Does the punishment fit the crime?

Does the punishment fit the crime? Did Candide really deserve to get kicked out of the castle just because of the one little innocent kiss he had with Cunégonde? Well that all depends on who you ask. According to her father it completely deserved. After all that’s why he kicked him out. The way he saw it Candide didn’t deserve to be with her because she had seventy two quarterings on her coat of arms and he only had seventy one. This means that she could trace her ancestor back one more generation than Candide and that’s enough in her dad’s eyes to make Candide unsuitable for her. This may seem strange to us but for people of noble descent back then (and maybe even now) this was a big deal because that was how they maintained their status and titles. However, being a modern day teenager I can’t possible agree with this punishment. To me its equivalent to getting beaten when you’re a young child for not eating all of your broccoli or getting kicked out of your house for forgetting to make your bad in the morning. That doesn’t seem fair to me at all. On the other hand the punishment was a blessing in disguise because only by leaving the castle and experiencing the real world could Candide learn the truth about the world and leave behind the optimism that Pangloss imbedded in his young mind. Only through this was he able to leave behind his ignorance and gain some life experience.