Thursday, October 11, 2012

Does Candide's Punishment Fit the Crime?

The obvious, humane, moral and current answer should be short and simple: no. Of course not. Candide did not know better. He was completely innocent, sheltered, knew nothing of the world or its doings. His very first punishment, getting kicked out of the castle, definitely doesn't fit his crime. He didn't know what he was doing. All the unlucky things that happened to him, including getting drafted into an army, having his tutor killed, Cunegonde taken away multiple times, and safety and riches snatched when they were right at his fingertips, were not something that he deserved for the measly innocent "crime" he committed at the beginning of the book. Arguably, that really is the only crime he committed, and his later crimes, including killing three people, all happened only because of the very first one. They could even be seen AS punishment coming from his first crime.
But back to perspective. The punishments are all seen as fair by those who give them. They are decided depending on the beliefs and cultures of the people who punish Candide, and while the reader (and Candide) can only see them as cruel, the punishers see them as just.

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