Candide Study Questions
Chapters 1-6
Pre-Reading:
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Irony: a technique of indicating, as through character or plot development, an
intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated; (esp. in
contemporary writing) a manner of organizing a work so as to give full expression to
contradictory or complementary impulses, attitudes, etc., esp. as a means of
indicating detachment from a subject, theme, or emotion.
Exaggeration: an overstatement
Sarcasm: a sharply ironical taunt; sneering or cutting remark
Understatement: a statement that undermines something
Parody: something that makes fun of another different work
Caricature: a drawing or description that exaggerates someone or something’s
features
Juxtaposition: The state of being placed or situated side by side
Chapter 1
1. He lives in Westphalia, in the castle of Monsieur the Baron von Thunder-ten-tronckh.
2. He is driven from the castle because he was kissing Cunegonde, the Baron’s daughter.
3. Pangloss’s philosophy is “metaphysico-theologo-cosmolo-nigology” and believes that
this world is the best of all possible worlds.
4. It means optimism.
Chapter 2
5. The two men are Frederick the Great’s recruiting officers.
6. They trick Candide while they’re eating. They drink to the King and Candide
innocently drinks to it too. The officers then say that Candide has just pledged to the
King and takes him away.
7. They were reduced because he performed his drills less badly as the days passed. It
proved to the army’s eyes that Candide was a prodigy.
8. His choices are either to run the gauntlet or to be executed. He chooses to run the
gauntlet.
9. To have free will is to be absolutely void of sense. One cannot be in the military and
have a free will. Being in the military is about listening to orders no matter what, which
is the exact opposite of having a free will.
10. Voltaire is being critical of the powerful members of the nobility. By using Candide’s
experience in the army and other war stories, Voltaire shows how the peasants and
commoners have to suffer because the nobility wage war against each other.
11. I think that exaggeration is used in many ways in this chapter. The way Candide got
recruited is an exaggeration; no one gets recruited just because they drink to a toast
that swears loyalty to the king. I also think that no matter how harsh an army may be,
they still have to be just. They cannot just name someone guilty of deserting because
they were walking; they must also have a trial. I think running the gauntlet is an
exaggeration too because no one can endure that twice and definitely not 36 times.
Chapter 3
12. The Bulgars and the Abares went to war. Candide deserts the army.
13. Voltaire uses juxtaposition by putting the orator and Jacques together and showing
their different behavior and attitude to Candide.
14. It is ironic that the orator treated Candide poorly because just before, he was
preaching about the value of charity and that Jacques take pity on Candide since he
is an Anabaptist, meaning that he still believes in a Christian faith.
15. Voltaire is being critical of the church, probably the Protestant faith. He is trying to say
that even though they may preach about charity, they are full of hypocrisy.
Chapter 4
16. The old beggar is Pangloss.
17. Cunegonde is raped and murdered, and her parents are also killed. There is some
irony concerning those who are responsible for all that because they received the
same fate. The group that attacked Cunegonde and her family had their own land
ruined by different enemies.
18. Paquette was the chambermaid and she is responsible for passing on a disease to the
beggar.
19. He justifies it by saying that in the disease’s genealogy, it traces all the way back to
Christopher Columbus, who is also responsible for bringing chocolate to Europe.
Chapter 5
20. A crazed sailor survives the shipwreck and I guess it’s ironic because he was at fault for
the drowning of Jacques, the Anabaptist.
21. Pangloss justifies it by saying that it’s for the best and that the bay had been formed
just for Jacques’ death.
22. Lisbon just had an earthquake. It doesn’t say how many people were killed
23. The sailor finds money and uses it to get drunk and to pay a woman to have sex with
him.
24. The sailor’s behavior is ironic because as people are dying and going through so much
pain, he goes around trying to get pleasure.
Chapter 6
25. Auto-da-fé is the public execution of those sentences by secular authorities, especially
by burning at the stake alive, or the public announcement of the sentences imposed
by the Inquisition. It is necessary to prevent another earthquake.
26. They chose Pangloss and Candide because Doctor Pangloss had said something that
they didn’t like and Candide for listening with approval.
27. It is humorous because it’s still trying to be optimistic in a hopeless situation. Also, being
away from the sun is not a big deal and is not a big relief from the pain that Pangloss
and Candide are going to go through.
28. Voltaire is ridiculing the Inquisition as Candide is flogged to show the Inquisition's
determination to suppress dissenting opinion at any cost, their tyranny, and injustice.
29. Pangloss is hung.