Voltaire's Candide is a philosophical tale of
one man's search
for true
happiness and his ultimate acceptance of life's
disappointments. Candide grows up in the Castle of Westfalia
and
is taught by the
learned philosopher Dr. Pangloss.
Candide is
abruptly exiled
from the castle when found kissing the Baron's
daughter,
Cunegonde. Devastated by the separation
from Cunegonde,
his true love,
Candide sets out to different places in the hope of
finding her and
achieving total happiness. The theme of
Candide is
that one must
strive to overcome adversity and not passively accept
it in the belief
that all is for the best.
Candide's misfortune begins when he is kicked
out of the
castle and
experiences a series of horrible events.
Candide is
unable to see
anything positive in his ordeals, contrary to Dr.
Pangloss'
teachings that there is a cause for all effects and that,
though we might
not understand it, everything is all for the good.
Candide's endless trials begin when he is forced
into the army
simply because he
is the right height, five feet five inches.
In
the army he is
subjected to endless drills and humiliations and is
almost beaten to
death. Candide escapes and, after being
degraded
by good
Christians for being an anti-Christ, meets a diseased
beggar who turns
out to be Dr. Pangloss. Dr. Pangloss
informs him
that Bulgarian
soldiers attacked the castle of Westfalia and killed
Cunegonde - more
misery!
A charitable Anabaptist gives both Candide and
Dr. Pangloss
money and
assistance. Dr. Pangloss is cured of his
disease, losing
one of his eyes
and one of his ears. The Anabaptist
takes them
with him on a
journey to Lisbon. While aboard the
ship, the
Anabaptist falls
overboard in the process of rescuing a crew
member. Candide finds it more and more difficult to
accept Dr.
Pangloss'
principle that all is for the best.
In Lisbon there is an earthquake which kills
thousands of
people, throwing
the city into ruins. Later, Dr. Pangloss
is hung
as part of an
auto-de-fe. Candide is miraculously
taken in by an
old woman and is
brought to his love, Cunegonde. She
tells him of
the torture she
suffered and how she barely survived.
She further
explains that she
was "shared" by a Jew named Don Issachar and the
Grand
Inquisitor. Candide kills the two men
and escapes with
Cunegonde and the
old woman.
At this point we begin to see Candide
struggling and fighting
to make his
existence worthwhile, in the hope that he and Cunegonde
would marry and
live happily ever after. We saw Candide
taking
matters into his
own hands, instead of accepting his fate, when he
killed
Cunegonde's two lovers. At this point
one begins to see his
maturity from a
naive young man into a realist.
Candide's travels take him to "the new
world" where he hopes
that Dr.
Pangloss' theory might be justified.
Candide finds people
of wealth who are
bored and still unhappy. When he finds a
nation
of happy people
he learns that they must be secluded from the rest
of the world to
preserve their happiness. Cunegonde
leaves Candide
for a man of
wealth but that turns out to be the beginning of her
ruin. Candide is robbed of great wealth and, when
he tries to help
others, he finds
that they are not appreciative of his efforts.
Candide's doubts
about Dr. Pangloss' theory continue to grow.
He
learns to make
his own happiness, battling hardships.
At the end of the book, Candide is reunited
with Dr. Pangloss
who gave Candide
details of how he survived his hanging.
They go
off in search of
formerly beautiful Cunegonde who had become fat,
ugly and
bitter. Nevertheless, he had vowed to
marry her and so he
does. The reader might expect that now Candide
would be happy,
having realized
his dream of marrying his own true love, Cunegonde
and being
reunited with his teacher and mentor, Dr. Pangloss.
Candide is not
happy! He no longer loves Cunegonde and
no longer
believes in the
principles of his teacher.
Throughout Voltaire's Candide we see how
accepting a situation
and not trying to
change or overcome obstacles is damaging.
What
comes to mind,
for me, is the attitude of many Jews during the
Holocaust. While there was mass murder and torture of
innocent
people the
world's countries did nothing. Even the
victims
themselves rarely
fought against the tyranny. If only
people
accepted that
they have the power, in many instances, to influence
their fate, not accept reality, waiting for things
to change,
history might
have turned out differently. We learn
that in life
there will be
many obstacles which can and should be overcome.
Life has its
struggles but it would be a miserable place if people
passively
accepted that everything was for the best, shrugging off
responsibility. We see, in contrast to Dr. Pangloss, Odysseus
in
Homer's The
Odyssey, is a man of great courage who masters all
situations and
even searches for new adventures and challenges.
Voltaire believes that people should not
allow themselves to
be victims. He sneers at naive, accepting types,
informing us that
people must work
(be active) to make their happiness.
CANDIDE
by Voltaire
9J
January 30, 1992
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