Voltaire's Idea Of Candide

In the novel Candide written by Voltaire, one of the main motifs is the garden. It has been mentioned multiple times throughout the book. The first garden was the Castle of baron Thunder-Ten- Tronckh, there is the garden of Eldorado, and Candide's final garden. As a main motif, the garden symbolizes people's lives and how they must nurture them to have a good outcome. The garden is used cleverly throughout the novel to convey an optimistic moral about the importance of gardens' cultivation that determines the life and fate of the characters.

The novel Candide, written by Voltaire, portrays the adventures and experiences of the main character named Candide. Being a very honest man, a character like Candide can be easily swayed and convinced to do and believe anything. From carelessness to greed, the reader can clearly understand that Voltaire ridicules many decisions and situations that occur in the novel. One of many themes Voltaire mocks in the novel would be how greed can result from wealth. What Voltaire is ultimately conveying to the reader is that money cannot buy happiness.

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.

In literature, a common process for the protagonist to go through is to go on a journey in order for them to develop as a character and to further the story as a whole. This idea of a character’s journey is notably seen in Homer’s The Odyssey, Dante’s Inferno, and Voltaire’s Candide. All three of these texts depict not only the protagonist going through a journey, but they also depict in very different ways these characters use their abilities to overcome obstacles in their path and learn from their mistakes to show their individual character development. In The Odyssey, Inferno, and Candide, Odysseus, Dante and Candide show three different ways how ????????

The protagonist, Candide, goes through suffering over the course of the novel, starting with a childlike, innocent personality, then becoming more mature as he starts traveling throughout the story. The journey in Candide contributes to the protagonist’s character development moreover to themes explored in the novel. Forced into a war, Candide goes through abuse as he is being trained to be in the military, this is an event that represents pessimism. Later, He finds his way to el dorado, which represents blind optimism. Towards the end of the novel, after all his adventures, he finds out Cunegonde is still alive.

In Candide, Voltaire discusses Cunegonde, Paquette, and the Old Woman and the exploitation the women faces during the 18th century. They were raped and was sexually exploited regardless of being from a well to do family or from a royal home. These female characters have very little importance in Candide. With the way Voltaire characterized Cunegonde, Paquette, and the Old Woman, Voltaire draws our attention to gender roles and the incompetence of women in the 1800s. These women were all natural survivors in my view.

Candide follows the journey of four youth as they explore a world that is very different from their utopian Westphalia. History and Evolution Candide has been imagined and reimagined over time. In 1953, the renowned playwright Lillian Hellman proposed to Leonard Bernstein that they adapt Voltaire 's Candide for the musical theater.

A couple is breaking up, a marriage is divorcing, or a child is living with only one parent because the other one shirked responsibility. These botched relationships from reality are described through books, such as Candide. Voltaire, the author of Candide, wrote about the multiple misfortunes and unfulfilled responsibilities of several intricate characters (Pattern 11). The protagonist, Candide, begins as an innocent and naïve character but transforms into a pessimist and failure. His tragic life drastically changes from love to greed, innocence to experience, and from hope to despair through the corruptions of money, love, and beliefs.

Voltaire’s Depiction of Utopia After discovering paradise, why would anyone leave? In Voltaire’s Candide, Candide and his valet, Cacambo, discover a land plentiful in both jewels and hospitality. This land rich with currency and camaraderie is called Eldorado. Voltaire shows that paradise may not always be what people want. This is shown by his depiction of Eldorado, Candide and Cacambo’s departure from there, and what Voltaire is communicating in the text.

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).