Previous
Satire
Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:
Following the model established by earlier works of 18th-century satire, such as Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Voltaire does not set Candide in any one single setting. Instead, the novella follows Candide in his far-reaching travels, first around the continent of Europe, then to South America and the New World, and ultimately back to Europe and West Asia. As Candide moves from city to city and country to country, Voltaire satirizes the various cultures, institutions, and individuals whom Candide encounters, offering an incredibly wide satire of the world in the mid-18th century. Further, Voltaire draws from real historical events, though they are presented in a style that is more humorous than accurate.
The novella begins in the German state of Westphalia, where Candide is the illegitimate son of a minor king, who banishes Candide from his kingdom following Candide’s attempt to court Cunégonde, his cousin and social superior. Here, Voltaire’s account employs national stereotypes to depict these German characters as earnest but simple-minded. Candide’s adventures then pushes him into participation in a thinly disguised parody of the Thirty Years War, a bloody war and religious conflict within the Holy Roman Empire. Candide makes his way to Lisbon, Portugal, where he experiences an earthquake, tsunami, and firestorm, a reference to the real 1755 Lisbon Earthquake, which shocked Europe with its destructive force.
After murdering two men, arguably in self-defense, Candide flees to Latin America, where he encounters the exploitation of the natives by Catholic religious authorities. There, he also finds the fabled city of El Dorado, perhaps the only setting presented in a positive manner in the novella. His subsequent adventures take him to Peru, Surinam, Paris, England, Venice, and Turkey. At each of these locations, Voltaire pokes fun at local customs and social issues, including those of his own social milieu, as a member of the French upper class, which he skewers as vain and materialistic.
Related Themes:
