Candide did Whaaaaaa?

In the first chapter Candide is banished from the castle because he kisses Cunegonde. Is this a fair punishment? No, probably not. Why should he get punished for simply just trying to follow his heart? He shouldn’t. Not only does he just simply get kicked out, but a series of unfortunate events continue! Bad event after bad event continues to happen to poor Candide. Why can’t he catch a break? This question can actually be answered quite simply. He’s naïve and doesn’t know any better. Should Candide be punished and banished because he’s naïve to the real world. Again, no he shouldn’t. However no one seems to be protecting him.

It almost seems as though Cunegonde is punishing him as well; differently though. It seems as though she’s doing this in an unknowingly way, or this could just be my perspective. She kind of ridicules him for still having complete faith in Pangloss’ philosophy. The pained Cunegonde is starting to lose faith in his whole philosophy as where the naïve Candide still has complete faith in this belief that they are in the best world there is. I feel as though Cunegonde does look down upon Candide for being quite naïve.

However they still continue onto this journey trying to escape what their new punishment might be. Will Candide and Cunegonde deserve this punishment that they may receive for being in love? Sure they killed people, at least Candide did. But I mean come on… he was in love and jealous. It’s understandable...