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FACULTY OF LANGUAGE STUDIES

A230A: Reading and Studying Literature

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Exploring literary works that are intended to question and criticize

social issues is of much value to readers and researchers as it gives them a
probing insight into real-life problems and dilemmas. Candide is one of
Francois-Marie Arouet's, commonly known as Voltaire, most creative
works in which he criticizes divers of issues and sheds light on major
ideas of life that are held to be taken for granted, including religion,
women's rights, philosophy, optimism and racism. To say the truth,
Voltaire, ridicules such issues and comments on the absurdities related to
them. He also brings some paradoxes that make sense of his mockery like
putting worldly experience versus philosophy, religious tolerance versus
religious intolerance, love versus killing and perishing, etc. This article
throws light on this novella, with particular attention given to its genre
and how it fits into it, the kind of ideas discussed in the novella ranging
from optimism to racism, and analyzing Candide's final statement: "Let
us cultivate our garden".

To start with, Voltaire's Candide can be categorized under the literary

genre of satire. It satirizes a number of major issues, i.e., religion,
philosophy, natural disasters and even the structure of the novel itself. To
further illustrate, he points out that Candide's devotion to philosophy and
the philosophical doctrines of Dr. Pangloss, not to mention the idle
optimism it reflects, severed him from understanding the real world. That
is why when he was banished; he faced a torrent of conflicts and
misfortunes that he experienced poverty and living hard times. (Wade,
1972) The novel satirizes, thus, optimism itself by such misfortunes.
What is more, the satire extends through the whole novel; when it comes
to the complex at which Candide is reunited with his beloved, Cunegund,
with us thinking that the story will close happily, we realize that another
conflict crops up as Cunegund's brother rejects to let her marry Candide,
who is of low social status, which is absurd because it is unreal, i.e.,
Candide was capable of marrying her if he wanted by returning her
brother to slavery again but he is no longer more interested in her because
she lost her beauty. (Henry, 1975) Here, the writer makes fun of love;
making it a peripheral feature related to appearance that it ends once
appearance changes. Besides, the conclusion of the novel further expands
the satire, that is, even though the knot is undone and the complex is
resolved, the characters are still unhappy. This makes it a pretended
happy ending. The novel raises and discusses a series of ideas in a
satirical way. It specifically stresses the idea of optimism through the
depiction of Dr. Pangloss, the ridiculously optimistic philosopher who
deeply affects Candide's thought that he leaves him helpless when he is
exposed to the sufferings of the real world. In this situation, the novel
satirizes the ideal conception of optimism that stuffs people's heads with
notions without deeds; however, it rather stresses the type of optimism
emerging from work and experience__"His Bulgarian Majesty […]
found, from what he heard of Candide, that he was a young
metaphysician, entirely ignorant of the world." (Candide, 1759: p.8) It
ridicules the lazy optimism theories set by Leibniz that push their holder
to ask charity instead of making his own bread and butter himself as
Candide started to beg people for money, though young and capable of
working__"He asked charity of several grave-looking people […] that if
he continued to follow this trade they would have him sent to the house of
correction, where he should be taught to get his bread." (Candide, 1759:
p.10) That satire is confirmed by the orator's words: "Thou deserves not
eat or drink." (Candide, 1759: p.10) Another idea is the debasement of
women's rights. Women are valued for their outer appearances, nothing
more. Thus, Candide is not attracted to Cunegund after losing her beauty
any more. Women are rather humiliated and raped by raiders and used as
tools to satisfy their natural necessities. (McCracken, 1973) This image
is a mockery of the model of women's rights and a call for it at the same
time through putting the problem of debasing women under the
microscope. For raiders, women do not have any right; once they seize
them, they rip them open after they ravish them__" her body was ripped
open by Bulgarian soldiers, after they had subjected her to as much
cruelty as a damsel could survive." (Candide, 1759: p.13) Furthermore,
the novella highlights the idea of religious tolerance in a contrastive way.
On the one hand, one is encountered with religious intolerance in the
situation with the orator and his wife__"seeing a man who doubted
whether the Pope was Antichrist, she discharged upon his head a utensil
full of water." (Candide, 1759: p.10) Candide, therefore, describes them
as inhumane. On the other hand, he encounters an opposite situation with
the Anabaptist, James__"I am infinitely more affected with your
extraordinary generosity than with the inhumanity of the gentleman in the
black cloak and his wife." (Candide, 1759: p.11) Then tolerance emerges
again with the Jewish man who shows kindness to Cunegund. Racism is
one of the ideas raised in the novel. Candide got exposed to racist
practices when he was stripped off his clothing and whipped by the
Portuguese. Another form of racism is class difference that Cunegund's
brother rejected her marriage to Candide due to his low social status.
Voltaire ironically criticizes racism and religion as Candide was whipped
by orders given by the same Jewish man who showed tolerance and
kindness to Cunegund, which is an ironic paradox.

Candide's final statement "Let us cultivate our garden" can be

understood in a two-fold meaning. It can be a pronouncement of
Candide's intention to turn his words into actions, especially when he
used to have ideas without practice and information based on no
experience. Perhaps after all the sufferings he experienced and the
scourges he had , he realizes the real logic of things and intends to start
anew with a real understanding of life based on experience and several
real-life happenings. On the other hand, it may be construed as a call for
further research. After conceiving that real understanding and knowledge
come by sophistication, he feels that he is eager to have more and more to
cultivate his mind. (McCracken, 1973) As far as I can see, the word
"garden" seems to be a symbol for life and mind that need to be cultivated
by experience and practice. Candide's final statement proves that
experience, not simply barren philosophical speculations or principles, is
the real food for making mind nourish and flourish. It does not seem, I
think, to be a real object as Candide and Martin, and before that Dr.
Pangloss, were talking about the garden of Eden and that man was put
there to dress and cultivate it by work, not just holding lazy thoughts and
being a lazy thinker not a doer. It also symbolizes optimism which is
related to the rich and prosperous production that they can have if they
well cultivate their mind and lives.

In contradiction with the image of idle optimism that Voltaire

satirizes throughout the novel, Candide sets a new meaning of optimism,
which is a true cultivation of the meaning of the dull optimism presented
in the novel by Candide, Dr. Pangloss and Cunegund. He points out,
through his words, that real optimism consists in painstaking work and
strife for bread. It can be found and attained through experience and real
practical deeds, not just in relation to theoretical knowledge or
information stored in mind that has nothing to do with what happens in
the world. (Henry, 1975) Candide's new meaning of optimism is a
practical one that also implies cultivation, improvement, development and
the use of creative methods and thoughts that can never be realized by the
absurdity of idle thought and laziness. Furthermore, the verb "cultivate"
implies also a lot of positive associations: culture, organization, work,
production, reclamation, etc., that bring about goodness to mankind.

In conclusion, Voltaire used his novella Candide to satirize Leibniz's

theories of idle optimism. He creatively criticizes idle thinking that is not
based on practice or experience. It has been seen that Candide, the
protagonist of the novella, is the philosophical model through which such
idea is criticized; and through his actions, other issues are satirized. The
essay has explored how Voltaire satirizes the idea of optimism held by
idle philosophy by the repetition of its doctrines, that is, "causes and
effects; the idea of women's rights by showing the opposite image of the
women who were ripped open after being raped by Bulgarian raiders; and
even the contradicting attitudes towards religious behavior demonstrated
by the orator and his wife, the Anabaptist James and the Jewish man.
What is more, the article has commented on Candide's new meaning of
optimism that proves that he learnt lessons from his experience and had
much deeper understanding of life that turned his perception of his past
philosophical doctrines topsy-turvy.

References

Henry, Patrick (1975) Voltaire and Camus: the Limits of Reason and the
Awareness of Absurdity, Banbury, Voltaire Foundation

Wade, Ira Owen (1972) Voltaire and Candide: A Study in the Fusion of
History, Art and Philosophy, Port Washington, Kennikat Press

McCracken, M. C. (1973) an Overview of Candide Model I.O, Ottawa,

Economic Council of Canada for Interdepartmental Committee

Candide by Voltaire (1759) translated by Smollett Tobias

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