The Optimism and Pessimism in Candide
Pangloss and his student Candide maintain that “everything is for the best in this best
of all possible worlds”, this idea of optimism is a version of the 19th century
philosophies of Enlightenment age. Because Voltaire does not accept that a perfect
God has to exist; he can afford to mock the idea that the world must be completely
good, and he uses satire on this idea throughout the novel. The optimists, Pangloss and
Candide, suffer and witness a wide variety of horrors—floggings, rapes, robberies,
unjust executions, disease, an earthquake, betrayals, and slavery. These horrors do not
serve any apparent greater good, but point only to the cruelty and foolishness of
humanity. Pangloss struggles to find justification for the terrible things in the world,
but his arguments are simply absurd, as, for example, when he claims that syphilis
needed to be transmitted from the Americas to Europe so that Europeans could enjoy
New World delicacies such as chocolate. More intelligent and experienced characters,
such as the old woman, Martin, and Cacambo, have all reached pessimistic conclusions
about humanity and the world. By the novel’s end, even Pangloss is forced to admit
that he doesn’t “believe a word of” his own previous optimistic conclusions.Voltaire
satirizes structured religion by means of a series of crooked, hypocritical religious
leaders, who appear throughout the novel. The reader encounters the daughter of a
Pope, a man who as a Catholic priest should have been celibate; a hard-line Catholic
Inquisitor who hypocritically keeps a mistress; and a Franciscan friar who operates as a
jewel thief, despite the vow of poverty taken by members of the Franciscan order.
Finally, Voltaire introduces a Jesuit colonel with marked homosexual tendencies.
Religious leaders in the novel also carry out inhumane campaigns of religious
oppression against those who disagree with them on even the smallest of theological
matters. For example, the Inquisition persecutes Pangloss for expressing his ideas and
Candide for merely listening to them.
Another injustice Voltaire discusses is negative aspects of class separation. In his early
childhood Candide is troubled by not being born a privileged noble. Voltaire citing that
“He decided that the height of good fortune was to have been born Baron Thunderten-Tronckh”, showing Candide”s aspirations to become socially elevated (20). The
most prominent example of social classes is the relationship between Candide and
Cunegonde; throughout the book Candide is chastised for loving Cunegonde. The
reaction of Cunegonde’s brother, when Candide suggests marriage, is that of offense
and a feeling that the union of the two would be a wrong. The young Baron scolding,
“you have the impudence to think of marrying my sister, who has seventy-two
quarterings in her coat of arms, and you dare to talk to me of such a hot headed
notion” (67). A belief of this kind would be very common among the higher class, as
marriage to a person of a lower status would be considered inappropriate. This
statement shows the common view of superiority among the upper class society in
eighteenth century Europe.
Candide also shows the corruption of money in the novel. When Candide acquires a
fortune in Eldorado, it looks as if the worst of his problems might be over. Arrest and
bodily injury are no longer threats, since he can bribe his way out of most situations.
Candide is unhappy as a wealthy man, the experience of watching his money trickle
away into the hands of dishonest merchants and officials tests his optimism in a way
that no amount of flogging could. In fact, Candide’s optimism seems to hit an all-time
low after Vanderdendur cheats him; it is at this point that he chooses to make the
pessimist Martin his traveling companion. Candide’s money constantly attracts false
friends. Count Pococurante’s money drives him to such world-weary boredom that he
cannot appreciate great art. The cash gift that Candide gives Brother Giroflee and
Paquettee drives them quickly to “the last stages of misery.” As terrible as the
oppression and poverty that plague the poor and powerless may be, it is clear that
money—and the power that goes with it—creates at least as many problems as it
solves, Voltaire wrote.
Candide also discusses of sexual exploitation of women. The three main female
characters:Cunégonde, the old woman, and Paquette—are all raped, forced into sexual
slavery, or both. Both the narrator’s and the characters’ attitudes toward these events
are strikingly casual and nonimportant. Voltaire uses these women’s stories to
demonstrate the special dangers to which only women are vulnerable. Candide’s
chivalric devotion to Cunégonde, whom he wrongly perceives as a paragon of female
virtue, is based on willful blindness to the real situation of women. The male characters
in the novel value sexual chastity in women but make it impossible for women to
maintain such chastity, exposing hypocrisy in the book.
Candide is written the form of satirical mockery, to the optimism of Leibniz. "Everything
is for the best in the best of worlds..." said the optimists. In Candide, both optimism and
pessimism are personified and explored in the characters of the book. At the time
Candide was written, Voltaire clearly had already lived a long, full life with many
experiences to draw discernment from. What he witnessed and experienced in his life
contradicted the philosophy and absolute certainty of the optimists; or at least, it
proved to him that the optimists were only half- correct. The duality of man, and of all
the things in this world for that matter, was evident to him.
The basis of Candide is based on a young and naive character’s experiences in a harsh,
rude, and cruel world. In nearly every instance, Candide's observations and experiences
show him that mankind is evil. Accompanying these experiences are characters that
represent optimism, which is personified by the character Pangloss; and pessimism is
represented by the character Martin, who believes that man, "...is born to live either in
convulsions of distress or the lethargy of boredom." Voltaire accepted neither Martin's
pessimism nor Pangloss's optimism at face value. Each perspective is explored and
valued equally, allowing the reader to decide for themselves through insightful
consideration of the qualities of both views.