Candide- Chapters 2-3

Voltaire has many different topics that he makes fun of in his book Candide, like war, romance, church, and many others. One he focuses a lot on is kings. He mocks them many times. There was a part I found that I consider it indirectly tries to mock the king. In page 23 he says "but what we want to know is wether you are a devoted admirer of the King of the Burglars... Oh but he is the most amiable of Kings..." (Pg 23, Candide). What I thought is they must be mocking all kings. They steal everyone's money, yet do some good things for the people. Voltaire might be indirectly mocking them by calling him the King of the Burglars.

Irony is a strong characteristic in satire. There is a lot of irony in Candide. In page 27 a minister says "Do you believe the pope is antichrist, my friend?" What the church says is that the pope is the messenger of God in Earth, so why would he be considered antichrist? Voltaire kind of mocks the church here by saying 'you're the ones who chose him', which leaves them with no one to blame. Candide says something to avoid answering the question, so the minister immediately falls on him telling him to leave immediately, what the church does in many cases. It's funny how each person can interpret satire how he wants.