Essay on Candide by Voltaire

Outwardly, the story is constructed as a biography of the protagonist, the story of various disasters and misfortunes, overtaking Candide in his travels around the world. Further I would like to present short plot of the novel. At the beginning of the novel Candide expelled from the castle of Baron Thunder-ten-Tronch for having dared to fall in love with the daughter of the baron, a beautiful Kunigunda. After escape, Candide gets a mercenary in the Bulgarian army, where he thirty-six times ran through the formation, and from where he escapes only during the battle, in which thirty thousand souls were killed. After that, Candide goes through a storm, shipwreck, an earthquake in Lisbon, where falls into the hands of the inquisition, and almost dies. In Lisbon, the hero meets a beautiful Kunigunda, who also endure many misfortunes, and they go to South America, where Candide sees the fantastic country of Eldorado. Further, through Suriname, he returned to Europe, visited France, England and Italy, and completed his journey around Constantinople, where he married Kunigunda and owned a small farm.

It should be noted that except Pangloss, there are no happy heroes in the story: each character tells the story of his soul-chilling pain and grief. This abundance makes the reader perceive the violence and cruelty as the natural state of the world. In Voltaire’s world, people are different only in degree of misfortunes; any community unjustly, and the only country is a happy place – a nonexistent Eldorado. However, by portraying the world as a realm of absurdity, Voltaire anticipates the literature of the twentieth century.

It is extremely important to mention that Candide, as stated in the beginning of the story, is the young man, whom nature has endowed with sincere temper. His whole soul was reflected in his face. He judged things quite sensibly and kindly. As a fact, Candide – is a model of “natural man” of the Enlightenment era, in the story he belongs the roles of hero, a simpleton, who is a witness and victim of all the evils of society. It should be noted that Candide trusts people, especially his mentor, and his first teacher Pangloss, who learns Candide that there is no effect without cause and everything is for the best in our best world. Without any doubts, Pangloss – is the embodiment of optimism of Leibniz and failure, stupidity of his position is proved with every plot turn, however Pangloss is incorrigible. As a character of philosophical tale, Pangloss lacks the psychological dimension, he only tested the idea, and the satire of Voltaire deals with Pangloss primarily as a carrier of a false and dangerous idea of optimism. However, it should be mentioned that Pangloss, in the story, confronts his brother Martin, a philosopher- pessimist, who does not believe in the existence of goodness in the world, he also steadfastly committed to his convictions, as well as Pangloss, he is just unable to learn the lessons of life. The only person to whom it is given – is Candide, whose expression throughout the story showed that by little steps he gets rid of the illusion of optimism, but he is not in a hurry to take the extreme of pessimism. It is clear that in the genre of philosophical tale, there is no question about the evolution of the hero, as is generally understood picture of moral change in a man. As a rule, philosophical novels have not any psychological aspect of the characters so that the reader can empathize them, but can only watch how the characters try to find optimal idea. Since the heroes of “Candide” devoid of inner peace, they can not develop their own ideas in a natural way in the process of internal evolution; the author must take care and provide them with these ideas from the outside. This final idea for Candide is an example of Turkish old man, who claims that he did not know and never knew the names of muftis and viziers: “I think that, generally, people, who interfere in public affairs sometimes perish miserably, and that they deserve. But I did not care what is done in Constantinople; it is enough for me that I send them fruit for sale from the garden, which I cultivate”, as stated in “Candide” Quotes. In the mouth of the same sage Voltaire puts the glorification of labor (after “Robinson Crusoe” it is a frequent motif in the literature of the Enlightenment era, in “Candide” it is expressed in the most capacious philosophical form): “The work keeps us off from three great evils: boredom, vice and misery”, as stated in “Candide” Quotes. Finally, an example of a happy old man tells Candide final wording of his own position in life: “We must cultivate our garden”. In those famous words of Voltaire is the result of Enlightenment era main idea: everyone should clearly limit its field of action, his “garden”, and work on it steadily, constantly, vigorously, without calling into question the usefulness and meaning of their activities, as well as a gardener day-to-day tills his garden. Only in this case the gardener’s work pays off with fruit. In my opinion, with this novel Voltaire tried to say that human life is hard, but tolerated. People should not despair – the contemplation should be replaced with action.

To sum it up I would like to say that in my opinion, Voltaire used the novel and its characters as an occasion to ridicule the government, theology, military science, literature, art and metaphysics. It is clearly seen in describing Leibniz’s optimistic doctrine, according to which “everything is for the best in our best world”. It can be said that these words sound extremely sarcastic refrain every time, when the heroes suffer from new disaster. Without any doubts, Voltaire was incredibly depressed with the terrible earthquake, which took place in Lisbon in 1755. As a result, he constructed as a biography of the protagonist, the story of various disasters and misfortunes, which shows that Leibniz’s doctrine of harmony and optimism has little in common with reality. However, despite that I think that Voltaire was optimistic, but in another sense – he believed in the perfection of man and all its institutions. Prominently in his story is a description of the ideal state Eldorado, where there is no monarch, prisons, there are no judges, no tyranny, and everybody is free.

Another important fact is that Voltaire’s philosophical tale built mostly in the form of changing travel pictures. His heroes are forced to commit or voluntary pilgrimage. They see the world in all its diversity; they visit different countries and meet different people. I am convinced that in the philosophical novel, Voltaire did not attempt to make a comprehensive picture of characters – it was not his task. The main task for him – is the purposeful and consistent struggle against hostile ideas against obscurantism and prejudice, violence and oppression. As a rule, Voltaire’s novels are reticent, but each word carries great meaning.