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Chapter 6
Voltaire, Candide, or Optimism
Introduction
Francois-Marie Arouet = known to literature as 'Voltaire'
In this chapter, we will study:
The physical and philosophical journeys of the main
characters in Candide in the contexts of Voltaire's own life and
intellectual world.
___________________________________________
Voltaire, his world and his book
Voltaire was a writer of great comic gifts, with a vivid
sense of pace.
Activity 2
What are the different ways in which the idea of journeying
operates throughout the text?
Discussion
Several kinds of travel are implicated, either directly or
indirectly, in this versatile book. Among them are the personal
itineraries of Candide and Cunegonde as well as the
digressions from the main track taken by minor figures such
as Candide's servant Cacambo. Another less literal kind of
journey is the intellectual journey that follows the succession
of challenges to Pangloss's ideal of 'optimism'.
___________________________________________
The routes and destinations of all of these interconnected
travels constitute an absorbing mix of ideas and debate
Literary and philosophical antecedents
The group of wanderers in Candide seems to be driven by
some sort of philosophical quest.
Travel writing may seem to constitute a genre that is primarily
descriptive and narrative. It tells the story - real or imagined
— of a person or a group of persons voyaging from place to
place.
This type of writing is not neutral:
1) Travellers inevitably compare the worlds they are
travelling through to their own world.
2) This can lead travellers to make negative and even racist
judgements
3) It can lead them to recognise flaws in their own society;
4) It can lead them to reflect upon 'the universality of the
human condition'.
*** Utopian literature:
utopia = good or perfect place
It is appeared by the English scholar Thomas More, projected
imaginary environments based upon political principles or
ideals (in the case of More, religious toleration, the equal
education of the sexes, and the absence of money and private
property).
'Dystopian'
A contrary tendency later arose whereby authors fantasised
about worlds in which human ideals of a perfect society were
shown to be ridiculous, or at least impracticable
___________________________________________
The genre of Candide?
 Candide is: 'a philosophical tale'.
 Another literary category often associated with Candide
is that of satire, which is writing that ridicules or mocks
the failings of individuals, institutions or societies.
 As Voltaire allows his readers to draw their own
conclusions, Candide should probably be classified as
'indirect satire'.
___________________________________________
Voltaire therefore makes extensive use of literary irony: 'the
use of a naive or deluded hero or unreliable narrator, whose
view of the world differs widely from the true circumstances
recognised by the author or readers; literary irony thus
flatters its readers' intelligence at the expense of a character
(or fictional narrator)'. Much of the humour in Candide is
derived from the ironic distance between the narrator's words
and Voltaire's satirical attack on his society.
___________________________________________
Pangloss's journey: from theory to fact
 Voltaire's philosophical views - expressed in literary works like
Candide. Candide is overtly named after his adventurous
naïve hero but it is its subtitle, 'Optimism' that announces its
theme. The character of Candide's tutor Pangloss is the
inexhaustible spokesman on behalf of 'Optimism', and all of
the main characters in the course of their journeys test to the
very limits Pangloss's creed. ((The character of Pangloss was
Voltaire's exaggerated comic creation.))
**** 'Optimism' had distinct intellectual sources:
1) Pope’s Essay on Man
2) Gottfried Leibniz
IMPORTANT PARAGRAPH ‫للفهم‬
 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz had argued the case from the
nature of God. Since the creator was both omniscient (all
knowing) and omnipotent (all powerful) and since he
wished that his creatures should be happy, it followed of
necessity that the world he had made was one that
secured the most contentedness he could contrive.
 Leibniz did not deny that nasty things happened, or that
people suffered; such a position would be ridiculous. But
human beings were not omniscient (they had limited
knowledge) and what appeared to them to be blemishes
or setbacks could very well be part of the grand
universal plan. Only God, with his serene overview, saw
how.
 This theory is one of the most frequently cited answers
to two dilemmas theologians call 'The Problem of Evil'
and 'The Problem of Pain'. Both pain and evil seem
contradictory in a world supposedly overseen by a
compassionate governor.
 In Candide, Voltaire repeatedly points this out. The truth
is that they were tackling the same issue from opposite
ends of a spectrum. Leibniz approach might be
characterised as arguing forward from certain
assumptions: since God is perfect by definition, it follows
that he can do no wrong. Voltaire's approach might be
described as empirical: he used his experience of the
world around him to draw certain conclusions about it.
___________________________________________
IMPORTANT ACTIVITY
Activity 4
Contrast Voltaire's views on 'optimism' with those of
Pope (and Leibniz):
Discussion
 Chapter 5 of Candide attacks the cosmic complacency,
the thin optimism, expressed in Pope's Essay on Man.
The weapon used is ridicule, a technique at which
Voltaire is particularly adept. Leibniz's ideas are
expressed by Candide's tutor Pangloss, and are
repeatedly shown up as preposterous.
 As example of how Voltaire exposes the limitations of
Pangloss's philosophy of optimism (and by extension
Pope's and Leibniz's) is during the dinner after the
earthquake, when he declares: 'This is all for the best ...
For if there is a volcano beneath Lisbon, then it cannot
be anywhere else; for it is impossible for things to be
elsewhere than where they are. For all is well' (p. 14).
 In the context of the devastation caused by the
earthquake, Pangloss's parroting of Pope's and Leibniz's
creed of optimism comes across as especially
platitudinous and inadequate.
___________________________________________
Voltaire's attack on the ideas of Leibniz and Pope is not
limited to matters of content: his very style of writing is an
assault upon what he saw as their self-deluding optimism.
The title of Candide is principally taken from the name of its
protagonist, but it applies equally well to its style. This is a
book that pulls no punches, makes no effort to be civil, even
rejoices in its earthy rudeness. It says it how it is. Voltaire's
candour is therefore integral to his message. His target is the
sort of moral dishonesty, present in most ages, that flinches
away from the facts and pretties them up with mealymouthed, sociably acceptable persiflage.
___________________________________________
Cunegonde's journey: candour not cant
The unworldly Doctor Ralph is not the only narrator in
Candide. There are three episodes in the novel recounted by
women:
- Chapter 8 is narrated by Candide's beloved, Cunegonde,
who retells the events of the opening chapters from her
perspective; Chapters 11 and 12 are narrated by the old
woman, who tells Cunegonde the story of her
calamitous life; and the first part of Chapter 24 is
narrated by Pacquette, who disabuses Candide of his
perception that she is happy by describing her decline
from serving maid to prostitute.
In these episodes, told from a feminine perspective, Voltaire
gives us history from the point of view of its victims. We
register that Voltaire is satirising the creed of Pope and
Leibniz, in these three episodes, narrated by female
characters, Pangloss's sanguine apathy is exposed as an
overwhelmingly masculine delusion by the blunt facts of
female subservience in a male-dominated society.
All three women tell tales of spectacular suffering and
misadventure, which are nonetheless lightened by their
transparent absurdities and extravagant hyperbole.
The most important of the female characters in Candide is
Cunegonde:
 In terms of the plot: much of Candide's journeying is in
search of Cunegonde.
 Aside from its comic effects, her name also discloses
Voltaire's concern in Candide to promote the quality of
candour.
 Voltaire's reliance on associations conjured up by her
name is in keeping with her own frankness about the
body.
 Several other implications seem to be present: that what
we commonly regard as beautiful may also be quite
obscene, or that what we commonly regard as obscene
may in fact be quite beautiful.
 During the course of her tribulations, Cunegonde has
sometimes been reduced to a sexual plaything.
___________________________________________
Activity 5
Reread Chapter 8, 'Cunegonde's Story', and think about the
style, tone and the way in which the tumultuous events are
narrated. How much difference does it make that the narrator
of this story is a woman?
Discussion
Chapter 8 constitutes a flashback (it retells the events of
Chapters 2 to 7 from Cunegonde perspective). As such, it
inserts into the tale a feminine point of view at variance with,
or at least complementary to, Doctor Ralph's main narrative.
Cunegonde is recounting her story in Lisbon, which gives
Voltaire a chance to portray the injustices meted out in this
traditionalist Catholic society on four minorities: women,
Protestants, intellectuals and Jews. Like the rest of the book,
however, her narrative involves journeys, beginning in
Westphalia where the assault on the Baron's castle is retold
from the point of view of one of its female victims.
After she is rescued from being raped by the Bulgar soldier,
for example, she concedes that she is physically attracted to
her rescuer. Cunegonde recounts all of this with supreme
honesty, and in this she expresses herself very much in the
same spirit as Voltaire himself. Cunegonde's candour is also
directed at Voltaire's philosophical targets, and in direct
contrast to Doctor Ralph, Cunegonde concludes from her
awful experiences that Pangloss is utterly wrong: 'Pangloss
deceived me cruelly, after all, when he told me that all is for
the best in this world' (p. 21).
___________________________________________
Voltaire is indicating an older idea: the ladder of the great
chain of being which, in the Renaissance period, was thought
to support all human hierarchies. The ladder reached down
from God to the lowliest pebble, but women and Jews were
both allotted very low rungs at the human level.
___________________________________________
Activity 6
Discussion
1
in this passage, Voltaire is only concerned to exploit the
comic potential of the scene, and to enjoy the ridiculousness
of the poor man's predicament. Frankness and farce could not
go much farther. Voltaire's prevailing tone here is comic, even
at times consciously farcical.
2
Voltaire's tone in the second passage is rather different.
The slave recounts his sufferings, from his mother selling him
on the coast of Guinea, to his Dutch master in Surinam cutting
off his right hand and left leg. The slave's African mother and
his Dutch owner both benefit by his enslavement, but the
slave declares himself to be a thousand times more miserable
than dogs, monkeys and parrots. Voltaire's tone here is far
from comic; instead his satire assumes a serious edge in order
to express unequivocally how much he abominates slavery.
___________________________________________
In order for such a counterblast to the apathy of optimism to
work, it must be narrated candidly, with no avoidance of
unpleasant facts. The female narrators, as well as the Dutch
slave in Surinam, are not in the slightest bit delicate when it
comes to telling people about the cruelties, perversities and
humiliations that have been their lot. They tell their histories
throughout with unflinching honesty and candour.
___________________________________________
Cacambo's journey: the best of impossible worlds
Activity 7 = important
Reread Chapter 18, 'What they saw in the land of Eldorado',
paying particular attention to the interview with the 172-yearold citizen of El Dorado, the reception at court, and Candide
and Cacambo's decision to leave the country and return to
Europe.
Two related contradictions seem to be present throughout
this passage.
Discussion
(1)
The chapter amounts to a critique of value in which the
ethical and material standards of the visitors are played off
against those of their hosts. Voltaire works this trick from the
very beginning, contrasting the perceptions of the boggleeyed tourists to those of the contented, if slightly blase,
natives. The old man lives in a 'modest house', the door of
which is 'merely of silver and the panelling in the apartment
merely of gold' (p. 46). This sounds like irony, but it is only so
in the eyes of the reader and of Candide and Cacambo. To the
old man, the house really is modest, the effect of its decor, to
which he is quite habituated, one of 'bare simplicity' (p. 46).
Those who live in this earthly Paradise are quite unaware of
this fact, though they are also conscious of the unseemly and
irrational effects that rumours of their land have had on the
minds of outsiders. They regard these dreams with muted
contempt, because in their country what is priceless to others
is so common as to be without value to the inhabitants. The
effect from the reader's point of view is to bring into question
the whole subject of value.
(2)
With regard to the second apparent contradiction, Candide
and Cacambo are subliminally aware of the unreality of the
place they have stumbled upon and are soon anxious to leave
it. They head for the smoke and the stress. But there is
another, far more cynical, reason for their departure. The
untold wealth around them is as valueless to them as it is to
the indigenous people, as long as it remains where it is. If, like
the Spanish before them, they can arrange to take it away,
the situation would be very different. Then the value system
beyond El Dorado will swing back into operation: Candide
declares that if they leave El Dorado, 'we shall be richer than
all the kings put together, we shall no longer have Inquisitors
to fear, and we shall easily rescue Cunegonde' (p. 49).
According to the narrator, Cacambo was persuaded by
Candide's argument, and so they arranged to have some
sheep loaded up with gold, and are winched across the
mountains to the world beyond.
___________________________________________
Where does this leave the expectations of those raised on the
philosophy of Leibniz, or his disciple Pangloss? The answer is
that it again subjects such teaching to a thoroughgoing
critique, with surprising results. The implication of Candide's
and Cacambo's experience of El Dorado is that there are
plenty of worlds that are better; they are just unrealisable.
This then is Utopia; simultaneously a perfect and a nonexistent place.
___________________________________________
Candide's journey: governed by fate or free will
It is significant that Candide and his band of travellers
conclude their journeys in Turkey, a region still dominated by
the declining Ottoman Empire, widely and not entirely
inaccurately supposed to be despotic.
One of the most deeply rooted perceptions present in the
eighteenth-century European mind was that a stubborn belief
in, and quiescence before, fate or destiny was a characteristic
of the peoples of the 'Orient'. In the minds of Voltaire and his
contemporaries, such despotic regimes in such places were
aided and abetted by the inherent fatalism of the East.
The Turkish people, according to this interpretation, were
oppressed largely because they believed in fate, and thus held
their subjection to be inevitable.
The Palestinian critic Edward Said argues that during the
centuries when the cultures of the West had predatory
designs on the lands of the East, a belief in oriental passivity
and fatalism served as a useful adjunct to these plans of
acquisition.
Peoples who were temperamentally pessimistic were easily
dominated, by their own rulers or by outsiders. In the West, it
was supposed, men and women were more likely to believe in
freedom of choice and were therefore more inclined to resist
tyranny.
___________________________________________
Activity 9
Reread Chapter 30, 'Conclusion', paying particular attention
to:
the characterisation of the Dervish and his philosophy
the characterisation of the old man and his philosophy
the ultimate fate of Pangloss and his arguments.
What do these final pages tell us about Voltaire's own ideas
about free will and fate?
Discussion
Voltaire's attitude here seems to be one of thoroughgoing
relativism. The Dervish-philosopher is 'great', but mainly in
the eyes of his disciples. He is quite detached from the world
and advises Candide and his band to withdraw from the world
too: in reply to Pangloss's question 'So what must we do?', he
says, 'Keep your mouth shut' (p. 92). The interview concludes
with the Dervish-philosopher slamming the door in Pangloss's
face, when the latter proposes to discuss the relative merits of
freedom and destiny.
The old man on the farm also expresses a detached attitude
towards the machinations of powerful people in the big city: 'I
never enquire about what goes on in Constantinople' (p. 92),
he declares. But if both these machinations and his
indifference to them are predestined, who are Candide and
Pangloss to object? As a matter of fact, they do not object, but
retire to their own garden and do likewise.
Pangloss predictably considers everything that has happened
to be confirmation of his creed, even though the
disappointments he and his companions have endured
contradict it. Pangloss's last statement is a triumphant reassertion of his belief system to which he has remained true
through all manner of vicissitudes and adversity. But notice
that Candide makes no attempt to contradict him; instead, he
remarks That is well said', before going on to express his own
hard-won pragmatic nostrum, 'but we must cultivate our
garden' (p. 94).
In the last chapter of Candide, Voltaire is therefore trying to
see the idea of destiny from several points of view. These
include not only different schools of philosophy, but also the
perspectives on this common problem adopted by different
cultures, Eastern and Western.
Hence travel writing and the philosophical tale come together
- the argument travels with the story. Have they then
succumbed to Eastern fatalism? Have Candide and his
companions found minimal fulfilment at last, or have they
simply stopped trying, something that Voltaire himself never
did? These are paradoxes that Voltaire quite deliberately
refrains from solving for us. As Voltaire very well knows, you
cannot have it both ways; you cannot believe in freedom and
fate at the same time. Or can you?
___________________________________________
In the face of all of these bewildering contradictions,
Candide's recommendadon that he and his friends cultivate
their own private patch or garden may seem like a shrug in
the face of the difficulties, as well as a gesture of complicity
with the attitudes of the old man on the farm. But it is a lot
more and other than this. We should not ignore the possibility
that, at a practical, salutary level, Voltaire was commending
gardening as a therapeutic solace. Gardens are pleasant
places, and Voltaire was fond of his own. For Voltaire, the
candid response, it seems, is to work or sit in your garden,
with a book or without one.
‫ما شاء هللا ال قوة إال باهلل‬
‫مع تمنياتي لكم بالتوفيق أختكم لوليتا المبيكا هذا العمل خالص لوجه هللا‬
‫وصدقة جارية على روحي في الحياة والممات فال تنسوني من دعائكمو‬
‫تمت مساعدتي بالحصول على المادة العلمية لعدم توفر الكتب عندي باغي‬
‫االجر اخوكم (برنارد شو) حبا في فعل الخير راجيا منكم الدعاء‬
‫ال أحلل استخدام هذا الملف بأي شكل من األشكال في إعادة النشر أو عمل‬
‫ملخصات‬