Candide by French novelist Voltaire, a master of literary satire, portrays a young man named Candide who goes from a luxurious, sheltered lifestyle to the real world and experiences all the hardships that life has to offer. Throughout the story, the title character tries to acquire money and get back to his girlfriend because he believes this is the key to his eternal happiness. He is looking for what would make him happy but nothing seems to be the answer. Candide deals with many important themes such as the folly of optimism, the futility of philosophical speculation and the hypocritical nature of religions. While each theme helps develop the plot and none are more important than the others, the main recurring theme I observed was the human desire to seek and achieve happiness and how often this fails catastrophically. At the beginning of the story, Candide lives in “the most beautiful and pleasant of all possible castles” (17) with Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh, the baroness, their son and their daughter, “Cunegonde, seventeen years old, . . rosy-cheeked, fresh, plump and seductive” (15). His guardian there, Pangloss, preaches the philosophy of optimism and that everything happens for a reason easy. They have servants and plenty of food all year round, but Candide was not entirely happy. Something was missing in his life and that thing was Lady Cunegonde, “because he found Lady Cunegonde extremely beautiful, although he never had the courage to tell her so. ” (16). Candide is infatuated with the beautiful Cunegonde and believes it is one of the greatest blessings in the world to be able to see her every day. However, the object of his affections is pushed away from his reach when he attempts to make a move but is captured by the baron... half of the card... flop. Time and time again, Candide has tried to regain what little contentment he had with his previous life and build on it. Unfortunately, it fails completely and miserably when it takes a direct approach. In the final chapter, the main characters seek advice from a wise dervish who tells them it's not good to poke and pry, let's just leave it. “At these words the dervish slammed the door in their faces” (111). Pangloss tries to ponder the meaning of this, but Candide, fed up with the repeated failures he has suffered throughout the story, simply replies, "That is very well said, but we must go and work our garden" (113). It is implied that hard work leaves no time to question the issues of the universe and, in turn, everyone will be happier. This final chapter perfectly sums up the theme of the novel, the pursuit of happiness will ultimately lead to further discontent.