Candide has many parts where they show the authority doing the wrong thing. In many cases it will show priests doing something that the religion prohibits them to do. It can also show a police arresting someone for the wrong reasons when he is supposed to be the authority and the justice. One of the many examples of this is: "Until the Inquisitor threatened him with an auto-da-fé. This forced the Jew's hand" (Candide pg 42). This showed how the corruption and power each person had was abused. If the Jew were to have more power than the Inquisitor, then the Inquisitor couldn't claim anything to the Jew. It did not matter who had gotten Cunègonde first, the only thing that mattered was if the one with more power than the other wanted her. It is very unfair for a person to want something and really strive to get to his goal and then someone takes it away from you. Voltaire wanted us to see how power was used to get what the person wanted. I do not think this is not as different to what we see sometimes today in our society. We will sometimes see police not fining cars with diplomatic license plates and also policemen that are bought by a person when they are going to fine them. It is unfair when both things happen because when a person has a diplomatic plate it was as if they were superior than all the rest and did not have to obey the law. The other case which is buying the authorities and it could be in more crucial cases like when someone is going to jail also shows superiority. It shows that rich people have more power than poor people because a poor person has to go to jail because he can't pay the authorities.
There is another example of people doing what they are not supposed to do. I found this part funny because it is the exact opposite of what he has to do. If there was a word to describe this I would say it would be poetic opposite. Imagine a reverend stealing something. According to Voltaire: "I strongly suspect that reverend friar who slept at the same inn with us yesterday at Badajoz" (Candide pg 47). One of the Ten Commandments is do not steal, and it is the thing he is doing. Members of the Catholic Church are supposed to live a life guided on the word of God. With the friar that we are presented with here doesn't follow one of the commandments so it is like not following the law of nature. Candide has a clear effect when doing this that is showing the reader the corrupt side of the Catholic Church. Voltaire might also have the intention of criticizing the church by showing that a member of it is committing a sin. There was also a part where the acts of the people were in disaccord to the religion. In page 53 of Candide: "Yet they will not miss one of the five daily prayers prescribed by Mahomet." When the old woman said this she had been describing the war that was going around Morocco. She then is talking that the civil war is followed and they still consider themselves religious beings. I can think of another event in history where religion is the motivation of war and in that event the differences in religions where what kept fueling the war. In the Crusades as in this event in Candide we can see that humans do not do what their religions are telling them to do that is make peace and stop killing.
Isn't this another way of saying ironic?
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