Defend Voltaire's Candide as literary satire.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Voltaire's Candide is an outstanding example of eighteenth-century satire. The work addresses the age-old question of how evil can exist in a universe created and governed by the forces of good. Candide, the titular character, is initially motivated to live life full of optimism: "this is the best of [all] possible worlds."

With a sure hand, Voltaire manipulates the principal satirical devices: irony, understatement, and overstatement. Using irony-the contradiction between literal and intended meanings-he mocks serious matters and deflates lofty pretensions; he calls war, for instance, "heroic butchery" and refers to Paquetta's venereal disease as a "present" she received from "a very learned Franciscan." He exploits understatement when he notes, for example, that Pangloss "only lost one eye and one ear" (as the result of syphilis). And he uses overstatement for moral effect: the 350-pound baroness of Westphalia is "greatly respected"; thus corpulence-actually an indication of self-indulgence-becomes a specious sign of dignity and importance.

Enlightenment optimism, as portrayed by Leibniz in the story, is mocked and Voltaire underscores the contradiction between the ideal and the real that lies at the heart of all satire.