Analysis Of Candide 's Search For His Love

    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.

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.

Voltaire’s Candide can be understood in several ways by its audience. At a first glance it would appear to be simply a story blessed with outrageous creativity, but if you look deeper in to the novel, a more complicated and meaningful message is buried within. Voltaire uses the adventures of Candide as a representation of what he personally feels is wrong within in society. Written in the 18th century (1759), known commonly as the age of enlightenment, Voltaire forces his audience to consider the shift from tradition to freedom within society. He achieves this by exploring the reality of human suffering due to

The story of Candide, “Eldorado” and what the meaning is, has been one of debate as to what Voltaire was interpreting in the story by some authors. The scene of Eldorado is the visual philosophy of Voltaire’s thoughts of what an ideal society would be. It is a land of richness and where there is a state of being equal in status, rights, belief, and opportunity; it is free of greed, claiming titles or importance, religious strife or contention, and there is no suffering (Mason 55). Eldorado also brings the reader’s attention in its scene to show the bad fortune of realities of cultures beyond its land. If this land is the ideal society one would wonder why did Candide and Cacambo who had traveled different countries and experience many test

Enlightenment philosophers wanted concrete, tangible proof to back their ideas. Pangloss, Candide’s friend and teacher, is a character that depicts the metaphysical side of the Old Regime. He is an optimist who believes that there is no effect without a cause and that everything is made for a reason and with a purpose. Voltaire portrays Pangloss as naive. Pangloss finds himself in trouble for studying and exploring the world before he becomes sure of himself and his ideas. Even after Pangloss’s troubles, he still refuses to stray from his thoughts and would rather believe his ideas than face reality. Another character that is depicted as naive and optimistic is Cacambo, Candide’s servant. Cacambo consoles Candide after his loss of Cunegonde. Cacambo claims that God takes care of all women and that they will never be at a loss. But Candide knows the sufferings that Cunegonde and the Old Woman have experienced. Cunegonde was bought, sold, and objectified throughout the novel, along with the Old Woman, who was beaten, raped, and treated with

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

In Candide Voltaire discusses the exploitation of the female race in the eighteenth century through the women in the novel. Cunegonde, Paquette, and the Old Woman suffer through rape and sexual exploitation regardless of wealth or political connections. These characters possess very little complexity or importance in Candide. With his characterization of Cunegonde, Paquette, and the Old Woman Voltaire satirizes gender roles and highlights the impotence of women in the 1800s.

In a way, Pangloss is Candide’s “father-figure”. As no physical father is present in Candide’s life, Pangloss’s teachings install order and opinion in his world. Whenever introduced to something new- terrible or grand- throughout this novel Candide’s first thought is always about Pangloss; what he would say about it or how he would react. Pangloss physically bounces in and out of this novel, infrequently, but in reference he is in the entire book. Page four in chapter one, while setting up the background for Candide, Voltaire includes an educational and philosophical speech by Pangloss in which he ends by stating, “...all is for the best.” This direct quote continues to influence Candide throughout his quest. This quote initiates an optimistic attitude in Candide which will encourage him throughout his adventures.

First of all, Voltaire is a master in his word choice and his clever use of distortion in the names he creates in this novel convey many levels of meaning. For instance, the main character is dubbed Candide which is derived from the latin word candidum. The many meanings of this root are "white; pure; sincere, honest, and upright.” This word choice perfectly describes the protagonist because he is the ultimate optimist. For example, Candide’s “metaphysico-theologico-cosmolo-nigology” teacher, Pangloss teaches him his philosophy for life which is “This is all for the best’(15). Candide as an open, almost gullible character absorbs all of Panglosses’ teaching without question and accepts that this is how the world it suppose to work. Candide's hyperbolic

In “Candide,” Voltaire’s satiric theme is broad and varied. Although the most interesting satire is the one on religion, especially the utopia in which Candide starts off the story in, the first in importance is philosophical optimism, specifically Pangloss’s philosophy which in the novel this philosophical optimism seems to represent mankind's overall and overused optimism as means to copping with tragedy or loss. Pangloss’s philosophy is both the most important point for debate among the novel’s characters and one of the main targets of Voltaire’s satire. Pangloss is inevitably humorous “Pangloss gave instruction in metaphysico-theologico-cosmolo-nigology" his character is very predictable and superficial, his so called doctrine on optimism which is voiced out repeatedly that even great evil leads to good is opposed gross absurdity with absurdity. "It is clear, said he, that things cannot be

Candide is a reflection of the philosophical values of the Enlightenment. Voltaire’s novel is a satire of the Old Regime ideologies in which he critiques the political, social, and religious ideals of his time.

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

     Voltaire does most of his satirizing through the character of Dr. Pangloss, an unconditional follower of Leibnitz’s philosophy and Candide’s mentor. Pangloss’ ramblings are not personal attacks on Leibnitz, but in some way represent the thoughts of a typical optimist. He is a very hopeful character in the story because he refuses to accept bad. When Candide encounters Pangloss after a long period of time, Pangloss explains how he was almost hanged, then dissected, then beaten. Candide asks the philosopher if he still believes that everything is for the best, and Pangloss replies that he still held his original views. Voltaire frequently exaggerates his point on optimism; there is nobody in reality who is positive about everything all the time, especially after so many horrible experiences. One could say that Pangloss is irrational and idiotic, and Voltaire tries to depict how inexplicable his beliefs are which do not measure up to reality.

Candide finds himself captured by the Bulgarian army where he is whipped terribly, he then walks away and is punished even worse. Despite all that Candide never forgets that all his experiences are for the greater good and the they happen so that something better can happen later. Candide later bumps into a deformed beggar with an eaten nose that turns out to be his master Pangloss, who represents radical optimism. He explains that he has contracted syphilis but through Voltaires diction he creates a humouristic tone where Pangloss proceeds to explain that him having syphilis is acceptable because due to it we also have chocolate "it was a thing unavoidable, a necessary ingredient in the best of worlds; for if Columbus had not caught in an island in America this disease, which contaminates the source of generation, and frequently impedes propagation itself, and is evidently opposed to the great end of nature, we should have had neither chocolate”. Voltaire makes the reader notice how crazy and illogical he sounds mocking his ideology through his character’s situation.

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.