SOURCE: Dalnekoff, Donna Isaacs. “Eldorado as an ‘Impossible Dream.’” In Readings on Candide, edited by Thomas Walsh, pp. 64-71. San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press, 2001.

In the essay below, originally published in 1974, Dalnekoff identifies Eldorado as an ideal society that is satirized by Voltaire in Candide.

The meaning of the Eldorado episode in Candide has been the subject of extensive critical debate. Does it represent the author's ideal, his vision of the perfect society, or does it represent a false paradise, to be rejected by the perspicacious reader as it is by the protagonist? If Eldorado is the perfect society as far as Voltaire is concerned, is it portrayed as one that all or some of humanity can possibly attain or at least approach to some degree, or is it portrayed as an impossible dream, incapable of realization by man, incompatible with his nature?

The literary method employed by...