As the old woman tells her story, it is quite unusual what happens to her, and the coincidence of finding a servant to her mother, that is now basically her owner. A complete view of satire in the novel. Besides, her owner is a man with no testicles. The testes symbolize manhood and proficiency. The man that exerts pressure and horror into the lady's liberty is a man with no power, no virility. This is ironic.
When she is held captive by the Russians, and they run out of food, it is suggested that they eat the women's buttocks for food: "Cut just one buttock off each of these ladies," he said, "and that will provide you with a delicius meal"(Candide p.56). This is completely absurd. One would not slice off a woman's buttock off to eat it. It is a ridiculous story.
After a while of telling her story, she ends it with a terrible but rather truthful idea: "I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our most melancholy propensities" (Candide p.57).
She poses a real life dilemma, if life is so hard to live with all its perils, why do we still love it, even if it harms us?
Candide can be a satire, but for sure the goal of Voltaire was not to entertain people with books, but rather pose life, in other fictional characters stories, that could be reflected in our own, and in the present day.
Maybe try making your blog entries as funny as Candide.
ReplyDeleteA complete view of satire in the novel. = ?