Pride in Length

Reading Candide I began to look for sections in which Voltaire makes something satirical or funny. In chapter 13 I found a clear example of this. It said “upon the governor, Don Fernando d’Ibarra y Figueroa y Mascarenes y Lampourdos y Souza, a nobleman with a degree of pride appropriate to one who bore so many names” (Pg 58). Here we can see how Voltaire is using absurdity to make fun of the important people in the Colonizing America who had extraordinary long names like Hernan Cortes Pizarro Altamirano better known as simply Hernan Cortes or in this case “Don Fernando d’Ibarra y Figueroa y Mascarenes y Lampourdos y Souza”. If we look back at the quotation we may see that it also states “a nobleman with a degree of pride appropriate to one who bore so many names”. It tells us that all the names he has show the importance he has; moreso, it tells us that the pride he has of himself is showed by the many names he has. Mentioning the pride could mean that the importance is only his concept or just in his mind. We can see why Voltaire would make fun of those arrogant American governors, they were cruel and overbearing.