Satire in Candide
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
Satire in Candide
Candide by Voltaire is a novel filled with satire and dark humor. In the novel, the perpetually optimistic and naive character, Candide, travels around the world, having various experiences that prove, at least to the reader, that evil does exist. Voltaire satirizes contemporary society and their values such as philosophy, war, and religion. Voltaire is able to achieve his satiric end through verbal irony, hyperbole, and dramatic irony.
Voltaire's use of irony is evident throughout the novel. The first chapter of Candide contains the use of verbal irony. In the beginning of the novel, the reader learns about house Candide was raised, the castle he lived in, what the characters looked like and how they acted. The humorous part is the fact that everything described is exaggerated and ironic. The description of the castle of Thunder-ten-Thronck is said to be "[the] most magnificent and most agreeable of all possible castles"(13), yet the irony is that the most beautiful of all castles has only one door, two windows, and one tapestry. Voltaire is really stating the opposite of what he means which is verbal irony...