# Of Paquette and Friar Giroflée explained — Candide

> Chapter companion for Candide by Voltaire.

## What happens

Candide and Martin are in Venice, waiting for Cunégonde and Cacambo. Candide is melancholy, but Martin argues that happiness is rare. They encounter Paquette and Friar Giroflée, who appear happy but reveal their miserable lives. Candide gives them money, hoping to make them happy, but Martin remains skeptical. Candide finds some consolation in having found Paquette and his red sheep, hoping he may also find Cunégonde.

## Themes in this chapter

### Suffering and Human Cruelty

Paquette's story details her abuse, exploitation, and the miseries of prostitution; Friar Giroflée describes the torment of monastic life.

### Optimism vs. Pessimism

Candide's hope to find happiness and Cunégonde contrasts with Martin's pessimistic view that happiness is illusory.

### Critique of Religious Hypocrisy

Friar Giroflée, a Theatin, admits his hatred for the convent and his dissolute life, exposing the hypocrisy of religious vows.

## Character check-ins

### Candide

Melancholy and waiting for Cunégonde; invites Paquette and Friar Giroflée to dinner; gives them money.

### Martin

Argues that happiness is rare; wins a wager against Candide about the apparent happiness of Paquette and the friar.

### Paquette

Reveals her tragic life story of seduction, abuse, and prostitution; appears happy but is deeply miserable.

### Friar Giroflée

A Theatin friar who appears content but confesses his hatred for monastic life and his desire to leave.

## Key lines

> Alas! how much better it would have been for me to have remained in the paradise of El Dorado than to come back to this cursed Europe! You are in the right, my dear Martin: all is misery and illusion.

Candide regrets leaving El Dorado and agrees with Martin that the world is full of misery and deception.

_Candide's disillusionment with Europe and his longing for the ideal world of El Dorado._

> Ah! sir, if you could only imagine what it is to be obliged to caress indifferently an old merchant, a lawyer, a monk, a gondolier, an abbé, to be exposed to abuse and insults... you would conclude that I am one of the most unhappy creatures in the world.

Paquette describes the horrors of prostitution, including having to endure different men and constant mistreatment, concluding she is among the most miserable.

_Paquette's detailed account of the suffering inherent in her profession._

> My parents forced me at the age of fifteen to put on this detestable habit, to increase the fortune of a cursed elder brother, whom God confound. Jealousy, discord, and fury, dwell in the convent.

Friar Giroflée explains he was forced into monastic life by his parents for financial reasons and that the convent is filled with negative emotions.

_The friar's resentment towards his forced religious vocation and the toxic environment of the monastery._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/candide_se/chapters/xxiv-of-paquette-and-friar-girofl-e
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/candide_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/candide_se/chapters