Four Themes in Voltaire’s Candide Essay Example

style="text-align: justify"> It is very ironic that despite his intense pro-Catholic stance, the Inquisitor went to great lengths just to obtain Cunegonde as his mistress. But what he did was nothing compared to the Franciscan friar in Chapter 10 who robbed Cunegonde of her money and jewels (Voltaire 43). His greed rendered him blind to the fact that Cunegonde, Candide and the old woman badly needed those for them to be able to continue on their journey to Cadiz. Other religious leaders in the novella carried out inhumane campaigns against those who disagreed with their beliefs – the Portuguese Inquisition hanged Dr. Pangloss and publicly flogged Candide in Chapter 6 (Voltaire 30).

 III.      Influence of Modern Psychology (e.g., Interest in the Unconscious or the Irrational)

Dr. Pangloss constantly taught Candide that “everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds” (Chastain 109). Enlightenment thinkers such as Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz argued that because God was perfect, believing in the existence of evil meant believing that God was imperfect. The world, therefore, must be perfect – the concept of imperfection was merely fabricated by people who did not understand God’s grand plan. But because Voltaire acknowledged neither God’s existence nor his perfection, he mercilessly satirized Leibniz’s belief that the world was a perfect place (Chastain 109).

Candide and Dr. Pangloss experienced numerous misfortunes throughout the novella – floggings, rapes, robberies, unjust executions, disease, an earthquake, betrayals and demoralizing world-weariness. It is very obvious that these adversities were due to the cruelty and folly of humanity, as well as the indifference of the world. Dr. Pangloss, however, stubbornly held on to the

erroneous ideas of philosophical optimism.

Despite the debilitating effects of syphilis, Dr. Pangloss convinced himself to believe that his malady was “what nature intended” (Voltaire 10). This decision of his was a clear display of false pride. In Chapter 4, Dr. Pangloss did not only suffer from syphilis – he was also reduced to a beggar. Thus, by flawed reasoning, he hoped to prove to Candide that everything he taught him still held true.

 IV.      The Epiphany at the End of the Modern Short Stories

The misfortunes that Candide and Dr. Pangloss experienced throughout the novella resulted in Candide’s disenchantment with philosophical optimism. But neither did Candide use this as an excuse to fully embrace pessimism. Numerous events in the novella made Candide realize that occurrences that are traditionally regarded as tragedies are not necessarily as such. Death is a good example of evidence which would validate this premise (Chastain 109).

In separate instances, Candide thought that Cunegonde, Dr. Pangloss and the baron are dead, only to discover later that they were still alive. However, it eventually became clear that their survival did more harm than good. Cunegonde is shallow and fickle, Dr. Pangloss is silly and dimwitted and the baron is snobbish and narrow-minded. It would be fair to say, therefore, that Candide’s discovery that they were still alive symbolized the revival of certain negative human traits (Chastain 109).

At the end of the novella, Candide pointed out to Dr. Pangloss and Martin that human existence was never meant to be easy. But this did not mean that people had to resign themselves to evil and misfortune. It simply

meant that they must learn to “take care (of their) gardens” – strive hard to bring about goodness in a sinful world.