Candide By Voltaire Essay, Research Paper

Candide on the surface is a witty, gelastic story. However when inspected deeper

it is a philippic writing against people of an uneducated status. Candid is an

archetype of these idiocracies, for he lacks reason and has optimism that is

truely 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. Candide has reason only in the

form of a companion upon which he relies for advice. His companion is of course

Dr. Pangloss. He consistently dribbles to Dr. Pangloss about what should be

done. At last to the happiness of readers Pangloss is killed by being hanged.

But this means that Candide?s reason is also dead! No problem he just goes

finds a new companion, ?Lacking him [Pangloss], let?s consult the old

woman? (37). He soon loses her, gains another, looses him, and then gains

another. Thus we see that Candide can only think if he has a companion. Voltaire

is thus saying that all the nobles are really idiots and says they are only

smart because they have philosophers. This is typically Enlightenment, because

nobles, are stupid and must have philosophers to make them Enlightened. For

example L?Hospital?s a French Noble had in his ?possession?

mathematicians that developed new ways of taking limits (a Calculus idea). Yet

in today’s society we call this way ?L?Hospital?s Rule,? not

Bernoulli?s rule who is the one who ?invented? it (Stewart 310). Candide

is consistently being brainwashed by reason (Pangloss) saying that we live in

?the best of Yet it 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. He

also bombasts the philosophy that states all actions are a part of an

illustrious, benevolent cosmic plan. It is Pangloss who says ?it is impossible

to for things to be where they are. For all is well? (30). What Pangloss is

saying that a thing greater then man (God) has everything laid out, and

everything ?is for the best? (30). It is here that Voltaire’s attack on

Christianity begins. He bombasts them for believing that all the world is a

stage, and that God has written the script. This idea of predestination is the

antithesis of the Enlightenment period, and thus it is only natural that

Voltaire, a typical Enlightenment writer, harangue these notions by means of a

person who believes in this until his death- Candide. Finally we can see that

Voltaire is writing a typical Enlightenment work because Candide is a jeremiad

against those people that are lacking Enlightenment knowledge, by this of

course, lacking the epitomes of the period: reason, senses and self-interest.

Thus Voltaire is using a charming story to attack the people of his time who are

against or are not Enlightened. Many other writers also attacked the ignoramuses

of their time. For example Montesquie, a French philosopher use The Persian

Letters to bombast French culture. Hence one reason that Candide is typically

Enlightenment is because it makes fun of the reader who thinks that it is merely

a comical story of a man and a quest for his lover.