"Candine" by Voltaire: chapters 1-3

Voltaire’s use of crazy hyperbolic names remind me of “Gulliver’s Travels” even though “The Crying of Lot 49” also has exaggerated names, Voltaire’s names seem like completely made up words like in “Gulliver’s Travels”. The most interesting names I found in the first three chapters were, Doctor Pangloss, Baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh, Wald-berghoff-trarbkdikdorff. The third is supposedly a place but when I try to read it, it’s just a bunch of random letters put together. Voltaire’s satirical writing style is evident from the very beginning, a good pun that I found was “My Lady Baroness, who weighed three hundred and fifty pounds, consequently was a person of no small consideration”. This line talks about the Baroness’ literal weight and then goes on to mention that she “was a person of no small consideration”, this is amusing because this is making fun of how big she is. This was definitely an interesting introduction to Voltaire’s writing style.

The main character in “Candide”, Candide himself and his family, is ridiculed by the author and Voltaire uses small metaphors to exaggerate the characters social position these subtleties are small but prominent. For instance, “The Baron was one of the most powerful lords in Westphalia, for his castle had not only a gate, but even windows, and his great hall was hung with tapestry. He used to hunt with his mastiffs and spaniels instead of greyhounds; his groom served him for huntsman; and the parson of the parish officiated as his grand almoner”. This quote is saying how the Baron was so powerful that his castle “had not only a gate, but even windows” this is definite ridicule because all living quarters have windows. Also, the author is exaggerating the character’s position by saying “his groom served him for huntsman; and the parson of the parish officiated his grand almoner”. This means that his stable boy is also his hunting partner which shows that he is not as wealthy as claimed or else he would have both. Finally, the author talks about how the Baron uses mastiffs and spaniels instead of greyhounds” this seems like absurdity to me because I don’t think that you could use a small playful spaniel as a hunting dog. This again refers to the inflation of the characters position, the author makes us believe that indeed Candine is a powerful nobleman’s son but is actually quite average.

“One day when Miss Cunegund went to take a walk in a little neighboring wood which was called a park, she saw, through the bushes, the sage Doctor Pangloss giving a lecture in experimental philosophy to her mother's chambermaid, a little brown wench, very pretty, and very tractable. As Miss Cunegund had a great disposition for the sciences, she observed with the utmost attention the experiments which were repeated before her eyes; she perfectly well understood the force of the doctor's reasoning upon causes and effects. She retired greatly flurried, quite pensive and filled with the desire of knowledge, imagining that she might be a sufficing reason for young Candide, and he for her.”

I find it difficult to find a category in which this quote fits into because this is playing on how naïve the character is in thinking that what her great metaphysico-theologo-cosmolonigology teacher is doing is part of his “experiments. Moreover, she is even able to relate the scene to his teachings of cause and effect. The idea of cause and effect is brought up several times in the first three chapters and this shows Candine’s way of thinking. He is brought up to believe that one event is the outcome of his actions and his is statisfied with this because it seems to give him hope even when he is captured by the Bulgarians. I didn’t quite understand how Candine ended up in Bulgaria for kissing a girl. Was he banished because of the fact that the baron caught him kissing Miss Cunegund? Overall the first few chapters were pretty straightforward but I found the first to be much more satirical than the following two.