The Beauty of Satire

"A hundred times I wanted to kill myself, but always I loved life more."


I've read past this quote, but how can you help to avoid this type of irony. We all have very clear the Candide by Voltaire is a satire but really how well do we know satire. We might all read in class together, and my fellow classmates are laughing but I don't get why, they are laughing because of the book. I might have mentioned it always in previous post but I can't help it to question if everything Voltaire is saying is irony. 


In the quote mentioned earlier is clear the use of the irony. Because why would you want to commit suicide if everyday you love life more? It doesn't make sense thats the thing to it. This quote is in the chapter of The Old Woman Story. This quote really got me thinking, I believe that is rational for the people of that world want to kill themselves, but the question is why not most of them do it.

I thought that maybe that was it, religion. Because imagine if now a days to commit suicide is seen bad in society, imagine in those days that religion was their all. Because commiting suicide is not accepted in the Christian doctrine and I don't believe that anyone who has faith in god wants to spend eternity in hell, because thats where you'll go if being religious.

It Will Continue...

As I mention in my previous blog entries, Candide suffers of an accident but  a woman saved him. All this happened in a boat with a gigantic storm overtakes them. In this boat Jaques died because the sailor wouldn't help him. When the ship sank the only one the survived were the sailor, Pangloss, and the sailor. They are able to reach Lisbon, who just had experienced an earthhquake. When they get to Lisbon something that happens withs Pangloss. He is judged because according to the people an optimist can not believe in original sin.

In Lina Merizalde's blog she talks about the difference how religion and philosophy can be judged and by which parameters you can make decisions. In her blog she says how philosophy and religion have never worked well together, and she's totally right. How she say's in the beginning of her blog entry: "Unlike philosophy, which depends on the thinker, religion is always regulated by the same dogmas. Many people now find themselves being against religion because they see no sense in depending on a force they have no proof exists." 

In Pangloss scene the Catholic Inquisitor claims that everything is not for the best. Obviously him being a philosopher attempts to defend his theory. He can't and won't depend in a force but in ideas. The way philosophers can think things and the do them can make no sense, but they are relying on themselves in a force, for example God, that you don't really knows exist. This only proves one thing that Lina already said mixing philosophy and religion its almost like mixing chocolate and ketchup they both might be delicious, but they dont go well together.

I'm getting there

Now as I get to keep reading the book, I am able to understand more the satire. I keep on reading Candide, and now I get it. I understand that sarcastic tone, which makes this book a comedy. This also being full of irony, one while reading it gets confused.

This book has extremely contradictory things. When Candide almost died, but a nice lady saved him, it was really Cunegonde. I was confused because, the person that saved him was Cunegonde's servant, and she was asked by her to save him. How is this contradictory? Well, we all supposed she was dead after the incident. She told her story to Candide, "Can this really be Cunegonde? cried Candide". Voltaire writes is such matters that even his main character was confused. As it keeps going she told her whole story.

Love Story...

If you have read Candide by Voltaire, the first thing that comes to mine when talking about love is the relationship between Candide and Lady Cunegonde. Well… No.

As I kept reading this book, I got more confused. I know there’s a romance between Cunegonde and Candide, but there’s a stronger relationship between Pangloss and Candide. This is not a "man-women" type of love, but it's a type of relation. Pangloss is a philosopher, he's Candide's teacher. "Pangloss taught metaphysico-thelogo-cosmolo-nigoloy" Pg. 20. This is how Voltaire describes Pangloss's job. The author using again satire is exaggerating and making fun of phhylophers using absurdity. 

The relationship between these two characters it's really special. Candide is really naive, and being Pangloss his teacher all his life is based in what he toughed him. As I have been able to interpret it Voltaire tries to portrait Pangloss as the classic stereotype of a philosopher. When he says that Pangloss teaches  "metaphysico-thelogo-cosmolo-nigoloy", he is trying to make fun of what philosophers think they are teaching in a sarcastically way. Candide is not the exception of the author's way of cruising people. He portraits the classic apprentice that believes everything his teachers says. This is what makes their relationship so special. These is the reason why THIS is the love story, not the Cunegonde and Candide.

Comedy?

Ok, Candide. Certainly a book that drove me crazy as I started reading it. Already knowing this was a satire, I was looking forward for a laugh, but I had a hard time finding it. Took me a while to understand the tone Voltaire wrote this satire in. I finally got it, I finally was able to understand that tone of sarcasm.

I think without being able to understand that  tone Voltaire used in Candide, I would have interpreted the book in a complete different matter. From the first paragraph and I think it will happen until the last he used the four elements of satire:  irony, hyperbole, target, and absurdity. 

 

As I realized that this whole book was going to be based in sarcasm I knew it was going to be hard to read. I decided there was only one way for people to understand this extremely complicated book, everything they say, think of the opposite. All the books from old times have a trick, and they are complicated. Some may have advanced language, and some may just be full of irony. 

In the first chapter of Candide, Voltaire says the following while describing one of the characters: "The Baroness, whose weight of about twenty-five stone made her a person of great importance." If you are taking the book in a literal manner the thing that will come to minc is just that this person they called the Baroness is of great importance. But now read it again, and put it a sarcastic tone, analyze...   Well did you notice? Voltaire used the weight to say it was of great importance, in other words he was saying that the Baroness is fat. 

In what I've read by now I realize how everything they say in the book is implied and nothing is literal. Reading this book, I will have to develop a great amount of close reading skills to really understand the text of the classic, Candide.