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This is a step away from “Technology, BMWs, and Business”, however I just wrote this quick article on Candide and thought I’d share.
Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire constructed the novella “Candide” partially for the purpose of entertainment, but mostly to satirize the fallacy of Gottfried William von Leibniz’s theory of optimism. Throughout the course of his saga, Voltaire juxtaposes the raw, unrepressed optimism of one character in the story with exaggerated real-world adventures of pessimism and gloom. From gruesome war to disease, sedition, and deceit, Voltaire misses none of the bad in the “best of all possible worlds”.
Leibniz was a German philosopher and mathematician in Voltaire’s time. He argued that our world was the epitome of perfection, and all evils that transpire are for the betterment and evolution of our ideal society. God, he believed, was perfect, and as Earth is the conception of God, it must maintain such sound imperfections. However Voltaire chooses to begin writing on these premises alone to further accentuate his satire, purposefully overlooking the inescapable evil that comes with the “best of all possible worlds”. Leibniz was actually not suggesting our world was perfect, but rather the best of all the worlds available to God. Voltaire disregarded this in “Candide”.
Dr. Pangloss is introduced as the literary symbolic representation of Leibniz’s theory. Conceived early in the novella, the then naive Candide reveres Pangloss as the supreme authority on all philosophical matters and follows his teachings without question. Candide enters the world with this very closed-minded philosophy to further exaggerate Voltaire’s satirical aim, but throughout the story he experiences a fierce internal conflict between his childhood schooling and the realities of society. Voltaire also created the character of Martin, a very pessimistic antagonist acting as the devil whispering palpable cynicism into Candide’s ear. As their journey progresses, Candide finds it harder and harder to support the unyielding raw optimism of Pangloss.
At one point in “Candide”, the characters arrive at Eldorado, a utopia designed to metaphorically represent the perfect society described as “the best of all possible worlds”, a quote used by Leibniz and Pangloss to portray our “perfect” society. This city is “impossible” to find, and is described with details to make it seem as distant from reality as possible. By materializing Leibniz’s ideological perfection without laws, jails, or the need for material goods, Voltaire is showing Leibniz’s theory as laughable. This allows Candide to see for himself the quintessential essence of Pangloss’s teachings, just before being submerged again headfirst into the icy waters of society’s realism when they leave. Eldorado is one of Voltaire’s strongest examples of the philosophical collision in the novella, since it reaches beyond speculation and rumor to show Candide hard, physical evidence of the Atlantistic notion brought forth by Pangloss.
Chapter Nine is a hard hit for Candide’s faith in Pangloss’s teachings. He is forced to murder two men in an attempt to protect his own life and that of his mistress Cunégonde. They die in the exact same way for a nearly identical cause, and still the Grand Inquisitor is given a grand burial while the civilian man is thrown on a dunghill. They were both human beings- were their lives worth different values? Candide questions the ideological perfection of society’s injustice.
Voltaire also adds an interesting touch of satire through his choice of character names. Pangloss is loosely translated as “all tongue” or “windbag”, an ironically fitting name for one who offers no proof to support his claims. Candide is translated to “white”, a slightly deeper translation, but no less fitting. In the beginning of the novella, Candide is a very naive child, innocent and pure. He accepts the teachings of Pangloss, the only philosophy he is exposed to. As he makes his journey all over the world, his purity staggers in parallel with his maturity. He begins to question his personal beliefs, however always remaining true to his honesty, loyalty, and generosity” sparkling associations with the unblemished color white. His continued loyalty is apparent by maintaining his honest oath to always love Cunégonde, even after she grows old and loses her beauty. His generosity is illustrated when Candide offers some riches to the ousted king after hearing his tale from a world far less than the best possible.
In many ways, “Candide” is an allusion to Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales”. Voltaire uses “Candide” to poke ridicule, even to the point of criticizing, the endless flaws of the world. From government corruption to inhumane warfare, Voltaire tends focuses more on the issues at large, rather than Chaucer’s focus toward individuals like merchants and friars’ however there truly is no difference. Society is composed of merchants, friars, priests, physicians, knights, and pardoners, so essentially both authors are attacking the same body, but from different angles. Where Chaucer may compare the nun to a prostitute, Voltaire compares the Bordeaux police officer to a common thief. When juxtaposing both works, rather than seeing a contrast, you see a single large picture, seamlessly flowing from one source to the other. One might wonder how much influence Chaucer had on Voltaire.
“Candide” is a remarkable literary work written by the very embodiment of the 18th century enlightenment. Voltaire forever shifted the paradigms of modern satire through a witty, yet pointed assault on Leibniz’s blind theory of optimism. Devouring Leibniz’s premises with colorful, yet blatant, real-world contrasts, Voltaire reflects the sheer lunacy of such a theory. Moral of the story? If Voltaire disagrees with someone, he lets the world know it.
April 18th, 2006 at 2:01 am
[...] I have recently been getting quite a bit of traffic to the article I wrote comparing Voltaire’s Candide with Leibniz. As such, I’ve decided to publish another paper I’ve written on the Voltaire. Enjoy. [...]
May 10th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Dear Harry,
Can you recommend a good biography on Voltaire? I’m looking for an in-depth but readable study and would be grateful for a recommendation.
Linda Madsen
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
May 26th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
Dear Harry,
Thank you very much for this very capturing analysis of Voltaire’s Candid;
As a French national, I studed Candide at highschool and never really got the meaning out of it : blind optimism doesn’t work, fine, but what does then work? And it appears that there is nothing proposed in Voltaire’s book.
I found out our article though wikipedia, as after looking at the French language wikipedia I was quite disappointed with the non-analytic short summary of the book that was available there.
My surprise was big when I found out the English speaking Wikipedia was much more documented and had your link - just what I was looking for!
This leads to my final point, as a French national, that satire is was probably a brilliant way of writing in the past but is totally old-fashioned today. The world moves on and France should wake up and think about solutions to its problem. The fact the french Wiki takes Voltaire’s book for granted, and more generally that the French opinion remains eager on satires of G.W.B. or the Chinese Communist Party does not really help bringing the Country of France forward.
Christian
May 27th, 2006 at 3:25 pm
Dear Harry,
I was looking for a good analysis of Voltaires Candide to help me with my exam and i found it!!!
Your analysis really delved into the true meaning of the book and gave me a clear understanding of what it was about.
Cheers
Sofia
May 29th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
Very interesting, perhaps the greatest value of Candid is inspiring young people to search and not to accept ideas blindly, as it did to me in my adolescence. That’s the great adventure of life. Sergio.
June 10th, 2006 at 11:38 pm
How shortsighted you seem to be! Please, that is NOT a French national trait, to think only witing your own country’s sphere of experience!
Candide is timeless, just consider all the Bushites in Usa who think the world is their excellent personal playground…! Voltaire was writing for the world and his work remains exceptionally pertinent today.
June 23rd, 2006 at 3:38 pm
I am preparing French literature exam for June, the 25-th., 2006. I have avoided this subjct on and on, finding it too long and confusing. I did well because it is due to your article I understood its core; still, I do not know wether to chose ” Candide” defend l’empirisme, presente comme une forme de conscience et d sagesse” or “traite de la relativite des connaissances”
Could you enlighten me? urgent, not leta than tomorrow
August 23rd, 2006 at 1:23 pm
i was looking for character analysis and the theme for ‘Candide’ as it was in my IB english course and i found it here…
thank you
August 27th, 2006 at 9:55 pm
Wow, this is amazing! I had to read ‘Candide’ for an AP Global assignment and write a huge study guide…and this really helped me! It answered all my questions explained the basic ideas in a way that was easy to read and got straight to the point. Thank you so much!
September 6th, 2006 at 9:51 am
What is not understood in the above analysis and comments is that Voltaire is criticizing most explicitly Christian Dogmatic Education which any education of his time absolutely required - in other words Christian catechism. Leibniz was a believer in Christian Dogma and was very well versed in the Dogmatic Teachings. Voltaire and Diderot, following the English atheist materialist philosophers beginning with Hobbes, mocked Christianity and religious belief in general. Locke though that belief and reason are separate functions of man, and hence the belief that religion i s irrational while science is rational. Voltaire sees the excesses of the West Europeans who have spent much of the preceding centuries plundering nations and states of Africa, Asia, and the Americas, and fighting almost continuous wars among themselves in Europe. But Voltaire wrongly attributes these excesses to Christianity rather than to West European rulers. This shortsidedness of Voltaire and his companions, who were sort of rebels of the rich classes, has cost mankind its sanity.
October 6th, 2006 at 7:52 pm
can plz some1 give me th essay on voltaire candide………………….??????????
October 11th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
Does the previous comment that Voltaire has “cost mankind its sanity” come from someone who believes that Christian dogma must always be accepted and never questioned? It is tragic for the human experience to be constrained by any means from exploring differing philosophies and religions whose wisdom can uncover truths and enrich our lives. Without that opportunity, humans would still be uncivilized, offering human sacrifices at altars to the “gods”. Voltaire was a champion of civil freedoms and human rights. For that we must thank him. What he failed to do was seek a balance between faith and reason. But perhaps we can forgive him, for what he saw happening in his own day–the use of religious dogma by persuasive people to achieve power and influence by violent means–caused him to react with bitterness at such hypocrisy. Our time is not so different from Voltaire’s. Perhaps humankind is destined to always teeter between dogmatic extremes and reason without a shred of faith.
December 11th, 2006 at 2:45 am
Why don’t you try and read it…it’s like one hundred pages long. Pretty weak when you need a synopsis on a hundred page book, is all.
January 7th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
I read Candide about 20 years ago and enjoyed it very much. Today, I saw an excellent performance of Leonard Bernstein’s opera “Candide” and went to Wikipedia to find out, finally, what real-life philosopher Voltaire had been parodying in Dr. Pangloss, obviously a parody of somebody. Wikipedia linked to your essay and I want to say, Excellent job! and thank you very much.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:22 am
Voltaire ROCKS!!
February 20th, 2007 at 10:23 am
I love voltaire i can just read forever..
February 20th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
I enjoyed reading your essay on Candide. I read the book in German when I was in the tenth grade. At first nothing really seemed to click, but now as I work on an essay of my own for my Senior project in America I find that Voltaire’s Candide in way connects a lot to the world today if you think about it. Your article has been a big help since I’ve been trying to find more articles regarding Candide, but where many of the others failed to point out yours grabbed rather quickly.
June 5th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
I have not read full text of candide, but have gone through its analysis by Will Durant in his monumental book “the story of philosophy’. Voltaire had the capability to make people laugh even at the most painful of incidents by way of his works like candide. What is more He has the capacity to leave a lasting memory and feeling which can make peopel change in whichever way he liked. And what he liked was generally in the betterment of society to the best of my judgement.
I often wonder what a brain like that of Voltaire would work on and decimate in these enlightened days of Globalisation, global warming and pompous democracy. Hope It would have come down upon such issues like hell as the original Voltaire did in his time. But such brains carry a dangerous overtones in the sense they free thinking and may lead to situations like the French Revolution, at least in the short run, for surely mere understanding of genius is not same as the genius itself. Whatever the case may be, the arts i honestly hope would produce a modern Voltaire, as pungent in wit as the original and as bountiful.
June 28th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
Realy good analisys!
September 19th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
[...] Voltaire’s Candide and Leibniz [...]
October 29th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Looking for the most important part of “Candide” and you will find that “Cultivating your own garden”vs. that of others.
November 27th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
thanks for this in depth article of the candide.though i`ve noticed one important point of this book that you failed to mention which is simplicity.after all the world experiences and search proved candide no worthiness in achieving the happinesss he is after,he stumbled upon this turkish gardener who seemed to have solved the mystery of happiness in life.it`s basically the core of our existence relies on the simplicity of our actions.a baby borns as naive but grows up with the projections of others around it.somehow our brains got carried on with the material and mental hunger where we gobble up every bit that comes upon us which even makes us hungrier and deadlier than ever before.the universe is endless,but in a sense it is also as simple as a plain direct thought.i think we can have all the information from around us,but we should not search for happiness and the existence in them as the incoming information from the universe(including every action of beings around us and every thing that happens) is endless.don`t you think that we would get drown in this?the turkish farmer put this to rest where he showed him the way to follow;go your own way and find the one thing of trait that satisfies your soul and by doing it, keep your entire focus on this matter as you just watch the world go by around you.there you will see the universe in a nutshell and you will understand the core of our existence.don`t look any further than the ground that you are standing on,you have all you need to understand everything in a nutshell of the universe.and happiness happens to dwell on these grounds.i think the future evolution of human understanding is advancing towards this logic as we put more emphasis on spiritual growth and simpler lives where the experiences of technology culture bound to reflect the nature upon us eventually.
so be a farmer and understand that you are a seed for everything around you too.
may we all be happy
January 9th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
I Think, İt’s Very Nice…
January 25th, 2008 at 4:45 am
Just a note to thank you for this excellent essay on Voltaire’s Candide. I read the book many years ago and enjoyed it enormously - the contrast between the stark horrors the befall Candide & Pangloss and the eternal and misplaced optimistic & religious beliefs of Pangloss is a great comic invention as well as great satire. I had cause to remember Pangloss (in the cause of satire) and wanted to refresh my memory (the book itself is somewhere in storage) of Pangloss’s philosophy. This article, which I found via Wikipedia, has been very helpful in confirming that Pangloss was exactly the right comparison.
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