Cunegonde's
loss of beauty is yet another proof that Pangloss's theory (from Leibniz)that "all is for
the best in the best of all possible worlds"is absurd.
Cunegonde loses
her youthful beauty as a result of the trials and tortures she undergoes in what is supposedly a
wonderful world and the best place ever. She is gang-raped, disembowelled, orphaned, left for
dead, made a prostitute, enslaved, and displaced. These events leave her disfigured and
exhausted; what is done to her is horribleand so exaggeratedly over-the-top that we laugh as
well as cry at her fate, asintended.
It is also hardly what a young man
dreams of whenfinds his beloved in an ugly and embittered state. Candide sticks with Cunegonde
despite her looks and comes to realize that it is better to withdraw from the world
and...
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