Analysis Of Candide s Search For His Love - 1389 Words

Travelling plays a significant role within this novel as the whole story is encapsulated by the protagonist, Candide’s, search for his love, Cunà ©gonde. Due to the episodic nature of the novella, Voltaire is able to put Candide in many different situations, which, in turn, allow him to successfully satirise the main ideology proposed at the start. Furthermore, as Candide travels across the world, we begin to see a mental maturation in the character. At the beginning of the novella Candide is clearly susceptible to the teachings of his mentor, Pangloss, however, due to the hardships he faces through his travels, he begins to start thinking for himself and develop his own philosophy. The main purpose of the travelling throughout the novella†¦show more content†¦Although these events do little to benefit Candide or the people around him, both he and Pangloss continue to justify them, however, these justifications become more and more farcical, especially when Pangloss tries to claim that syphilis is a ‘necessary ingredient’ within the best of all possible worlds for the luxuries of chocolate and cochineal. The exaggerated tone Voltaire uses in this justification adds and ironic sting and emphasises that, even though some people are oblivious to it, these tragedies clearly serve no greater good within the real world. Furthermore, after Candide and Cunà ©gonde escape from Bordeaux to Buenos Aires, despite the fact that they are both in love, the old woman convinces Cunà ©gonde to marry the governor because she has ‘seventy two years of nobility but not one penny’. Once again Voltaire is using irony to highlight that even the thin g that we perceive to be most pure, love, is corruptible, which couldn’t possibly be the case in a perfect world. Candide’s travels are necessary within the novella for Voltaire to be able to satirise the theory of optimism because they show that life in the real world is nothing like the life in Westphalia and cause both Pangloss and Candide to come up with justifications for the horrors they endured which clearly hold no weight behind them. As Candide