Evil vs. Good

Voltaire recreated a scene that can be shown as a metaphor in Candide. When Jacques takes Pangloss and Candide on a business trip to Lisbon a sailor is drowning and when Jacques tries to save him he goes off board while the sailor goes back on the ship. This can be seen as a metaphor so the Sailor represents evil and Jacques represents good. So what Voltaire showed is a mockery of the optimistic belief that good will always triumph over bad. In this case ironically while Jacques tried to save the sailor he went over board and the sailor didn't do anything about it when he was already safe. But the mockery continues with the persistently optimistic view of Pangloss who said that the bay he drowned in was made expressly for the Anabaptist to drown in because it was his destiny.

Voltaire also makes a social critique of how women were treated in that time and their vulnerability. Cunegonde is shown as a figure that is very susceptible for abuse. She is also shown as if she were a simple piece of property. Cunegonde is sold and bought as if she was some kind of land or livestock. The book shows how Candide can be naïve because he saw that Cunegonde was being shared between the Grand Inquisitor and Don Issachar and he still felt the same love for her.