Ideals Satirized by Voltaire in "Candide" Voltaire's Candide is a satire of life before and during the enlightenment period, a black comedy, this story often makes light of religious purgings, executions, the church in general, royalty, government, nobility, ideals of love, war and the country of France. About the only things not mocked are the ideals of true happiness and paradise. The institution of family is mocked when Candide and Cunigonde are caught making-out by her father the king and is banished from his home. Later in the s ....