How Does Voltaire Use Satire In Candide

Katie Cozzens

Professor Kaufman

HIST 102

25 January 2014

A False Sense of Optimism In Voltaire’s Candide, Voltaire uses Dr. Pangloss to portray the use of satire in order to teach a lesson on how optimism was seen in the Age of Enlightenment through philosopher’s eyes during the early 18th century. This seems like a ridiculous view of the world that slowly becomes an annoyance as the story progresses. Dr. Pangloss’s character is used throughout the book in order to fight against what Voltaire deems pointless and nonessential. Voltaire tries his best to show that Candide’s tutor, Dr. Pangloss, talks too much and is unable to see true needs of people because he is too busy babbling all of the time, attempting to prove that there is such a

Pangloss, were maintaining that we live in the best of all possible worlds, where everything is connected and arranged for the best” (Voltaire, page 8). This philosophy is mocked because it seems absolutely absurd given most of the events that take place in this book. A great example of Dr. Pangloss’s philosophy being a bit ridiculous is when the earthquake strikes and thirty thousand people die, yet Pangloss still remains optimistic and supports his main point that everything happens in order to achieve the best outcome. Dr. Pangloss truly shows his believe in the idea of optimism when Candide has wounds caused by the earthquake that need immediate attention and says to Pangloss, “For Heaven’s sake…fetch me some wine and oil! I am dying” (Voltaire, page 34), Dr. Pangloss replies with, “This earthquake is nothing new…the town of Lima in America experienced the same shocks last year. The same causes produce the same effects” (Voltaire, page 34), which shows how instead of helping Candide out, Dr. Pangloss attempts to see the best of the situation, and talks his way through it. Dr. Pangloss has convinced himself of the truthfulness of cause and effect and chooses to ignore Candide’s wounds rather than tending to them in a timely manner. After Candide finally falls unconscious, Dr. Pangloss decides it is time to fetch him some water from the nearby fountain. After the disaster, when

Pangloss, bad things still do happen and people do die as a result of these tragic incidences whether you are optimistic about it or not. This sense of optimism that Dr. Pangloss has is almost an excuse to ignore reality and face problems that need to be addressed. No matter how optimistic one is in a time of struggle, there are still consequences that come along with hardships. These are unable to be avoided as Pangloss sees in the end of the book when both Candide and Pangloss move to a farm in Turkey because they both begin to see the faults in Dr. Pangloss’s own philosophy, showing that his philosophy is unable to be completely true. Candide eventually tells Pangloss he needs to refrain from talking as much and instead, begin to work more. The satire in this book clearly represents Voltaire’s disagreement with optimism all together and his belief that we do not live in the best of all worlds. Voltaire is mocking optimism throughout this book hinting that he himself is against the idea of a perfect world. The book is satirically showing that evil is nonexistent by following the stories of Candide and his journey, which is the exact opposite of Voltaire’s