How does Voltaire's Candide parody one of the following: religion, war, enlightenment ideas/philosophers, love, human nature, or ___ ? How does Voltaire critique these ideas? In other words, what is his message with regard to this issue?
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
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Voltaire makes fun of lve his book beacuse he shows Candide as a naive young man was is love struck and goes through the most difficult situtations to find his love Cunegonde. Even though he goes through these diffult situtations, he remains optimistic because he is focused and his determinations to find Cunegonde is driven by his love and infatuation for her beauty. This at first seems like a fairytale romance of the most loyal guy in the world, but it is actually the complete oppisite of a perfect love.
ReplyDeleteWhile Candide fights to find his love Cunegonde, she is only thinking about herself and a way to return to her previous life of luxury. Her goal is different from Candide because she does not even think about finding him and in order to achieve her goal, she becomes a mistress for men that may make her wishes come true. In addition, Candide does horrible deeds in order to find her like killing others for his selfish reasons. In the end, however even though they are reunited, they are still not happy because they end up being bored with each other
Religion is a big topic in Candide. Voltaire writes off the Spanish Inquisition as horrific entertainment, describing the accused’s (other than Candide and Pangloss) sentences as humorous, i.e. marrying your own godmother, and eating a pullet without the lard. Another example of how Voltaire laughs at religion is his portrayal of the Jesuits. In Candide, the Jesuits fight and receive rank, such as Cunegonde’s brother being both a colonel and a priest. They enslave Africans and South Americans into serving them, and they are very rich. Also, when Pangloss is describing the all of the people that passed on the disease that he currently has, (syphilis), a Jesuit was one of them, having been the second person infected. During Candide’s and Cacambo’s journey into South America, they encounter the Oreillons, a savage tribe that wants to kill and eat Candide just because he is dressed as a Jesuit. However, once they realize that he is not, they treat him with absolute courtesy and are very hospitable. Finally, when Candide is describing the role of monks in Europe, which is to preach, to dispute, to tyrannize, to set people together by the ears, and get those burned who are not of the same sentiments themselves, to the wise old man in Eldorado, the sage reacts with confusion and amusement.
ReplyDeleteVoltaire satirizes religion in Candide by pointing out many flaws in the church. Voltaire denotes the corruption of the Church in various ways. For example, when Candide and Pangloss arrive in Lisbon after the earthquake, the Inquisition has taken over the area. The Spanish Inquisition was instituted by the Church in order to get rid of all those who opposed the Catholic Church. When Candide and Pangloss get to Lisbon, Pangloss makes a comment about the earthquake taking place for a good reason because we live in the best of all possible worlds. An Inquisition officer hears Pangloss and accuses him of heresy. Pangloss is then killed for making a comment that opposed the teachings of the church. Furthermore, Candide is punished for simply listening to Pangloss and agreeing with him. The oppression of those with conflicting religious views shows how ridiculous and inhumane the religious leaders of that time were. Voltaire also introduces many other corrupt religious characters like a Catholic priest who should have been celibate keeping a mistress. Although Voltaire mocks religion in Candide he admires the everyday religious believer. For example, Jacques the Anabaptist is presented in Candide as the most generous and kind character.
ReplyDeleteFiction can serve as social critique because although the characters and plot of the story might be made up, the actions or events that take place can be similar to those that happen in everyday life or have happened in the past. Furthermore, the fictional characters may simply be in a nonfiction setting with other nonfiction characters. An author can use he or she’s fictional characters and put it in a nonfiction or realistic setting to attack a social problem. For example, Voltaire’s fictional characters Candide and Pangloss find themselves in the midst of a nonfictional social problem. The Inquisition was a real event that revealed the corruption of the Church. A modern day satire may include SNL because often times they make fun of politicians or ideas.
Voltaire’s Candide parodies human nature by portraying characters that are rather two-dimensional, conceited, and foolish. In this case, he pokes fun at how people tend to dislike admitting their wrongdoings and are sometimes gullible to life’s situations. The characters show how people make up excuses because their pride gets in the way. For example, Pangloss stated that it was “destined by fate” for him to contract syphilis, not that he brought it upon himself by fooling around with many women. Also, that people question things but rarely try to find the reasoning behind it. They just believed whatever someone told them was true, making them gullible. This is displayed through the characters in that they asked questions about what was moral, however, they only believed what Pangloss taught them and never stopped to think about what they personally deemed as true.
ReplyDeleteCandide satirizes love by talking about the women being in “love” with the monkeys whom of which Candide kills after. Voltaire also makes the reader think that Candide and Cunegonde are in “love” with each other but in reality Candide only loves Cunegondes looks and appearance and Cunegonde seems to only really care about herself but in the end, goes with Candide and lives with him in the end only because she has no where else to go and she needs someone to watch out for her and take care of her. Voltaire make a parody of love in the book by mentioning women being in love with animals and also liking someone for all the wrong reasons. Most of his characters in the book are sort of living in their own little world and they don't really know what reality is and also the qualities of what it takes to love someone. Overall, I think it was just an infatuation between Candide and Cunegonde.
ReplyDeleteVoltaire’s Candide makes a distinct parody of religion. Throughout the book he continuously makes remarks about this topic and some of its negative aspects. But he focuses on it especially in chapter 6. Voltaire writes about the inquisition which was a period when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella wanted to switch the main religion to Roman Catholicism. Those who did not want to change religions or spoke up for themselves faced great consequences from the church. Those who were accused of heresy faced execution, usually being burned at stake. Auto de fe means “act of faith” in the Spanish language. Some people who did not believe in the Catholic Church would be locked away and be held in captivity for the rest of their life, or get executed. Voltaire makes a parody of religion because it is morally wrong and a grave sin to kill others before natural death according to the Catholic Church. But in the book Candide, the church executed people for not being Roman Catholics, which is wrong on their part. Candide’s dear friend Dr. Pangloss, a philosopher, was hung for speaking up about how he feels about this whole situation.
ReplyDeleteVoltaire’s Candide parodies love because Voltaire shows Candide as a young man in love with a woman but it shows to be a naïve love. Candide’s love for Cunegonde is infatuation for her because he only likes her for her looks. Candide hasn’t seen the real Cunegonde, who is a conceited and wants to live a life of luxury and beauty. Candide goes through pain just to get to his love Cunegonde and even kills the pope, Jew, and the Spaniard. Cunegonde is shown as a gold digger, since she only wants money, and becomes acquainted with other men because she wants their power or their status. Candide and Cunegonde are together in the end but they are not satisfied with each other. Cunegonde becomes ugly in the end because she worked as a slave but Candide becomes unhappy because she becomes ugly.
ReplyDeleteThroughout Candide, Voltaire makes fun of many ideas. He pokes fun at love in particular. The whole plot of the book is search for Cunégonde, Candide’s one true love. Traveling all around the world for this girl, Candide finally finds her. In the end, they are living together but are bored of each other. This kind of love is a parody because Candide travels all over looking for this one girl and in the end, he isn’t happy with her. Another example of teasing love is when Master Pangloss says, “It was love: love, the comfort of the human species, the preserver of the universe, the soul of all sensible beings, tender love (page 21).” This statement says love is everything and without love, the world would end. Lastly, as Candide is traveling, he meets two ladies who he believes are being attacked by monkeys. As a result, Candide kills the monkeys and Cacambo tells him, “You have killed the lovers of these two ladies (page 62)”. I took this situation to mean different things. First, I thought that Voltaire was teasing men and comparing them to monkeys. My other thought was that Voltaire was teasing women and saying the two ladies were so desperate that they would fall in love with monkeys. Voltaire made fun of love by hinting that it is, in a sense, superficial.
ReplyDeleteCandide satirizes religion in Candide by emphasizing the flaws of th Catholic church. An example of the satire was when Candide and Pangloss arrive in Lisbon after the earthquake and the many disasters that occurred. During this time the Inquisition had taken place. Pangloss made a remark by saying that the earthquake has happened for a good reason. Because of Pangloss's remark, he was forced to be killed. The reasoning as to why Pangloss was being persecuted was because his remark was going against the teachings of the church. Candide as well was punished for listening to Pangloss and agreeing with his teachings. Another example is how Voltaire portrays the Jesuits. In Candide, the Jesuits fight and receive rank, such as Cunegonde's brother, who was both a priest and a colonel. When Candide describes the role of the monks in Europe he makes it seem as if they are corrupt people who just preach, dispute, tyrannize, and get those burned who are not of the same meaning as themselves.
ReplyDeleteKatie L.
ReplyDeleteVoltaire’s “Candide” parodies love using the relationship between Candide and Cunegonde. Candide, after getting kicked out of the castle, searches for his love through endless adventures. He is so adamant on the very idea of having Cunegonde by his side that he slaughters two men and thoroughly injures Cunegonde’s brother. Candide’s love for Cunegonde can be described as a blinded love and infatuation, where Candide would do anything and everything to get his love back. Cunegonde, on the other hand, goes with whoever has the riches. Voltaire had made no mention that Cunegonde thought about Candide when the two were separated. Cunegonde’s feelings towards Candide are fickle, making this love relationship tipping as one-sided. Perhaps this is another example where Voltaire mocks love, particularly one-sided love. At the end where Candide has finally found the love of his life and Cunegonde’s beauty faded, Candide suddenly becomes disinterested in marrying Cunegonde, the “love of his life”. In this, Voltaire mocks love by presenting Candide’s thought-to-be-true love as a naïve and fickle infatuation.
"Candide" makes fun of religion, especially in its portrayal of ordained religious leaders. It mocks their attempts or calling to be holy - for example, Cunégonde's maidservant claims to be the illegitimate daughter of Pope Urban X, suggesting that the Pope himself was a flagrant hypocrite and, contrary to Church teachings, had sex outside of marriage.
ReplyDeleteVoltaire seems to survey the Jesuit fathers with contempt, as presenting them in an unfavorable light in "Candide." As one character explains, in a certain village where the Jesuits live, “Los Padres own everything there, and the people have no money at all.” The character goes on to state with what must be sarcasm, “This you must allow is the masterpiece of justice and reason” (Candide 55). The Jesuits too are hypocrites – they wage war in Spain one day and hear the confessions of those who kill Spaniards the next! The Jesuits of "Candide" are also conceited. It is considered an “honor” (Candide 55) to kiss the spurs of the Father Provincial.
Lastly, those in leadership – the Theatin friar, for example – are characterized as being too wrapped up in their own concerns and pleasures to have time for taking care of their communities. The friar, “fresh-colored, plump and vigorous... bold and lofty” (Candide 102), is much more interested in his fair prostitute mistress than in serving his spiritual flock.
On the whole, "Candide" presents religious as people who are superficial, full of themselves, and who neglect their parishes and instead spend their time living in comfort and seeking pleasure. Voltaire's mocking, satirical depictions of religious leaders are evidence of his disgust of their hypocrisy and his disillusioned attitude regarding organized religion in its entirety.
The book Candide is a parody of love. In the book Candide, Voltaire mocks certain things. An example of something that he makes fun of is love. Voltaire makes Candide come across as a guy who is head over heels for mademoiselle Cunegonde. Actually in reality, he doesn't know Mademoiselle Cunegonde that well, compared to someone in love with another person does. When you are in love, it is when you can be your true self around that person. When you accept the other person for who they are and all their flaws. Unlike Candide who is only going off of looks, he is just attracted to mademoiselle Cunegonde. Voltaire, created the love of Mademoiselle Cunegonde and Candide more of infatuation towards mademoiselle Cunegonde. Candide is so head over heels for her that he is determined to find Mademoiselle Cunegonde. He never gives up on Cunegonde and his love only grows stronger towards his idea of their eternity love. Also Cunegonde is also in love of the fact that Candide is a loyal guy, not candide, she is only searching for a way to return to her old life, with everything she used to have. She was raised with money and kind of expects it for her. In the end though, it proves that they were never really in love they only had attraction towards each other. In the end Candide says that he doesn't love Cunegonde anymore, he didn't love her anymore, because he was fat and ugly. Although he ended up not loving her, he still stayed with her. If he really was truly in love with Cunegonde, then he would still think she is beautiful, even when she is fat and old and would love her for who she is.
ReplyDeleteVoltaire makes fun of love in his book with the characters Candide and Cunegonde. Throughout the story, Candide loves Cunegonde and goes threw all of these ridiculous adventures just to get to her. He also kills people, such as Cunegonde's brother and a pope Meanwhile, Cunegonde is trying to find a man who will restore her to her wealthiness. This shows how they were naive and didn't think before doing what they did. In the end, when they reunite, Cunegonde is ugly and Candide is not in love with her, but he does stay with her. They were both blinded and loved each other for the wrong reasons.
ReplyDeleteVoltaire makes fun of Candide’s love for Cunegonde. He makes fun of his love for her because while on his quest to find Cunegonde he goes through a lot of struggles to get to her. He kills people to get to her. In reality people don't go around killing other people to get to the people that they love. Through all of the trouble he goes through to get to Cunegonde the actual meaning of the relationship to her is to have her lavish life back. She “loved” him for the wrong reasons and there are people now days that do love people for the wrong reasons, in ways that will only benefit themselves. So Candide goes on this long journey to find the girl that he loves only for her beauty, he didn't really know her. So that sort of makes fun of love too because how can you supposedly “love” someone if you don't know the actual person that they are.
ReplyDeleteVoltaire's message about religion throughout the book is that religion does more harm than good by inducing conformity and stirring hatred amongst otherwise tolerant people. Pangloss is hanged by the auto de fe for his "heretic" ideas and Candide is lashed as an accomplice. Catholics are continuously portrayed as ignorant and pigheaded. These events, based on historical fact and therefore especially convenient for his satire, show religion at its most brutal.
ReplyDeleteIn the book Candide, Voltaire makes fun of many ideas of the time; particularly, he parodies human nature. Daily, the natural evils of a human being are portrayed through words and actions. However, a great number of people are aware and able to constrain themselves when tempted to act out. Voltaire has portrayed Candide as a young, naïve individual who cannot control himself. Though these attributes are similar to those of modern youth, Candide’s manner is of greater severity. Voltaire has taken natural human tendencies and enhanced them negatively; the way Candide behaves is more impulsive, selfish, and foolish. For example, Candide killed the Grand Inquisitor and Don Issachar without a second thought because he wanted Cunegonde to himself. He did not once think of the consequences and acted impulsively to obtain his desire.
ReplyDeleteCandide parodied war because in the book he talks about the seven years war quit frequently for example in chapters two-four, ten- twenty and twenty-three. The Seven Years War began in 1756, the year after the Lisbon earthquake, which is also in the book. Voltaire thought that war was an ugly crime. And Candide portrays war as pointless and wasteful for the materials being used, money, and the life of the humans. Disgusted by the army and his own mistreatment, Candide escapes after the army enlists him. Two of the female characters are also subjected to rape and are enslaved as a result of warfare. This was just a few of the ways that Voltaire mocked war. Another way was when the Bulgarians in Candide are represented as Frederic the Great's Prussian army, and the Abares are the French. The portrayal of the Bulgarian army may have been Voltaire's way of mocking Frederic the Great's Prussian army, which is known to be strictly ordered. The novel offers many examples of pain, loss, misfortune, and suffering which is meant to emphasize the flaws in the philosophy of optimism, which is a characteristic that most of the characters in the story have.
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ReplyDeleteHuman nature is noticeably satirized by Voltaire when he mocks Cunegonde and Pangloss' nature. In the beginning of the book, Candide believes that Cunegonde is his beautiful, young lover and Pangloss is a knowledgeable and well educated mentor. Throughout the story, it is revealed that Cunegonde is a bit shallow and featherbrained. She also becomes (kind of)fat and ugly. It is revealed that Pangloss is merely a stubborn fool.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of the book, Candide is caught flirting with Cunegonde and is banished from his earthly paradise. Cunegonde's brother's human nature is also satirized. Although his sister was abandoned, raped, and left to suffer, he does not allow Candide to marry Cunegonde so she could be happy. The Baron's noble pride and the fact that Cunegonde is of higher social status than Candide interferes with his ability to act for the best intentions for his sister. The baron epically fails to consider the fact that Candide nearly killed him prior and instead focuses on Candide's ignoble lineage. Although Cunegonde has grown old and unattractive, the Baron would rather see her alone than with someone of an inferior caste.
The characters of Candide are two dimensional, unrealistic, mechanical, and simplistic. Voltaire satirizes the characters' human nature as a way to challenge enlightenment thinkers' ideas.
Voltaire's Candide slightly mocks the idea of love because of the love story between Candide and Cunegonde. Their love story is a parody of love because of the fact that they yearn for different goals. Candide just wishes to be with Cunegonde for the rest of his life, while Cunegonde does not seem to care about that as much as she wants her fortune back. She may seem happy to be with him, but she wants her rich lifestyle back, which causes her to have relationships with richer people than Candide. Also, in the end of the book, she becomes ugly and whiny, which ruins the cliche ending of love stories. Usually, the handsome man ends up with the beautiful lady and they live happily ever after, but that is not seen. Instead, Cunegonde is no longer beautiful and how she was when she was first introduced, and Candide will probably spend the rest of his life working in the fields with his friends and Cunegonde, which is very different from cliche endings. From this, I feel that Voltaire is trying to say that love is superficial. We do not need love in order to survive because the true beauty of love will eventually fade away, just like how Cunegonde became unattractive and a whiner.
ReplyDeleteThe book “Candide” by Voltaire takes readers on a satirical adventure through the writings of this author. Voltaire makes fun of many aspects, including the enlightenment idea and philosophers. There are many philosophers in this book who believed in key ideas and beliefs. One is Candide’s tutor, Pangloss who taught metaphysico-theologo-cosmonigology. Pangloss also believed in the farfetched idea of the “best of all possible worlds.” After Candide and Pangloss reunite, Pangloss informs his student that he is actually dying of a disease that Lady Paquette had given him. Instead of being afraid of it killing him, Pangloss answered, “It was an indispensable element in the best of worlds…” Many of Pangloss’ ideas and philosophies seem absurd and sarcastic. It seems that even through the bad things that he encounters, he still believes in his idea that the world he lives in is the “best.”
ReplyDeleteAnother character that Candide becomes acquainted to in this book is the Martain, and elderly scholarly man that accompanies Candide on his journey. When learning about the views and beliefs in Martin, Candide learns that he believes that God has abandoned Earth to another evil being. Candide, who has been taught that the he is living in the “best of all possible worlds,” is shocked to hear a teaching so different from his tutor Pangloss. Martin also states that the weak detest the strong while the strong treat the week as if like sheep, selling them for their meat and wool and offerings. Martin also says that he has never seen a town where a family did not want to exterminate another family. Instead of the idea that the world is the “best of all possible worlds,” Martin’s view point is serious and negative; suggesting that the world they live in is not so great after all.
Both ideas of these men have ideas that differ greatly. However, there is humor in that Voltaire wrote about two very different ideas and the philosophers who believed in them. There is also humor in their ideas because they seemed unrealistic and sometimes proved to be false.
Voltaire mocks love in his book Candide through the relationship between Candide and Cunegonde. From the very beginning, Candide "loved" Cunegonde. From that first kiss, Candide found happiness in being with Cunegonde. Voltaire pictures Candide to be quite the "love-sick fool" for he goes near and far looking for his long lost love. Voltaire shows that love is naive and blind. Candide knew Cunegonde since they were children since they both lived in the same castle, but he didn't really know the 'real' her. Obviously he didn't, because he was too infatuated with her beauty and blinded by love to realize her true personality within: a girl who loved herself and had a fancy for money and high living. Along the way, Candide has an optimistic mind that he will reunite with the beautiful Cunegonde and it keeps him going. His optimism throughout his journey turned out to be useless, however, at the end of the book. His once beautiful maiden became an ugly hag and he was not happy...he became a bored man.
ReplyDeleteVoltaire's Candide is a parody of religion because the many contradictions that has occurred in history, which also is mentioned in the novel. I learned that the Inquisition of Spain was an example of the contradictions of the religion during the time. The empire was dominantly Christian, and when the Inquisition was established, it wasn't a good example or a good influence on the empire. The teachings of the faith was to love everyone and to be compassionate towards others without judgement based off their personal morals and beliefs. But the Inquisition, which forced many people from diverse religions to convert to their religion or flee the empire. I found this very interesting because the novel gives you curiosity and events of world history, and also incorporates with the story line of Candide.
ReplyDeleteVoltaire makes fun of religion in his book many times. He places all organized religions into an ‘evil superstition’ category. Pangloss states that this is “the best of all possible worlds.” However Candide is beaten, been in earthquakes, exiled, lost money, and goes through many more suffering. He begins to question that if god loves us then why is there so much pain and suffering in the world.
ReplyDeleteReligion is a major theme in Voltaire’s Candide. The story parodies religion through various corrupted religious leaders. For example, there was a Franciscan friar who had stolen jewels from Lady Cunegonde during their stay in the inn. Another example would be the Inquisition who had burned two Portuguese people for refusing to eat pork and a Biscayan for marrying the godmother of his godchild, hung Dr. Pangloss by the neck for speaking, and flogged Candide for listening to Dr. Pangloss with an air of approval. These religious leaders use the Bible and their religious authority for their own immoral reasons. It is immoral for someone to burn people just because they refused to eat pork, yet the Inquisition did just that. It is also immoral to steal from someone, yet the friar did just that. The Bible states that we are to be people of just and moral standards. Though they are religious leaders, they are far from moral people. These religious leaders act immorally and unjustly. They are hypocrites, who use their power to their own advantage and act against what they’re supposed to do as a religious leader. They preach one thing, yet they act against it and do another.
ReplyDeleteVoltaire critiques the idea of religion as being corrupted and very hypocritical. He depicts religion in a negative sense. Through the corrupted religious officials and leaders, readers are shown just how corrupted religion really is. A person of high religious authority should know better than to steal from someone or burn someone for an unjust reason. Through Candide, Voltaire reveals to readers what religion is really all about. His message with regards to religion is that we should not put our trust into these religious officials because even though they are supposed to be moral and just and are of high religious importance, they are the exact opposite. They say one thing and do another. Religious leaders and officials can not be trusted.
Voltaire's Candide parody's religion. During Candide's time, religion was very important, and it was taken very serious. The Church held much power. And despite the fact that the Church taught that God loves everyone, and accepts everyone for who they are, because everyone is God's children, the Church punished many people. Not only did the Church punish anyone who opposed their religion and their ways, but the Church punished people who just didn't follow their religion. The Church also punished anybody who went against the Church's beliefs, and customs. And by punish, I mean kill. The Church would burn people at the stake, hang them, and many, many other forms of punishment would be enforced. So Voltaire teases religion in the sense that religion was supposed to be faithful and full of love, but the Church persecuted anyone who did not follow their beliefs. Making them very unloving, and unforgiving. And both Pangloss and Candide believed that they lived in the best of all worlds, and that things happened only for the best. And yet, they went through so much suffering and pain. Which makes you wonder, if God loved them, why did he cause them so much pain and sorrow.
ReplyDeleteVoltaire’s Candide parodies love through the love Candide has for Cunegonde. Ever since Candide meets Cunegonde, he becomes fondly attracted to her. Candide is a naïve young man who believes that he is in love with the love of his life, Cunegonde. He goes through a bunch of adventures and kills people because he longs to be with her. But in reality, Cunegonde just wants to live the rich life that she grew up in. Unlike the usual love story, at the end of the book, Cunegonde becomes ugly and bitter and their love weakened. Their love weakened because they both fell in love for the wrong reasons. Candide fell in love with Cunegonde’s beauty and Cunegonde stayed with Candide to try to live her old rich lifestyle. Voltaire’s message with regards to love is that love is blind and many people fall in love for the wrong reason.
ReplyDeleteCandide satirized love He satirized love in one way which stuck out to me which was when the women were married to the men. He mocked them not only by having women marry them but also by killing them in the end. He also makes fun of love by having Candide fall in love with his cousin, Cunegonde. He only loves her for her beauty not deep passionate love. Voltaire make a parody of love in the book by mentioning women being in love with animals and also liking someone for all the wrong reasons. The characters do not really have a sense of reality. It was only infatuation between him and Cunegonde.
ReplyDeleteVoltaire’s Candide parodies many ideas especially love because none of the characters found “true love.” Throughout the story, it focuses on Candide’s search for Cunégonde. In the beginning, Candide takes pleasure in her beauty, and had the chance to kiss her. Caught by the baron, Candide was expelled from the castle. Separated from Cunégonde, Candide travels everywhere searching for his “true love.” When Candide and Cunégonde reunite, Candide was able to live with her and spend his whole life with her. However, as time passed, Cunégonde became ugly and Candide no longer had love for her. All this time, while Cunégonde was beautiful Candide loved her, but the moment she turned ugly, his feelings for her changed. Another example Voltaire makes fun of love was when Candide kills the two monkeys, who were following two other women. Apparently, these monkeys were the “lovers” of the two women. When the monkeys die, the women weep for them. Even through this situation, Voltaire makes fun that the relationships in the story are not real and that they do not last long. Love, presented in Candide, is naïve and simply infatuation.
ReplyDeleteVoltaire’s Candide parodies love through the characters of Candide and Cunegonde. Voltaire portrays Candide as someone who goes on an adventure to search for his love, Cunegonde. Candide’s one goal is to find Cunegonde and will do anything to get her. Candide is motivated by Cunegonde’s beauty and kills a few people to get to her. On the other hand, Cunegonde is someone who is motivated by riches and lavish lifestyles. Her main goal is to return to her life of luxury. In the end, Cunegonde’s beauty fades and Candide is not interested in her. Candide and Cunegonde are bored of each other. I think that Voltaire is saying that many people love for the wrong reasons.
ReplyDeleteVoltaire’s Candide satirizes love through Candide’s relationship with Cunegonde. Although Candide’s “true love” for her is the driving force to the entirety of his adventures, in reality, Candide is oblivious to the fact that his “love” is not genuine, but it is infatuation. What is really driving Candide is that Cunegonde was his one and only love, ever since his first kiss with her at the castle, he was mainly captured by her attractive looks instead of who she was as a person. Although it may seem that Candide had been the ideal, romantic gentlemen who goes out to his farthest extents to search for his love, Cunegonde, he is blinded by the infatuation and the assumption of the definition of love. Voltaire mocks the absurdity of Candide’s conquest through Cunegonde who shows no real affection towards Candide and is only caught up with herself, her needs and her wants. She only wants what benefits her sake and never really returns the same love that Candide has expressed to her since the beginning of his adventures. In the end, Cunegonde grows old and becomes less beautiful then what she had been, although Candide loses his infatuation to her he remains to stay with Cunegonde due to the amount of work he’s put into to retrieve her back in the beginning. Voltaire mocks how blindly the characters view love and it’s depth to be. Love is portrayed to be something superficial and loses it’s meaning in the end of the book because it was actually based on infatuation in the beginning.
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ReplyDeleteVoltaire parodies love in Candide through two examples. One was Candide's relationship with Cunegonde, and the second was the women that were in love with the monkeys. Voltaire makes fun of love through Candide and Cunegonde's relationship because their "love" is nothing more than infatuation. Candide believes that he is in love with Cunegonde but in reality he is in love with her beauty. He believes that if he has Cunegdone, then he will find true happiness. However, when he finally marries Cunegonde he doesn't find that happiness he dreamed of. The reason was because Cunegdone's beauty was deteriorating, and they no longer lived in the riches they once had. Voltaire also makes fun of love by making two women fall in love with animals, instead of men. Through Voltaire's writing I think he is trying to say that love isn't perfect. Not everyone falls in love and lives happily ever after. Instead, others may fall in love with the wrong person or confuse love with infatuation.
ReplyDeleteThrough the character Pangloss, Voltaire mocked the Enlightenment ideas and philosophers in his book, Candide. Even though Pangloss experienced many tragedies such as contracting syphilis, almost being hanged, and imprisoned, he still keeps a positive attitude and claims “it is for the best.” Any evidence or idea that contradicts his philosophy, he completely ignores and refuses to acknowledge it. He also came up with lame excuses to back up his theories, such as, “…the nose has been formed to bear spectacles—thus we have spectacles. Legs are visibly designed for stockings—and we have stockings... Pigs were made to be eaten—therefore we eat pork all the year round,” (Page 12). Believing that this world was the best, Pangloss never made an effort to change what was wrong. For example, when their friend Jacques falls overboard the ship, Pangloss prevents Candide from trying to help him and says, “…the bay of Lisbon had been formed expressly for this Anabaptist to drown in,” (Page 25). With these ridiculous excuses and Pangloss’ exaggerated personality, Voltaire successfully created a character that made fun of the Enlightenment ideas and philosophers.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things Voltaire parodied in “Candide” is Pan gloss' philosophy promoting “that things cannot be otherwise than as they are; for as all things have been created for some end, they must necessarily be created for the best end. Observe, for instance, the nose is formed for spectacles, therefore we wear spectacles.” Throughout this story, Pangloss' simple philosophy on life is tested over and over, and in each situation, Pangloss is always able to show how his personal philosophy holds true, no matter how crazy it sounds. For example, at the end of the story, Pangloss explains to Candide that Candide himself should be grateful for having lived through so many terrible experiences. It was only through these horrible experiences could Candide finally reach the garden in order “to eat preserved citrons and pistachio nuts." Pangloss' philosophy, up to a certain extent, reflects the idea of fate and how everything that happens is supposed to occur within a larger master plan.
ReplyDeleteAs seen in the example above, fiction can be used to critique societies. As seen throughout “Candide,” Voltaire often used humor/satire to poke fun at the society he lived in. This is effective in that people understand concepts best when they're enjoying the learning process, such as within books, or even classrooms. Some modern-day satires include the following cartoons: “The Simpsons,” “South Park,” and “Family Guy.”
Voltaire pokes fun at religion. With in the book he makes remarks of the negative aspects of religion continuously. One major part was when he talked about the Inquisition, which was an era when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella wanted to make Catholicism their main religion. They had the Auto de fe, “act of faith”, that contradicts its self because they where supposed to be non-violent people. Yet they hurt and kill people just because they don’t follow the same religion. It is morally wrong to hurt or kill another person in the Catholic faith and yet they do. Pangloss get hanged just because he was expressing how he felt about religion. Voltaire makes them to be hypocrites and people who like to corrupt other people for fun or enjoyment.
ReplyDeleteVoltaire makes fun of various different topics in “Candide”. One of these topics being love.
ReplyDeleteAll the “love” that he has in his book is not love but infatuation. The perfect example of this, is the situation of Candide and Cunegonde. Candide claims that he is in love with his cousin Cunegonde, but he doesn’t even know her that well. He thinks that she is beautiful, but just by beauty alone shouldn’t determine wither or not you should love someone. Physical beauty will come and go but love is something that should be permanent and not be taken so lightly. Cunegonde is also attractive to Candide but it is not completely out of love for him. She looks out for herself and finding a sense of security, through Candide she basically finds a sense of safety, because she feels that he will be able to provide for her and give her the life that she had when she lived in the castle. She only sees him for material reasons and Candide only views her as a beautiful object, neither of these things means real love because both of these things could easy fade away. At the end of “Candide”, Candide and Cunegonde end up together. This is what they both wanted essential but not what they imaged. Cunegonde imaged living in a beautiful castle with servants and all the luxuries of life while Candide thought he would be married to the most beautiful Cunegone. By the end of the book, Cunegonde had turned ugly and Candide was not wealthy enough to provide all the luxuries that Cunegonde desired. Though both of them were not happy with their situation, they both seemed to be content with it.
Through this book, I can infer that Voltaire felt that love was foolish. It was something to make fun of not take seriously. I also feel that he is asking the readers "how do you know if it is real love?" "do you really love them or do you love them because they can provide for you?".
Voltaire’s Candide is a parody of the ideas of philosophers because of the absurd things that they would talk about. This was especially true for Pangloss’s ideas. He said strange things like “we have legs, and that is why we wear pants”, or that noses were made to wear glasses. He was also a little loony because he acted strangely and slept around.
ReplyDeletePhilosophy was a large part of the book, and there were often conflicting ideas. The philosophers would argue, and often looked a bit silly. The philosophical ideas were intended to be used for humor in this book.