, “a castle that had a gate and a window” (Voltaire 3), world’s greatest philosopher as his tutor, Dr. Pangloss (4), and seeing miss Cunegonde everyday (4). He considered himself living in a paradise because he has not tasted the fruit of knowledge yet. Voltaire presents that our lust could result in harsh consequences like Candide had to face when he kissed Cunegonde (5). His expulsion alludes to the garden of eden where Adam and Eve lived happily until they were banished for making a mistake just as Candide is banished for his mistake. Candide experiences the reality of the world after his expulsion like Adam and Eve did after eating the fruit of knowledge. After being kicked out of the castle, Candide meets Buglars who are sent out by their master to destroy villages, steal all their money, rape women, and kill people. Voltaire describes the scene so vividly to convey the audience of his disgust against the war. The Bulgars and Abars attack

in order to gain power and money; however, this act of greed led to war and destroyed many innocent lives. Voltaire express that war only causes people to People sacrifice their lives and stay away from their loved , so their master like Bulgars and Abars can gain the power. Sacrificing so many lives to gain power is unreasonable because at the end, they gain nothing but villages full of dead people. Greed only led them to fight one another to fulfil their wishes, which is not just destructive to them but it is to others too. The war with each other over power is corrupting the society even more, it's encouraging other people to take outrageous step that will gain them what they want. The war also corrupted Candide’s innocent soul with filth and hatred because he did not think twice before “killing the Grand Inquisitor and Don Issacar” (22). One can see how a man who was so gentle before is now nefarious after he stepped into the real world.
One encounters another act of greed when the old woman reveals her story about the pirates taking over her castle (26).

The evil pirates blinded by greed performed atrocious acts that causes one to think no humanity exists in the world. People do not work hard to earn money, rather they like to steal other people’s money. The lack of money motivates one to focus on only achieving more, but it's never enough to quench their desire. Even after looting hundreds, and thousands of people, these pirates did not stop from their actions. Certain pirates performed these awful acts for they were not nurtured properly or influenced negatively by others as Candide had been by the Bulgars.. However, the orator who has the knowledge of right and wrong is also disrespecting people. The orator does not give charity to Candide when he does not answer his question, instead his wife dumps the chamber full of human waste (9). This discourteous act portrays that religious people only helped the needy if they support them. Otherwise, they do not respect them at all. The orator is more concerned of changing the men views to follow his religious views to gain power than the helping needy people. Religion is to show us the right path when we are in challenging situations, but for the priest religion is a medium of gaining power. They do not want others to have the freedom of speech because it will hinder their power. Like when Dr. Pangloss stated his opinion (16), the inquisition is determined

to suppress his opinion by hanging Pangloss in auto-da-fe. In eighteenth century common people had to follow the rules of the church blindfolded and they did not have the freedom to state their opinion. However, the eighteenth century was known as the Age of enlightenment or the Age of Reason, so writers and enlightenment thinkers questioned the morals, religion, politics, and church. Voltaire enlightens the reader of corrupt and hypocritical religious leaders who tell the world to follow their preaching. Voltaire provokes the readers to question the authorities instead of following them blindfolded.
Another act of greed is depicted when the Franciscan steal all of Cunegonde’s pistoles and diamonds when they were spending the night in Badajoz (23). Money can drive some people insane, and those people can do anything to be rich. After stealing the diamonds, Franciscan reaches Bueno Aires where is he caught selling the diamonds. The punishment for Franciscan is to be hanged to death, but right before his punishment he confesses that he stole these precious gems from Candide, Cunegonde, and the old woman who killed the grand Inquisitor. Voltaire expresses the cruelty of human selfishness because the Franciscan confessed the truth in hope for them to suffer the same way. He figured that he will be punished for his offensive deeds, so he could not bear the freedom of them three. Voltaire purposely exaggerated the punishment of his sin to show his readers of what is going on in the world. The people during the eighteenth century were so harsh and cruel because they killed him for stealing and if we compare his punishment to 21st century one realizes that his punishment was extreme. One can compare his deeds to the Dutch merchant and slave owner Mynheer Vanderdendur who steals Candide’s sheep in Suriname and then sails away (54). Candide who is naive and trusts everyone has to pay for his innocence by losing two of his sheep to the merchant. Vanderdendur has to face the same fate as the Franciscan because they both committed the same sin. Candide and Martin find Vanderdendur ship sinking in the ocean water right before their eyes and Candide’s sheep returns back to him (57). One can generalize that everyone has to pay for their deeds whether they are doing good deeds or bad deeds. The merchant tried to keep something that was not his and karma punished him for stealing nonetheless it was a harsh punishment in both cases. The humans punished the Franciscan by hanging him to death and God gave the same punishment to the merchant for committing the same sin.
Another act of greed is when Candide and Cacambo reaches Eldorado. Eldorado is the place that no one was able to find. Also, Eldorado symbolizes paradise that the whole world wants to live in. El dorado is the place of equality, The people of El dorado are content with what they have and do not wish for more. They are not greedy as rest of the world who consider these “pebbles precious gems” (44). However, Candide and Cacambo, whose souls are filled with greed picks up some of the “pebbles”. El dorado is place of happiness and perfection. There are no religious conflicts, no war, no fights, yet Candide and Cacambo want to leave this paradise to go into a corrupt world again. Candide as he yearns for more because he is feeling restless to see his mistress Cunegonde who is in Buenos Aires. He wants to leave this paradise because of his lust of power because he thinks that the Eldoradean pebbles will make him richer than all the kings put together (49). Voltaire exhibits that human nature will never change, they always want something they do not have. Candide was looking for a place without fights, conflicts, and war and yet when he reached that place, he wants to go back to the corrupt world. Paradise itself could not satisfy their wants and needs.