Voltaire's Candide: Differences Between City And Country Cities

In Candide, Candide experiences the stark differences that exist between the city and country landscapes. As Candide tours Europe and Western Asia, Voltaire targets and criticizes the social standards, through satire and humor, existing within these major cities that he visits. When he finally arrives in Turkey, this remote country setting provides him with a stable environment in which he can escape the harassment of Western Europe values and finally settle down.

For a majority of the novel, Candide is forced to travel to diverse cities in Europe and Western Asia, which exposes him to extreme philosophical and social values, as well as the the evilness of mankind. The inciting incident that prompts Candide’s expedition to these corrupt cities ironically alludes to a

Along Candide’s journey, each city that he visits gives Voltaire the opportunity to satirically critique the social aspects of that respective town. To exemplify the calamities and evilness of the world, Voltaire depicts the various problems that overwhelm the characters including war, carnage, execution, religious hypocrisy, disease, and rape. For example in France, Candide encounters the Bulgarian and the Abare armies during the Twelve Year War. The nature of the war and the tactics of the Bulgarian army depicts the absurdity of civilized warfare. Then, Candide visits Lisbon, where an earthquake hits, which allows Voltaire to demonstrate the uselessness of the philosophical inquiry since the people believe that the earthquake is a result of human sin. Pangloss, Candide’s misinformed tutor, believes that the Earthquake, despite its disastrous effects, is still part of the "best of all possible worlds" (Pg?). Through this, Voltaire humorously criticizes the fanatic view that if God created the world, then it must therefore be perfect, and instead he proposes the idea that