Poor Guy

In the first chapter of Voltaire’s Candide, Candide is thrown out of his house for kissing the hand of his lover, Cunégonde. While today’s standards for PDA and such have lowered since this scene was written, this was still an extreme reaction. Candide did not deserve such a strict punishment for his crime. I think that Voltaire purposefully over exaggerated this event in order to further his satirical approach to Candide, this time poking fun at the story of Adam and Eve.

This scene resembles the old tale of Adam and Eve in many ways. Pangloss, a clear authoritative figure for both Candide and Cunégonde, is the God of the story. He teaches both of them about almost everything and they look to him as the ultimate source of knowledge. When Cunégonde sees Pangloss “experimenting” with a girl, she is much like Eve being tempted by the serpent. She goes to try what she has learned with Candide and their innocent action is taken as offensive. As a result, Candide is severely punished. This over reaction proves Voltaire’s satirical intentions.

To me, Voltaire is trying to criticize man’s idea of God. Adam and Eve were simple creatures. They only knew what God taught them, and one way or another they learned that he could create. Why was it so wrong of them to try to replicate this? They couldn’t have known any better. And either could Candide and Cunégonde. They learned everything from Pangloss, so naturally if they saw him doing a certain action, they would follow. It is unreasonable that God would kick Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden just because they imitated him. This story of God seems awfully hypocritical, and I think that’s what Voltaire is poking fun at. We see how ridiculous it is that Candide is literally kicked out because of an innocent kiss, so why can’t people see how the banishment of Adam and Eve is equally unbelievable?