The Best of all Possible Worlds Many people concern themselves with the goal of living the most satisfying life possible. While some seek a peaceful existence, others hope for prosperity and high social standing. Throughout Voltaire’s “Candide,” the main character’s search for a content lifestyle is what drives most of his adventures. During Candide’s travels, he attempted to honor the teachings of his tutor, Dr. Pangloss, who believed “things cannot be otherwise than they are, for since everything is made to serve an end, everything necessarily serves the best end” (Voltaire, 101). Although these lectures seemed logical, Candide learned that the only way to live a satisfactory life in “the best of all possible worlds” was to enjoy isolation, work hard, and have a purpose in society. He concluded this at the end of the story when he explained to Martin, his travel companion, and Pangloss that “we must cultivate our garden” …show more content…
After Candide is reunited with his no longer beautiful Cunégonde, the old woman, Pangloss, and his former traveling companions, Candide still could not find peace and continued to reflect on his past misfortunes (Voltaire, 157). Martin even went on to say “that man was bound to live either in convulsions of misery or in the lethargy of boredom” (Voltaire, 157). Then, Candide encounters a Turk who claims he has a solution that keeps his family from “three great evils, boredom, vice, and poverty” (Voltaire, 159). The Turk had twenty acres of which his family cultivated, and Candide realized that the hard work and belongingness in the family is what makes the Turk’s fate extremely desirable (Voltaire, 159). This led Candide to conclude that his group must work hard in their garden and when all of the members found a useful job to do, true satisfaction was finally achieved in the “best of all
In Voltaires?s Candide, the main character, Candide, fails to live happily because he is looking outside of himself and his circumstances to do it. Voltaire says through Candide's ultimate discovery that happiness in many ways depends on a person's attitude. Voltaire's philosophy expressed through Candide's final realization is that "We must cultivate our garden," which is the key to happiness(p.585). By cultivating our garden, Voltaire means that we must make the best of our situation in the present moment. We accept what we are given in life and work to make the best of it. It all has to do with our perspective on life. We do not find happiness somewhere else or by philosophizing about it, we open our eyes to the
François-Marie Arouet, better known by his pen name, Voltaire, was a philosopher and a writer during the Enlightenment. He had an interesting view of the world and humanity that he usually expressed by “[knocking] mankind on the head and [reassuring] him at the same time”(Academy). In Candide he does just that by satirizing the philosophy of optimism and humanity’s preference of ignorance, yet shows that with some growth, we all have the capacity to open our eyes to the realities of the world if we choose to do so.
The directing force of the journey in this novel is Candide’s love for Cunégonde. He goes to irrational lengths to chase his love which includes deserting paradise of El Dorado, numerous murders, and barely avoiding imprisonment and death sentence, mocked by the realism that once he can get married to Cunégonde, he is no longer fascinated to her.
Candide is brought up amongst greed, reared in a castle in a small corner of the world in Westphalia with the privileges of being the son of a baron’s sister, his life is ultimately influenced by this example of money and power. His journey into the world, after his expulsion, begins with the notion that “everything is for the best” from his philosopher Pangloss that every cause has a reaction (Voltaire 2). It isn’t until he is out of Europe traveling with his servant
As Candide continues to come in contact with all these misfortunes, it shows that Candide was a faithful young man, and indeed was a true believer in Pangloss’ theory that all was well in their world. Pangloss also taught Candide that “things cannot be otherwise than they are, since everything is made to serve an end” (521). Pangloss’ philosophy is stating that everything has a purpose and everything that happens, happens for a reason. No matter how bad things might be going, it is for a good cause and can only be as bad if one believes it to be.
Voltaire’s Candide is a satirical fiction that was meant as both an insult and a criticism to the wealthy nobility and the Catholic Church. Voltaire, major voice during the Enlightenment period, had a wide spread influence from England and France to Russia. Candide was massively circulated throughout Europe. Voltaire used Candide to offer his opinion of what was wrong with society: being that the wealthy were ungrateful, selfish people and the church was a ruthless, maniacal super power.
Voltaire's Candide is a novel that is interspersed with superficial characters and conceptual ideas that are critically exaggerated and satirized. The parody offers cynical themes disguised by mockeries and witticism, and the story itself presents a distinctive outlook on life narrowed to the concept of free will as opposed to blind faith driven by desire for an optimistic outcome. The crucial contrast in the story deals with irrational ideas as taught to Candide about being optimistic by Pangloss, his cheerful mentor, versus reality as viewed by the rest of the world through the eyes of the troubled character, Martin. This raises the question of whether or not the notion of free will is valid due to Candide’s peculiar timing of his
Most of Voltaire’s characters were able to explain why they could consider themselves as the “most unhappy” by providing a story of what had occurred to them. Their experiences vary from natural to man-made misfortunes. However, even though, the characters’ reactions to their misfortunes are of a similar, the experiences between the male and female characters of Candide are quite different in regards to what is taken away from them.
Enlightenment thinkers wanted tangible, concrete evidence to back their arguments. Pangloss based his arguments on nothing. Voltaire portrays him as naïve, scorning him for not experiencing and studying the world before he becomes firmly planted in his ideas. Even after Pangloss experiences the evil ways of the world, he refuses to change his philosophy. Pangloss would rather preach something attractive to the ear rather than reality. Candide’s servant Cacambo also speaks of false optimism as he tries to console Candide over the loss of Cunegonde. He says that women are never at a loss and that God takes care of them. However, Cunegonde and the Old Woman both experienced brutality and suffering many times over in their lifetime. Cunegonde was bought, sold, and treated like a possession throughout the novel. She and the Old Woman were left vulnerable to molestation and treated like objects. The only hint of optimism in Voltaire’s novel is when Cacambo and Candide stumble upon the country of Eldorado. However, this optimism is quickly distinguished when the two men foolishly trade such a perfect society for jewels, gold, power, and influence. Eldorado is a country in which there is no organized religion, no courts or prisons, no poverty, and complete equality. Even the king is treated as a normal citizen. Candide overlooks the fact that this is a perfect society because of the ideals they practice, and believes that the riches are the most
Even though many people practiced this doctrine Voltaire did not aside with it instead, he implanted doubts on the chances of achieving true happiness and real conformism. Voltaire’s opinion was that one could not achieve true happiness in the real world but only experience it in an utopia. With the many hardships that Candide goes through ultimately leads him to abandon his attitude of optimism. Candide’s misfortunes and adversities often contrasted with his optimistic view on life. Noticeably, Voltaire uses this satirical piece as a way to criticize this exaggerated optimism. This tale as stated by William Bottiglia, “ Has had a great effect on modern writers who confront mankind’s inhumanity to fellow human beings by presenting the human condition absurdly, ironically, and humorously...” (Bottiglia 112).
“Everything happens for the best, in this the best of all possible worlds.” This is a statement that can be found many times within Voltaire’s Candide. Voltaire rejected Lebitizian Optimism, using Candide as a means for satirizing what was wrong with the world, and showing that, in reality, this is not the best of all possible worlds.
Voltaire's Candide is the story of how one man's adventures affect his philosophy on life. Candide begins his journey full of optimism that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds," but he learns that it is naïve to say that good will eventually come of any evil.
Throughout Candide, there is a constant battle between pessimistic and optimistic viewpoints, both looking to find a navigable path through an uncertain and unforgiving world. In the end, the matter seems to be settled when Candide says, “I also know...that we must cultivate our garden.” (120) over Candide’s adventures, he has been beaten down, but always gotten back up, and all the while he has been lectured by people standing on either side of the optimism/pessimism divide. The conclusion he draws, and ultimately the philosophy that brings he and his companions to a peaceful existence in the end, seems to be the third way out from this battle. “We must cultivate our garden,” becomes a compromise of the two viewpoints, and provides a relief from the philosophical bickering.
In Voltaire’s Candide, we are taken by the hand through an adventure which spanned two continents, several countries, and to a multitude of adverse characters. The protagonist, Candide, became the recipient of the horrors which would be faced by any person in the 18th century. But Candide was always accompanied with fellows sufferers, two of which our focus will lay, Pangloss and Martin. In equal respects, both are embodiments of different philosophies of the time: Pangloss the proponent of Optimism and Martin the proponent of Pessimism. Each of the two travelers is never together with Candide, until the end, but both entice him to picture the world in one of their two philosophies. Throughout the story there is an apparent ebb and flow
Candide on the surface is a witty story. However when inspected deeper it is a philippic writing against people of an uneducated status. Candide is an archetype of these idiocracies, for he lacks reason and has optimism that is truly irking, believing that this is the best of all possible worlds. Thus Voltaire uses a witty, bantering tale on the surface, but in depth a cruel bombast against the ignoramuses of his times.