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Metaphors
Definition of Mood
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect of a piece of writing... read full definition
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect... read full definition
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes... read full definition
Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis:
Though the novella delivers a serious critique of philosophical optimism, its mood is comedic and irreverent, poking fun at various different nations and social classes through its absurd characters and scenarios. Voltaire’s willingness to make fun of every aspect of seventeenth century society is demonstrated in a scene in which Professor Pangloss provides a genealogy of the syphilis that he has contracted through sex with the chambermaid Paquette:
“Oh, my dear Candide, you remember Paquette [...] she was infected with them, she is perhaps dead of them. This present Paquette received of a learned Grey Friar, who had traced it to its source; he had had it of an old countess, who had received it from a cavalry captain, who owed it to a marchioness, who took it from a page, who had received it from a Jesuit, who when a novice had it in a direct line from one of the companions of Christopher Columbus. For my part I shall give it to nobody, I am dying.”
In this passage, Voltaire traces the syphilis that has infected Pangloss, from Paquette, to a “learned Grey Friar,” an elderly noblewoman, an army captain, the wife of a nobleman, a young male servant, a Jesuit, a novice monk, and a man who traveled to the New World with Christopher Columbus. Voltaire, then, pays little respect to social distinction or religion here in his pursuit of an extended off-color joke. All of these figures, drawn from different strata of society, have passed on this sexually transmitted disease through extramarital sexual activity, including same-sex activity. Even figures such as the Jesuit and the novice monk, who have been sworn to celibacy, have violated their vows and further spread the illness. Nobody, then, escapes Voltaire’s satire.
Related Themes:
