The character Pangloss was created to embody this flawed philosophy. He embodies it so steadfastly that he actually ridicules it. Despite the incredible amount of misfortune that is suffered by every character in the story, Pangloss maintains his optimistic position while trying to defend it with illogical reasoning, that more often than not, is comical. He and Candide become victims of the inquisition and almost die. Everything is still for the best according to Pangloss. Misfortune this terrible would push most people cry for themselves. Saying something so dumb as "it's the best thing that could have happened" has to make a person just laugh at Pangloss for his sheer retardedness. It is through this character's behavior that Voltaire mocks the length to which people would carry their optimistic philosophy in the face of an opposite reality.
Aristocratic arrogance is another recurring issue which Candide satirizes. This is demonstrated when the Baron of Westphalia refuses to allow Candide to marry his sister, Cunegonde, on the basis that Candide is short one generation of lineage out of seventy-two. The difference in nobility (1/72) is so negligible that preventing the hook-up solely due to that line of logic is ridiculous. Seventy-two generations of nobility also implies several thousand years of aristocratic background, which again is totally bogus. There has never been or ever will be an empire that has lasted for 3,000 years with a single line of rulers who have managed to inbreed with each other the whole time. The idea of it just makes a person smile, and that's what Voltaire had intended to do with it. Sarcasm dripped from the book when the governor of Buenos Aires was introduced. Don Fernando d"Ibarra y Figueroa y Mascarenes y Lampourdos y Souza "had the pride befitting a man who bore so many names. He spoke to people with the noblest disdain; he carried his nose so high, raised his voice so mercilessly, adopted such an imposing tone and affected such a haughty bearing that everyone who greeted him was tempted to hit him.
