The True Message of Candide

Voltaire's Candide is the story of an innocent man's experiences in a mad and evil
world, his struggle to survive in that world, and his need to ultimately come to terms
with it.

All people experience the turmoil of life and must overcome obstacles, both natural
and man-made, in order to eventually achieve happiness. In life, "man must find a
medium between what Martin (scholar and companion to Candide) calls the
"convulsions of anxiety" and the "lethargy of boredom"" (Richter 137). After a long
and difficult struggle in which Candide is forced to overcome misfortune to find
happiness, he concludes that all is not well (as he has previously been taught by his
tutor, Dr. Pangloss), and that he must work in order to find even a small amount of
pleasure in life.

Candide grows up in the Castle of Westphalia and is taught by the learned

philosopher, Dr. Pangloss. Candide is abruptly exiled from the castle when found
kissing the Baron's daughter, Cunegonde. Devastated by the separation from
Cunegonde, his true love, Candide sets out to different places in the hope of finding
her and achieving total happiness. On his journey, he faces a number of misfortunes,
among them being tortured during army training, yet he continues to believe that
there is a "cause and effect" for everything. Candide is reunited with Cunegonde, and
regains a life of prosperity, but soon all is taken away, including his beloved
Cunegonde. He travels on, and years later he finds her again, but she is now fat and
ugly. His wealth is all gone and so is his love for the Baron's daughter. Throughout
Candide, we see how accepting situations and not trying to change or overcome
obstacles can be damaging. Life is full of struggles, but it would be nonproductive if
people passively accepted whatever fate had in store for them, shrugging off their
personal responsibility. Voltaire believes that people should not allow themselves to
be victims. He sneers at naive, accepting types, informing us that people must work
to reach their utopia (Bottiglia 93).

In Candide, reality and "the real world" are portrayed as being disappointing. Within
the Baron's castle, Candide is able to lead a Utopian life. After his banishment,
though, he recognizes the evil of the world, seeing man's sufferings. The only thing
that keeps Candide alive is his hope that things will get better. Even though the
world is filled with disaster, Candide has an optimistic attitude that he adopted from
Dr. Pangloss' teachings. In spite of his many trials, Candide believes that all is well
and everything is for the best. Only once, in frustration, does he admit that he
sometimes feels that optimism is "the mania of maintaining that all is well when we
are miserable" (Voltaire 41). Candide's enthusiastic view of life is contrasted with,
and challenged by the suffering which he endures throughout the book. Voltaire
wrote this book in a mocking and satirical manner in order to express his opinion
that passive optimism is foolish (Richter 134).

Candide eventually learns how to achieve happiness in the face of misadventure. He

learns that in order to attain a state of contentment, one must be part of society
where there is collective effort and work. Labor, Candide learns, eliminates the three
curses of mankind: want, boredom, and vice. In order to create such a society, man
must do the following: love his fellow man, be just, be vigilant, know how to make
the best of a bad situation and keep from theorizing. Martin expresses this last
requirement for such a society succinctly when he says, "Let's work without
speculating; it's the only way of rendering life bearable" (Voltaire 77).

One of the last people that Candide meets in his travels is an old, poor Turkish
farmer who teaches Candide a lesson which allows him to come to terms with the
world and to settle down happily. The revelation occurs when Candide and his
friends hear of the killing of two intimate advisors of the sultan, and they ask the
Turkish farmer if he could give them more details about the situation.

"I know nothing of it, said the good man, and I have never cared to know the name
of a single mufti [advisor] or vizier [sultan]... I presume that in general those who
meddle in public business sometimes perish miserably, and that they deserve their
fate; but I am satisfied with sending the fruits of my garden there." (Voltaire 76)Upon
learning that this man did not own "an enormous and splendid property" (Voltaire
76), but rather a mere twenty acres that he cultivates with his children, Candide is
startled. He sees that the man is happy with his life, and at that point Candide
decides to build his own life around the principal of being productive. He decides
that all he needs to be happy is a garden to cultivate so that he, too, can keep from
the three great evils.

Candide's garden symbolizes his surrender to the world and his acceptance of it. He
eventually realizes that his former ambitions of finding and achieving a perfect state
of happiness were fulfilled, though his successes were not as great as he had wished.
Instead, he has found happiness in a simple way of life. He also learns that
everything in life is not evil, which he perceived to be the case while undergoing
misfortunes. He also concludes that Dr. Pangloss was right all along, "everything is
for the best."

Throughout the entire book, we observe Candide searching for happiness, sustained
by his dream of achieving that happiness. He believes, in his optimistic way, that he
will find Cunegonde, his true love, and Dr. Pangloss, his mentor, and all will be well.
When Candide is reunited with both he realizes that he was right not to lose hope. In
essence, it was Candide's optimism that keeps him from a state of total dejection,
maintaining his sanity during troubled times. Candide eventually achieves happiness
with his friends in their simple, yet full, lives. The book's ending affirms Voltaire's
moral that one must work to attain satisfaction. Work helps Candide overcome his
tragedies and enables him to live peacefully and in contentment. The message of
Candide is: "Don't rationalize, but work; Don't utopianize, but improve. We must
cultivate our own garden, for no one is going to do it for us" (Richter 161).

Morality and Hypocrisy in Candide

A good way to describe Candide might be the morality play by Voltaire without any morals. Throughout the entire

play the worst things happen, people commit the most heinous acts, murder, rape, genocide, and torture, but they are

described in a way that they almost seem normal, may be even right, that is if convention didnt say otherwise.

Candide is a man of seemingly strong moral character, he has strong belief in his philosophy and follows it, yet he is

portrayed as one who lacks any understanding of the world around him or the human race as a whole. When he is

exposed to the outside world, he finds that even he cant remain sin-free. Most notably he kills three people (33 and

48). The entire story chronicles his travels across the world and his philosophical development. Along the way he

meets some people of a most corrupt nature, yet somehow he maintains his naive optimism that it will all be fine in

the end until the last few chapters of the book. In the end he loses his high-minded ways and decides to live at peace
with the world around him.

Pangloss, Candides mentor and role model is an example of a corrupt person who operates under the guise of

righteousness. What makes Pangloss worse is the fact that Candide looks up to him throughout the entire story.

Pangloss is unwavering in his efforts to prove that his way of thinking is best and everything is meant to be how it is,

so much so that even when everything is wrong all is well. At one point he stated clearly that this was his belief,

Private misfortunes make up the general good, so the more private misfortunes there are, the more all is well (24).

His reasons for everything in the world are so skewed as to be hilarious. Noses are made for spectacles (16), syphilis

was brought over to Europe so that we could have chocolate (23) He even describes the disease as a present. Most

important however, is Panglosss refusal to get anything done, unless that thing involves a member of the opposite

sex. When Candide is lying near death from a he feels that this is the perfect time to start applying science. (26).

When the Anabaptist drowns Pangloss purposefully stops Candide from saving him because the Lisbon roads had

been formed expressly for the Anabaptist to drown in (25). However, when an attractive female is around, Pangloss

is more than willing to take action. He contracted syphilis from Paquette. He became a slave on a galley because he

had his hands on her bosom too long (96). Even after these offenses caused him immense harm, he still maintained

that all is well. But even the unshakeable Pangloss is shaken in his philosophy by the end of the story. Having once

maintained that everything is well, he still maintained it and believed not a word of it (99). Its also pretty significant

that throughout the entire story Pangloss usually gets the last word except for the last line. Pangloss tries to get the

last word in by saying that if all the bad things didnt happen, they wouldnt have their garden, and Candide responds

by telling him that they need to tend the garden. Its like saying Ill accept that, but I dont care whether or not its

true.

The world Candide lives in features many extremely corrupt people. This starts with the Bulgarian captains. During

the war both sides burned down the others village without a second thought, raping the women and slaughtering all

people they come across. Then he comes to a village where noone is willing to feed him. Even a man who talks for a

full hour about the importance of charity turns Candide down when asked for some bread. Next there the Inquisitors

hold an auto-de-fe, meant to prevent the earthquakes from happening again (they happen anyway) but one of the

punishments is a burning for marrying their godchilds godmother. Pangloss is himself hung for speaking, and

Candide for listening. Cunegonde was plagued by a series of people who tried to take advantage of her. The Barons

son attacked Candide when he said he intended to marry Cunegonde after just before being unable to tire of hugging

[him, calling him] his bother, his savior (47). The Dutch captain steals his sheep. He is cheated out of most of his

money by gamblers and Jews. Finally he is accused of a crime he didnt commit because his philosopher asked the

wrong questions. Basically they were trying to get a great philosopher to agree to their own philosophy and not trying
to learn from him. Everywhere in the book are people either guilty of hypocrisy, or excess desire.

Speaking of desire, lust runs rampant throughout the world Candide lives in. Candides mentor Pangloss is a

lecherous old man. Everywhere Candide turns hes surrounded by rape or lust, and hes not innocent of these crimes

either. His obsession with Cunegonde, while it might seem pure at first is as depraved and shallow as anything else in

the book. He speaks of his love which only got him one kiss and twenty kicks in the rear, and which gave Pangloss his

disease, but when he finally finds Cunegonde and finds out shes ugly, he doesnt want her anymore. Never mind that

she is the reason he kept on traveling and hoping for the future. He left Eldorado so he could be with her, but when he

finally gets to her, he is unhappy with her.

All of Candides guides seem to have an exaggerated view of the world. The only exception to that seems to be

Cacambo. Candides valet is the one stable point in the story. He is morally sound (at least compared to everyone

else), keeping his promise to Candide to find Cunegonde, and saving Candide on many occasions. He has a realistic

view of the world without becoming cynical like Martin. Martin, on the other hand is like the antithesis of Pangloss.

Both are as unwavering in their views as one another and both seem to have an equal say in Candides personal

beliefs. Both also seem to prefer pressing their own beliefs on others rather than listening to what other people have

to say. The large difference between Martin and Pangloss is that Martin is as pessimistic as Pangloss is optimistic. The

fact that Candide seems to take equal stock in both of their views, even though those views are the exact opposite from

each other, shows just how confused he is before the end and just how confusing the world can be. Jacques, the

Anabaptist is another person Candide shows a lot of respect for. Jacques seems to have a realistic moral view which

makes it all the more tragic when he dies. This death is to show that any extreme can be bad, including extreme

kindness. Jacques went out of his way to help people, but when he needed help himself, nobody helped back. It shows

that you need to be able to help yourselves as well as others and recognize who should and should not be helped. It

may seem slightly immoral, but it seems that Jacques gave too much without expecting anything in return. He

provided for both Candide and Pangloss on his own expense, and the only thing they did for him was try to force their

beliefs onto him, and he died helping a man who had just punched him in the face. Was anyone any better off for him

doing that?

The misery in the world is almost universal, with the exception of Eldorado, which is hidden from the rest of the

world and the good man at the end of the story. Everyone Candide asks on his journey has a tale of woe to give, even

the six kings he dined with and the bored senator who had everything and took joy in nothing. By the end it seemed

like Candide was trying to surround himself with misery. One of the more poignant moments was when he found a

Black man on the side of the road. The man was missing an arm and a leg because he had messed up while working
and had tried to run away from his masters. Even though he is only seen once, he has one of the most important lines

of the entire work. We are all children of AdamIf thats the truth then were all second cousins. Now you must

admit noone can treat their relatives in a more horrible way. (61) This is one of the major points of Candide. Man

shouldnt be treating their fellow man this way. The man who causes the turnaround of all the major characters at the

end, the man with two daughters and a comparatively happy life is Voltaires view of the ideal. He lives in moderation.

He only has what he needs, nothing more and only wants what he needs, nothing more. He doesnt try to think about

or explain what he cant understand, he excepts this world for what it is. The fact that everyone including Martin

could follow his example, and be successful shows that Voltaire still has hope in the human race. No matter what has

happened to you, you can still be good and happy. All it takes is a lot of hard work and a willingness to accept the

world at face value.

Candide is a morality play in that it involves a character witnessing the very depths of sin but coming out on the other

end much better than he started and ready to put his sins behind him. Everyone in the work is either disillusioned

with the world or so possessed by religious fervor as to be blinded to all around them. Candide is in effect a parody of

Everyman, and while he doesnt find enlightenment or absolute happiness by the end, he does find what he wants. He

just didnt know he wanted it until then. Pangloss was right on one point. If Candide hadnt been kicked out of home

and experienced all he went through, he wouldnt have the great appreciation of life that he did one the end. Candide,

however, was also right when he said that all we need to do is cultivate our gardens.

FULL TITLE Candide, or Optimism

AU T HOR Voltaire (pen name of Franois-Marie Arouet)

TYPE OF WORK Novel

GENRE Satire; adventure novel

L ANGU AGE French

T I M E AN D P L A C E W R I T T E N Schwetzingen, Prussia; and Geneva, Switzerland; 1 7 5 8 1 7 5 9

D ATE OF F I RS T P UBLI CATI ON January or February, 1 7 5 9

PUBLISHER Gabriel Cramer

N AR R ATOR Anonymous satirical narrator

POINT OF VIEW The narrator speaks in the third person, focusing on the perspective and
experiences of Candide. Events and characters are described objectively most of the time.
Occasionally, they are described as Candide sees them, but this is always done with an
ironic tone.

TONE Ironic; melodramatic

TENSE Past and present

SETTING (TIME) 1750s

S E T T I N G ( P L AC E ) Various real and fictional locations in Europe and South America

P ROT AGONI S T Candide

M AJ O R C O N F L I C T Candide and Panglosss optimistic world view is challenged

by numerous disasters; Candides love for Cungonde is repeatedly thwarted.

R I S I N G AC T I O N Candide is expelled from his home for kissing Cungonde; he wanders

the world attempting to preserve his life and reunite with his beloved.

C L I M AX Candide finds Cungonde enslaved in Turkey; the two are married.

F AL L I NG ACTI ON Candide, Cungonde, Pangloss, and their friends struggle with

boredom; they find solace in gardening.

THEMES The folly of optimism; the uselessness of philosophical speculation; the hypocrisy
of religion; the corrupting power of money

MOTIFS Resurrection; rape; political oppression

SYM BOLS Pangloss; the garden; the Lisbon earthquake

F O R E S H AD O W I N G There is virtually no foreshadowing in this wildly chaotic narrative.

Candides repeated musings about what Pangloss would think of events foreshadows
Panglosss resurrection.
1. Candide responds by repeating Pangloss' teaching that "troubles are just the shadows in a
beautiful picture."

2. Now in Venice, Candide makes his first priority to find Cacambo, hoping that he has
brought Cunegonde. After a few days of fruitless searching, he grows despairing, finally
resolving to Martin that Cunegonde is dead, that "all is but illusion and disaster."

3. When Jacques confronts Pangloss' systemic philosophy, the philosopher responds,

".private misfortunes make for public welfare."

4. Pangloss teaches that everything is for the best and that man lives in the "best of all
possible worlds."

5.
A hundred times I wanted to kill myself, but always I loved life more. This ridiculous weakness is
perhaps one of our worst instincts; is anything more stupid than choosing to carry a burden that really
one wants to cast on the ground? to hold existence in horror, and yet to cling to it? to fondle the
serpent which devours us till it has eaten out our heart? In the countries through which I have been
forced to wander, in the taverns where I have had to work, I have seen a vast number of people who
hated their existence; but I never saw more than a dozen who deliberately put an end to their own
misery.
6. The old woman, after telling of the rape, slavery, and cannibalism she has
experienced, launches into this speculation about suicide in Chapter 12. The
question of why more unfortunate people do not kill themselves seems rational in the
context of the calamitous, merciless world of the novel. In Voltaires time, the first
and easiest answer should have been that God and Christian doctrine forbid suicide
and that those who kill themselves are consigned to spend eternity in hell. However,
the old womans very existence, as an illegitimate child of a Pope, makes a
statement against the church, and she does not even consider this approach to the
question of suicide. Perhaps the implication is that hell cannot possibly be worse
than life, or perhaps the old woman, after her experiences, does not believe in God
or an afterlife. The pessimism of this passage is obvious and fairly thorough. The
one glimmer of hope that shines through the old womans words comes from her
assertion that people cling to life because they love it, not because they are
resigned or because they fear eternal punishment. The serpent that is life is not just
tolerated but fondle[d]. Human beings, then, naturally embrace lifea stupid
move, perhaps, but one that demonstrates passion, strong will, and an almost heroic
endurance.
7. . . [W]hen they were not arguing, the boredom was so fierce that one day the old woman ventured to
say: I should like to know which is worse, being raped a hundred times by negro pirates, having a
buttock cut off, running the gauntlet in the Bulgar army, being flogged and hanged in an auto-da-f,
being dissected and rowing in the galleysexperiencing, in a word, all the miseries through which we
have passedor else just sitting here and doing nothing? Its a hard question, said Candide. These
words gave rise to new reflections, and Martin in particular concluded that man was bound to live
either in convulsions of misery or in the lethargy of boredom.
8. By Chapter 3 0 , Candide and his friends have money, peace, and security, and
Candide has finally married Cungonde. But, as the old woman points out, these
rare blessings have not brought them happiness. This passage implies that human
beings do not suffer only as a result of political oppression, violent crime, war, or
natural disaster. They suffer also from their own intrinsic flaws of chronic bad-
temperedness and restlessness. Up to this point, all of the characters have been
marvelously adept at getting themselves out of difficult or miserable situations.
Faced with boredom in the absence of suffering, however, they cannot seem to find
any way out on their own, and turn to a very famous dervish for advice. The one
site of unmixed goodness and joy presented in the novel is the paradise of Eldorado,
which Candide and Cacambo choose to leave. At the time, their decision to venture
back into the world seems unwise. By this point in the novel, however, the reader
wonders in retrospect whether the plague of boredom would not eventually have
afflicted them in Eldorado as severely as it does in Constantinople. The boredom, as
Martins words emphasize, seems to result not from an absence of happiness but an
absence of suffering.
9. 5.
10. You are perfectly right, said Pangloss; for when man was put into the garden of Eden, he was put
there ut operaretur eum, so that he should work it; this proves that man was not born to take his ease.
Lets work without speculating, said Martin; its the only way of rendering life bearable. The whole
little group entered into this laudable scheme; each one began to exercise his talents. The little plot
yielded fine crops . . . and Pangloss sometimes used to say to Candide: All events are linked
together in the best of possible worlds; for, after all, if you had not been driven from a fine castle by
being kicked in the backside for love of Miss Cungonde, if you hadnt been sent before the Inquisition,
if you hadnt traveled across America on foot, if you hadnt given a good sword thrust to the baron, if
you hadnt lost all your sheep from the good land of Eldorado, you wouldnt be sitting here eating
candied citron and pistachios.
That is very well put, said Candide, but we must go and work our garden.
11. This is the final passage of the novel. The cure for the crushing boredom described
in the previous quotation has been found in the hard work of gardening. As Pangloss
points out, this cure recalls the state of mankind in the garden of Eden, where man
was master of all things. On their small plot of land in Turkey, these characters seem
to have a control over their destinies that they could not achieve in their lives up until
this point. Instead of living at the mercy of circumstances, they areliterally
reaping what they sow. It is, of course, surprising that this fictional argument against
optimism should be presented as a happy ending. Given this ending, the reader
might for the first time be inclined to wonder whether Pangloss is right in claiming to
live in the best of possible worlds. But that claim and all arguments against it are
proscribed by the lifestyle the characters have discovered. As Candide implies in his
final line, gardening leaves no time for philosophical speculation, and everyone is
happier and more productive as a result.