The Disillusionment Of Optimism In Candide, By Voltaire

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.

            Candide is consistently being brainwashed by reason (Pangloss) saying that we live in "the best of all possible worlds", while it is quite obviously that he does not. For how can there be, in the best of all worlds, war, slavery and many more abominations. Half-way through the book it would appear that Candide has given up his optimism when he looked at the Negro slave. "Oh Pangloss... I'll have to give up your optimism at last" (73). But to the distress of the readers he has not given up his chafing optimism. "Since I found you [an Eldoradian sheep laden with stones], I'm sure I can find Cunegnde again" (79). Thus we see that he has quickly recovered his optimism. Voltaire is using Candide's blatant optimism to relate to the people of his time that also have the same type of optimism.

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.

Martin is another character who holds a philosophy that is not useful. Martin holds a pessimistic view of people, claiming that humans are innately evil. For example, he compares the natural evils in humans with the natural tendency for hawks to prey on pigeons (87). When Candide accuses Martin of being possessed by the devil, Martin says, “he is so deeply concerned in the affairs of this world that he may as well be in me, as well as in everybody else” (82). Contrary to Pangloss, who is in denial of societal faults, Martin has accepted suffering as a present part of life. Although acceptance is important, Voltaire criticizes pessimism to being as equally detrimental as optimism. Martin constantly criticizes the evil in people and finds the fault in others. When Candide trusts Cacambo to take on the great task of retrieving Cunegonde, Martin condemns Candide for foolishly trusting a person enough to think that he will do him any favors with large sums of money handed to him. This is evidence to further suggest his belief in the natural evils in people. When Candide increasingly loses hope in Cacambo ever returning with Cunegonde, Martin is “not consoling” and “continued to prove to him that there was very little virtue or happiness upon earth” (104). Because Martin’s statements do nothing to help Candide’s

The Story of Candide is a short but diverse story that tells of a young man’s journey for love and understanding and the hardships he faces, all the while keeping a very strong, positive and philosophical outlook on life. The novel takes place both in fictional and existing locations throughout Latin America and Europe during the 1750’s. Voltaire believed that the society he lived in had many flaws, which are often illustrated and satirized in Candide. Candide’s journey portrays the flawed human assumption that the grass is always greener on the other side as well as giving the reader an apt example of an individual’s journey from innocence through a series of trials and tribulations to becoming a mature, experienced and enlightened individual.

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).

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

Pangloss, a philosopher is depicted all through the novel as an idealistic mastermind who lives by this logic. Candide, who is mentored by Pangloss aimlessly much of the time addresses this reasoning at snapshots of hardship over the span of his life, lastly rejects it, picking to trust that in spite of the fact that the world is not the best of all possible worlds but,“we must cultivate our garden” (Voltaire 365). Different characters in the book likewise can 't help contradicting Pangloss ' ideals. Jacques who went to Lisbon with Pangloss isn 't strong of these ideals. Jacques says “ humankind has corrupted its nature a little, for people were not born wolves, yet they have become wolves. God did not give them heavy cannon or bayonets, yet they have invented them to destroy each other” (Voltaire 309). The book recounts the account of Candide, as he goes through life and endures numerous hardships on account of others. Candide not only suffers, but the people he surrounds himself with suffer the same fate as well. The book does a good job at outlining human suffering that provoked enlightenment ideas to not only challenge it, but to really show their true selves. Each time something bad happens Pangloss shares his idealistic perspective as to why it occurred. The way Candide points these things out, causes the reader to disagree with Pangloss’s

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.

Why do bad things happen to good people? A question often asked by...well, by just about everyone. It is a frequently asked question that philosophers and religious figures have tried to answer for centuries yet no one can pinpoint the answer. Candide is no doubt Voltaire's response to the answer given by some of the philosophers of his time. The philosophy discussed throughout the novel gives meaning to the story itself and contributes to and carries on throughout the entire story.

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.

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.

Voltaire's Candide is a short satirical novel based on the life, adventures, and ultimate enlightenment of the title character Candide. The novel was subtitled ironically, The Optimist, in reference to a type of philosophy prevalent in Voltaire's day, which the author found repellant. Candide is his answer to optimism as a philosophy. Likewise, Samuel Johnson's Rasselas presents a worldview (according to the philosopher Imlac) that at times appears to be somewhat stilted. Not as cynical or satirical as Candide, however, the hero Rasselas learns lessons about life that to a certain extent elude Voltaire's hero. This paper will show how Johnson's Rasselas learns to be satisfied with pursuing his vocation as prince and "administer [of] justice" (Johnson 197), while Voltaire's Candide learns that man is essentially doomed to suffer from his own folly and ignorance in the ironically dubbed "best of all possible worlds" (Voltaire 14).