Voltaire’s masterpiece Candide is one which embodies the Enlightenment. Voltaire wrote for the public for which he was a part of and wrote in such a satirical way that his works helped to invoke both admiration and hatred. Voltaire was born Francois Marie Arguet in 1694. Even though many in France were living in abject poverty, the spreading of ideas in what would later be called the Enlightenment was beginning to take hold.
While in prison in 1718, Francois changed his name to Voltaire.As part of the condition of his release from prison, Voltaire promised to leave France. He went to England where he was received with open arms and where people were able to recognize his genius for what it was and what it could become. Within a matter of months, Voltaire had become fluent in English and English philosophy.
It was during this part of his life that Voltaire began to take the stances against certain aspects of society that would make him famous and which elements are clearly seen in his most famous work: Candide.Published in 1759, Candide is still considered Voltaire’s signature work and it is within these most famous pages that his saves his sharpest criticism for the church, the nobility of not only England but all of Europe, philosophy as well as cruelty and the exploitation of the forgotten aspects of society. Candide embodies all of these aforementioned causes and it is for this reason that his works, more than two hundred years old, are still read and discussed all over the world on a daily basis. In Candide, his foil is that of the character of Pangloss.It is undeniable to say that Pangloss is an important aspect of Candide’s philosophy.
He is Candide’s mentor and is responsible for the novel’s main idea: That everything that happens in this world, no matter the degree of tragedy, it is “best of all possible worlds. ” This overly degree of optimism soon becomes one of the main points of Voltaire’s satire. When humans believe that something in the world is not good and needs to be changed, they are saying, in the mind of Pangloss, they do not understand the ultimate good of a situation in which such evil is meant to serve.In this, until the very end of the book, such definitions are kept solely for Pangloss. “It was decided by the University of Coimbre that the sight of several persons being slowly burned in great ceremony is an infallible secret for preventing earthquakes. ” This degree is optimism reaches the absurd and terribly insulting when stated: “A lady of honor may be raped once, but it strengthens her virtue.
” Not until the very end of the book does Pangloss finally begin to question such beliefs and will eventually come to question whether evil sometimes cannot be defined and made to fit nicely in one’s philosophy about the world.Also, what Candide sees as tragic is the fact that Pangloss’s optimism results in a passivity towards what is wrong in the world. If everything is right and fair in the world, then why exert any effort towards correcting the ills of one’s society? Pangloss’s belief in this makes it very hard for Candide to either gain strength from the character of Pangloss, or to expect any type of help as Candide begins his crusade against what he views as the ills of his society and the world.This ideology has a tragic result when Pangloss prevents Candide from attempting to save their mutual friend Jacques from drowning.
Pangloss states: “providing that the bay of Lisbon has been formed expressly for Jacques to drown in. ” This is rather an unbelievable point of view, even for one today who people would define as overly optimistic. However, it would be an error to try to pit these characters into the molds that they would like in order for the book to make sense.The very element of satire sometimes demands such extremism in order to relay a lasting point. There are a number of subjects and ideologies which Candide criticizes.
One of the main points is his eventual repudiation of this optimism which has come to define Pangloss to such a degree. Candide says to Pangloss: “When you were hanged, dissected, stunned with blows and made to row in the galleys, did you always think that everything was for the best in the world?”Such ideologies; the ones which state that the belief in any existence in this world would have to mean that God is neither good nor all powerful in his attempt to prevent such evil. The question of how can the existence of n all powerful God allow such evil to continue in the world, then as well as now, has been a question which billions of people have been wrestling with for centuries. Those who take on that task, usually neither refuse the existence of God or the presence of evil in the world. Pangloss does and says that there is a God; therefore, there cannot be any evil in the world.In this, the reader can see a sizable shift between Voltaire and his character of Candide as well as Pangloss is the fact that Voltaire never did accept the existence of God and therefore he was able to freely mock such belief and the actions which is prompts in individuals.
Voltaire does this by presenting both Candide and Pangloss a number of tragic situations in which the evil of mankind and the earth that they inhabit is personified. Floggings, rapes, robberies, disease and earthquakes to name a few. The second most obvious point of contention for Voltaire is what he sees as the hypocrisy of religion.The abuse of the Catholic Church, by that time, has been well documented as the invention of the printing press allowed ideas and discoveries of the church to be spread across Europe. The coupling of both of the aforementioned resulted in a new sect of Christians called Protestants.
However, the Protestants were not free from the criticism of Voltaire either. “Despite their unified hatred for the corruption of the Catholic Church, Protestants held almost an equal hatred for new denominations which sprang up in the shadow of the Protestant Reformation.”One of these early denominations was called the Anabaptists of whom Jacques was a member of and which resulted in the oppression of this man. This angers Candide as well as Voltaire who, although not sharing the religious fervor of Pangloss, still wishes to protect the rights of those who want to worship God as they would see fit and not to have those rights impeded by anybody; the government, the church or the people themselves. This is what Voltaire is most annoyed about through this book.
Candide speaks to the corruption of the church by commenting: “Imagine the situation of a Pope’s daughter aged fifteen, who in three months had undergone poverty and slavery, had been raped nearly every day, had seen her mother cut into four pieces, had undergone hunger and war, and was now dying of the plague in Algiers. ” It is the satirical comment that the church will commit the same sins that it attempts to purge from its congregation and then when their hypocrisy is discovered, the innocent offspring of their own sin, is made to suffer for it. Candide reacts to the church and levels criticisms against it in two separate ways.The first is the sins of the church through corruption and robberies and the second is the oppression of those who are not in full agreement with their doctrine. Candide encounters the daughter of the Pope, a man who is supposed to be celibate, a Catholic priest who has a mistress and a Franciscan friar who is a thief. These are obvious instances of hypocrisy and through these explanations; it is the idea of Candide to shed light on what he sees as the hypocrisy of the church.
However, it is an erroneous assumption for one to believe that Voltaire was against all aspects of organized religion.Jacques, the Anabaptist is portrayed in a positive light and it is his oppression which helps to incite the reaction of Candide against the church. The last main aspect of society which Voltaire objects to, and it is one which he has experiences himself and therefore has firsthand knowledge to its impediments, is the corruption which money all too often brings to the masses. When Candide acquires wealth, as did Voltaire did in real life, it seems, at least for the immediate future, that both of their problems will soon be over.
However, in reality, the problems for Candide seem to increase as he now finds himself unhappier than when he was poor. It is unique in how such an observation from the past, is so true today. This is not the case for everyone who is able to secure a great deal of money in a short period of time but for many select and well known examples in our modern day society, the winning of the lottery or securing an inheritance, many times, increases that individual’s problems and unhappiness at an exponential level.Also, Candide recognizes the fact that money only multiplies the level of corruption in those who were dishonest before they acquired this wealth.
Candide’s money prompts the merchant Vanderdendur to cheat him as well as the attraction of false friends. Also, the money that Candide gives to Brother Giroflee and Paquette serves as more of a curse than a blessing. After the publishing of Candide, Voltaire was regarded as the writer for the Enlightenment; especially in France as well as England.The book spread quickly and did not produce many friends from within the church. He attacked the privileged class in France and all around Europe.
He held no high distinction for the Catholic Church, or European culture. Upon his death in 1778, there were many who were sad to see him go and many others who were glad to hear the news and went to the funeral only to make sure. Voltaire and his writing; the two are forever linked, were very divisive for its time.One such proof of that was the fact that in 1807, more than thirty years after his death, his body was dug up and burned in effigy; an apparent last affront to the man for his constant barrage of criticism against the Catholic Church and Christianity as a whole.
Often times, aspects of the novel Candide can be accurately described as “over the top” and perhaps unrealistic. This is true in some regard, despite the fact that time and distance from the setting of the novel, at least to some degree, makes it difficult to fully appreciate the challenges that Voltaire saw in his daily life.On the other hand, the old adage: the more things change, the more they stay the same, is no truer than in Candide. The Catholic Priest Abuse Scandal of the last few years, the ways in which people are often times complacent and apathetic towards affecting any real change in their lives and in the world that they live in, and the corrupting effect that money and the love of it, produces in people still, are all impediments to our present day society as it was at the writing of Candide.This is what helps to make Candide so popular. If the world was able to free itself from all of the aforementioned aspects of society; abuse by authorities, apathy and the love of money, Candide might have been forgotten.
However, the ways in which the world works and the power and money which corrupts so efficiently, makes one believe that Candide and the issues which it tackles, will resonate in future societies for generations to come.
