The Influence Of Pangloss Philosophy In 'Candide'

Candide is the main protagonist in the story Candide, by Voltaire. Candide chooses his actions for the potential prospect of marrying his love, Cunégonde. Candide says, " 'That 's what I 'm longing for, because I was expecting to marry her; and indeed, I still hope to, '" (Candide, 66). He proclaims that marrying Cunégonde is the only pleasure that will make him complete as a person, "It 's essential for me to go and find Lady Cunégonde" (106). Not only does he want to marry her, Candide indicates he is doing it out of neccesity. Candide 's desire to marry Cunégonde explains Voltaire 's ideal that the human condition is to desire love and purpose. On the other hand, Pascal describes an altered view when compared to Voltaire, because Pascal employs following the heart is a reason for humankind to

Voltaire’s Candide takes us through the life and development of Candide, the protagonist. Throughout his adventures, he witnesses many travesties and sufferings. Like many Enlightenment philosophers, Pangloss, Candide’s tutor, is an optimist; this philosophy was adopted by many to help mask the horrors of the eightieth century. Pangloss teaches Candide that everything happens for a reason. Voltaire uses satire, irony and extreme exaggerations to poke fun at many aspects; such as optimism, religion, corruption, and social structures within Europe. Candide begins to realize that life is not always as it seems.

They had no right to express their own opinion or take decisions. Women had no position in the society at that time and they were being sold as slaves. The only thing that mattered was their beauty, which was unfair. In Candide, the experiences of Cunegonde, Paquette and the Old Woman show the attitude of society towards women in the eighteenth century. They strongly refer to how badly women were treated at that time. All of the three female characters are honest and realistic and they narrate stories about their sufferings in their lives as victims of their society, but in a comic way. Cunegonde is the most important female character in the book. She is Candide’s beloved, who retells the events of the opening chapters from her own perspective. The old woman narrates her tragic life story in chapters 11 and 12. She suffered in her youth as she was a princess, but ended up being abused and sold as a slave several times in Morocco and in other different countries. Cunegonde’s story in Lisbon gives Voltaire the chance to focus on and show the injustices of protestants, intellectuals, slaves, Jews and most importantly women. For example, Cunegonde was abused as a slave and was sold more than one time. Paquette suffered because she was forced to be a prostitute. Voltaire is satirizing the attitudes of the society towards the “gender role” in the eighteenth century. He shows the submission of females in the male-dominated society. He is trying to deliver a message reflecting the reality that women are actually suffering from being abused in many different ways. He is suggesting that society needs to change and stop that. Voltaire didn’t make less of the value of women by creating the prostitute or damsel characters, but he was aiming that women were treated badly and they have to be protected. (Fraser, 2012,

When he is forced to leave this life behind him, one follows Candide’s slow, painful disillusionment as he experiences and witnesses the great injustices and hardships of the world. This text is a satire in which Voltaire satirises Leibniz’s Optimism “not only by the illogical travesty of it which Pangloss parrots throughout the story, but also by juxtaposing it with various atrocities and disasters which the story provides…” (Pearson xx). Voltaire rejects this system of thought, as Enlightenment ideologies try to use “logic and reason [to] somehow explain away the chaotic wretchedness of existence by grandly ignoring the facts” (Pearson xxi). It is in these lines that one can discern the disillusionment that Voltaire was feeling with the world after the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake (Pearson xix). Through the protagonist Candide one can deduce Voltaire’s negative outlook on human nature. He believes every word that Pangloss says, in the same way that people of the day believed everything that the Church would say. At the beginning of the text he blindly worships Optimism and by the end of it he worships the Turk’s philosophy of labour. “I also know… that we must cultivate our garden” (Voltaire 99). However it does appear that Candide has gained more knowledge and wisdom and has therefore made a more informed decision. Voltaire uses Eldorado as a tool to demonstrate how humans are never content in any setting even ‘paradise’. Paradise does not change Candide’s and Cacambo’s basic human nature. “Sex and vanity are the instruments of the Fall as [they] leave Eldorado in pursuit of their sweethearts and to… show off their riches…” (Pearson xxiv). Eldorado is also used to highlight the mentality we humans have of ‘the grass is always greener on the other side’. One thinks this even though in countless cases this mentality

To begin, Candide’s decisions in Voltaire’s “Candide” were often naive and senseless throughout the story. Candide’s decision to kiss Cunegonde puts a series of unfortunate events into motion. Kissing Cunegonde ultimately gets Candide banished from his town and sold into an army, where he is beat on several occasions. Throughout the story, Candide’s decision to blindly follow the unrealistic teachings of his tutor, Pangloss, constantly gets him into trouble. When an earthquake destroys the town and kills thousands of people, Candide follows Pangloss’ decision to spread news that the earthquake was necessary. This angers people and they decide to hang Pangloss and flog Candide for listening to his teachings. Candide’s decisions then lead him

One key facet of living in the world today is the ability for people to have free will over their own lives. In Voltaire’s story “Candide,” it is clear to observe that although Candide is free to form his own decisions, he allows himself to be strongly determined by his surroundings as well as everyone who he encounters. This story proposes that Candide is trying to find a balance between submitting completely to the speculations and actions of others while also taking control of his life through blind faith. Throughout the story, Candide encounters frequent hardships along his voyage to prosperity. These obstacles include, but are not limited to becoming a bulwark, being beaten and forced to watch his beloved Pangloss having been hanged, leaving such an amazing place as Eldorado, being lied to and tricked out of diamonds by the abb`e, killing Cunegonde’s two lovers, almost being boiled alive for killing the monkey lovers, and being persuaded to be promiscuous on Cunegonde. This raises the question as to whether he possesses the ability of free will or if his life is already predestined.

Candide's carelessness can also come from his love for Cunegonde, his lover. The reader may assume that Candide’s love for Cunegonde blinds his judgement and results irresponsible and inattentive behavior. “When a man is in love, is jealous, and has been flogged by the Inquisition, he becomes lost to all reflection” (Voltaire pg 22). What Voltaire was trying to say was that a man is not himself when he is in love or is jealous. All Candide wants is to return to his lover so he would do anything to see her again. This may fuel his carelessness and irresponsibility to lose his

Candide is thrown out of the castle because he kissed Cunegonde. In the beginning of the book Candide has little experience of how cruel the world is outside the castle. Candide goes around the world shaping his philosophy. His best friend Pangloss is an well known philosopher. Panglosses philosophy was “everything is indeed for the best” (Voltaire 6). In the story Candide’s personality starts to develop as he starts to gain more experience of the world around him. With the experience he gained throughout the world he starts to developed develop different perspective of the world.

In Candide Voltaire discusses the exploitation of the female race in the eighteenth century through the women in the novel. Cunegonde, Paquette, and the Old Woman suffer through rape and sexual exploitation regardless of wealth or political connections. These characters possess very little complexity or importance in Candide. With his characterization of Cunegonde, Paquette, and the Old Woman Voltaire satirizes gender roles and highlights the impotence of women in the 1800s.

The final scene of Voltaire’s Candide describes a purposeful and efficient group of individuals. In his essay, Kant addresses the question of “what is enlightenment” by describing a state of “self-incurred immaturity” riddled with “a lack of the resolution and the courage” to use one’s own understanding of the world (58). Candide and his friends each “[make] an effort to make use of there abilities” and each participate in a division of labor that requires specialization in a skill (Voltaire 79). Having “the courage to use [their] own understanding” to work in the garden rather than relying on an unrealistic philosophy to provide instruction on the way the world works allows Voltaire’s characters to come full circle after an adventure full of misfortunes (Kant 58).

Voltaire's wrote Candide to show his view on how society and class, religion, warfare, and the idea of progress. Voltaire was a deist and he believed in religious equality, he wrote Candide to attack all aspects of its social structure by satirizing religion, society and social order by showing his hypocrisy. Voltaire was a prominent figure during the enlightenment era. Although he was not a typical enlightenment writer at his time because he wrote about issues including social freedom, religious inequality and civil liberty that other philosophers did not at the time. Voltaire's outspoken opinions made him very unpopular and landed him in jail but that did not stop him from

Voltaire (real name Francois-Marie Arouet), was born in 1694 to a middle class Parisian family. He first studied law to fulfil his father 's wish, but later became a well-known writer and philosopher. He lived most of his life in exile, because of his satirical tales that attack the French State, the Catholic Church, the aristocracy, and the military. For instance, the Grand Inquisitor; the Bulgarian Captain; and the arrogant Young Baron all represent the absurdity of that time. He was one of the fundamental writers who supported the "Enlighment" movement in the 18th century. Voltaire attacked the idea of "Optimism" particularly Leibniz and Pope 's views of Optimism. The philosophy states that God exists and since God is perfect then the world must be perfect also (the best of all possible worlds). In this novella, Candide, an innocent person, who believed that 'all is for the best ', as taught by his tutor and philosopher Pangloss, realised; in contrast; to what his tutor taught him that all is not well . He was dismissed from the castle of Westphallia, by Cunegonde 's father (the Barron). Since then, he started a long journey to search for Cunegonde, whom he loved deeply. Throughout his journey, he faced lots of misery; misfortune, despair and endless sorrow. These events were exaggerated in order to criticize the common beliefs of the 18th century, such as: religion, optimism, human lack of

After a while Candide realizes he can’t stay here any longer, because Cunegonde isn’t there with him. Before he leaves he brings along with him “two great sheep, saddled to serve as steeds, thirty with presents containing those of rarities of Eldorado; fifty with gold, jewels, and diamonds.” (Voltaire,

Candide was the first French satire published in French by the French writer Voltaire, who is known for both his enlightenment and his memory in writing. Produced work in every literary form, and his writings gave a reflection of freedom of expression, and freedom of religion. In his novel, he has been used as a sarcastic satire of Voltaire 's philosophy and that sequencing the story in such a way that turned it into a comedy. The novel full of adventures filled frank journey around the world. Candide, which is very positive, have a positive attitude towards life, believing that the world is amazing as this idea given to him by his teacher Pangloss while he was a youth. During his trips to meet different characters, such as Cunégonde, Cacambo, Martin, and the old woman who also suffered a lot, and they all have bitter experiences in their lives. Even after listening to their suffering Candide remains positive.

It is only when Candide encounters a slave whose account of what has happened to him is so horrible that Candide begins to falter on Pangloss’ philosophy, saying “This is one abomination you could not have anticipated, and I fear it has finally done for me: I am giving up on your Optimism after all” (52). This quote signifies a vital turning point in Candide’s journey, for if he was still fully under the influence of Pangloss’ teachings, Candide could have easily rationalized that if it weren’t for the slave’s suffering, Europe and the rest of the world would not be able to have sugar. Instead, Candide is able to finally see the slave’s suffering for what it is, and he is heartbroken and frustrated by it rather than passive and philosophical as he had been