Voltaire's novel Candide is replete with examples of situational irony (in which expectations conflict with what actually happens) and dramatic irony (in which readers of a given work of literature know more about what is going on than the characters within the work itself).
Examples of situational irony are as follows.
Firstly, Candide expects to be treated well and given opportunities for glory when he is tricked into becoming a soldier. Instead, he is subject to sadistic treatment:
Instantly they fettered him, and carried him away to the regiment. There he was made to wheel about to the right, and to the left, to draw his rammer, to return his rammer, to present, to fire, to march, and they gave him thirty blows with a cudgel. The next day he did his exercise a little less badly, and he received but twenty blows. The day following they gave him only ten, and he was regarded by his comrades as a prodigy.
Secondly, Candide expects to be well-treated in Holland:
Having heard that everybody was rich in that country, and that they were Christians, he did not doubt but he should meet with the same treatment from them as he had met with in the Baron's castle, before Miss Cunegonde's bright eyes were the cause of his expulsion thence.
Instead of being well-treated by the Christians, Candide is told that he does not deserve to eat because he holds theological opinions that differ from those of the man from whom he sought help.
Thirdly, Candide expects to be reunited with Cunegonde and restored to his place at the castle, but Cunegonde gets violently killed, and the castle gets destroyed:
Cunegonde . . . was ripped open by the Bulgarian soldiers, after having been violated by many; they broke the Baron's head for attempting to defend her; my lady, her mother, was cut in pieces . . . and as for the castle, they have not left one stone upon another, not a barn, nor a sheep, nor a duck, nor a tree.
Fourthly, Candide expects Cunegonde to be dead after she has been raped and cut open, but instead, she is very much alive. He asks her, "They did not rip you open as the philosopher Pangloss said?" and she responds, "Indeed, but they did . . . these two accidents do not always prove fatal."
Fifthly, the old woman believes she has had the most unfortunate life relative to that of Cunegonde, but actually, Cunegonde has had it far worse:
unless you have been ravished by two Bulgarians, have received two deep wounds in your belly, have had two castles demolished, have had two mothers cut to pieces before your eyes, and two of your lovers whipped at an auto-da-fé, I do not conceive how you could be more unfortunate than I. Add that I was born a baroness of seventy-two quarterings—and have been a cook!
Examples of and reflections upon dramatic irony are as follows.
Firstly, in chapter 1, Voltaire describes the encounter between Pangloss and a maid:
One day Cunegonde, while walking near the castle, in a little wood which they called a park, saw between the bushes, Dr. Pangloss giving a lesson in experimental natural philosophy to her mother's chamber-maid, a little brown wench, very pretty and very docile.
Readers know that Dr. Pangloss is not giving a lesson in natural philosophy but is rather seducing the maid.
Secondly, Dr. Pangloss says, "private misfortunes make the general good, so that the more private misfortunes there are the greater is the general good." Readers, however, know that private misfortunes make for general misery and that there is no mutually reinforcing relationship between private misfortune and the common good. Dramatically, the private misfortunes experienced by the characters (such as Cunegonde's rape and disembowelment) do not add up to general happiness.
Thirdly, when the natural disaster occurs in Lisbon, Dr. Pangloss says that there can only be one disaster in one place in the world at any given time ("If there is a volcano at Lisbon it cannot be elsewhere"), which readers know to be untrue. Throughout the book, disasters happen simultaneously in different locations (for example, the castle is destroyed while Candide is being beaten, robbed, and generally mistreated in the world). Much of Voltaire's dramatic irony is rooted in simultaneous disasters (for example, what happens to Pangloss before Candide finds him in Holland, while Candide himself is being persecuted).
Fourthly, Martin is persecuted for being a Socinian even though, ironically, he is a Manichean, and as such he does not believe that sufferings change his eternal fate; thus, the punishment being given to him is meaningless in terms of his own theology. Readers know this, but the persecutors do not know that they are wasting their time.
Fifthly, in Paris, Candide gives a woman who is pretending to be Cunegonde gold and diamonds while being unaware that he is the victim of a scam; readers are aware what is going on and that Candide is being manipulated in order to get the gold and diamonds away from him.
The examples listed here, in addition to the general comments about Voltaire's use of irony, should give you a sense of how different sorts of irony function so that you can identify other examples for yourself.
Monday, January 5, 2015
What are five examples of situational and five examples of dramatic irony in Candide?
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