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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