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Adam Sylvain
4/19/09
Phil 253

Voltaire’s Candide; a satirical criticism

The Enlightenment Period is regarded as heyday of philosophy, as well as a time of social

and political revolution. Francois-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire, is one of the most

respected and revisited figures of the era.

Although the Enlightenment spread quickly throughout Europe, Voltaire was born and

raised in France, where the flux of change was especially prevalent. During his lifetime,

beginning at the turn of the eighteenth century, he authored plays, poetry, novels, and essays

amounting to more than two thousand books and short works. Many agree that the content of

Voltaire’s work, as a whole, was primarily a satirical criticism of French and elitist society,

politics, and religion. On a smaller scale, Voltaire’s writing can be appreciated for the general

discussion of moral and metaphysical evil it invokes.

Published in 1759, Candide: Or, All for the Best, is widely regarded as Voltaire’s most

famous literary contribution, as well as, one of the best philosophical novels ever written. From

the first page, he authors an adventure which challenges the widely expressed idea of optimism

which Gottfried Leibniz formalized roughly a century earlier.

Leibniz is ruthlessly characterized as Dr. Pangloss, a bombastic philosopher who

repeatedly professes that “All is for the best in the best of possible worlds.” However, the

progression of unfortunate events, which surrounds the main character, Candide, continually

seeks to negate this belief. Despite his own misfortunes, Dr. Pangloss remains an optimist
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throughout the novel. The attitude of Dr. Pangloss is best summarized in the following lines; “It

is demonstrable...that things cannot be other than as they are: for, since everything is made to

serve an end, everything is necessarily for the best of ends.” When reflecting on all of his

misfortune, Voltaire frequently asks how “the best of all possible worlds” could be filled with

violence, misfortune, and injustice. He had his own opinion of why things happen the way they

do and he believed human nature played a big part. “Men…must have corrupted nature a little

bit, for they were not born wolves, and they have become wolves. God did not give them twenty-

four-pounder cannons or bayonets, and they have made bayonets and cannons to destroy each

other.” (Ch. 4, pg. 12)

Voltaire’s belief in man’s corrupted nature can be applied to problems that are seen in

society today. One reason why there is conflict between nations, often verging on war, is because

of nuclear weapons. Ever since the first nuclear weapon was invented, it has been cause for

contention around the world. Weapons of mass destruction were not mined in a cave, they

certainly don’t grow on any tree, and they cannot be fished from an ocean. They, like the

weapons of war during the eighteenth century, were made by man to destroy man. Doesn’t such

a culture of war speak volumes about the nature of man? If mankind was inherently good, in the

best of all worlds, why would there be war or suffering? These are questions Voltaire considered

when writing Candide, which can still be discussed in the same context today.

The ridicule put forth in Candide extends farther than just Leibniz, or optimism. Voltaire

unceasingly mocks the attitudes and institution of war. The novel sets itself in the middle of a

war between the Bulgars and Avars of Eastern Europe. After being caught in a moment of
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intimacy with the Baron’s daughter, Cunégonde, Candide is exiled from the safety of the Lord

Baron’s castle, and thrown out into corruption and warfare. After his exile, it didn’t take Candide

long to come face to face with the wartime environment around him. “…he was caught up by

four other heroes, each over six foot tall, who tied him up and marched him off to the cells.”

(Ch 2, pg. 6) Candide is referred to by his “comrades” as a hero, which is ironic because of the

way they treat him. “He is made to do right turns, left turns, draw the ramrod, return the ramrod,

take aim, fire and march at the double, for which he receives thirty strokes of the birch; the next

day he performs his drill a little less badly, and receives only twenty strokes; the day after that he

is given only ten, and is looked on by his comrades as a prodigy.” (Ch. 2, pg. 6) Using his

acclaimed satirical wit, Voltaire brings attention to the way we perceive war and the soldiers who

fight in them. The average American is likely to praise soldiers who serve in war, perhaps even

calling them heroes, but probably knows very little about the tribulation they face. Voltaire

seems to hold the opinion that war is generally a devastating occurrence that should be avoided.

He brings attention to the brutality of war in several key passages. “First the cannon toppled

about six thousand men on either side; then the muskets removed from the best of possible

worlds between nine and ten thousand scoundrels who were infesting its surface.” (Ch. 3 pg. 7)

In this excerpt, Voltaire not only satires the destruction of war, but once again brings attention to

his doubts about what the “best of all possible world” can really mean in a world of so much

suffering.

Another subject of satire in Candide, is religion. As a high ranking figure in the

Portuguese Catholic Church, the Grand Inquisitor is created as an example of hypocrisy and

corruption. This is first noticed when the Grand Inquisitor threatens to burn alive Don Issachar, a
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wealthy Jew, for being a heretic, unless he shares his mistress, Cunégonde, with him. “At last my

Jew, intimidated, agreed to a compromise, whereby the house and my person would belong to

both of them in common; the Jew would have Mondays, Wednesdays, and the Sabbath, the

Inquisitor would have the other days of the week.” (Ch. 8, pg. 20) To further impute the

Inquisitor, Voltaire illustrates a scene in which Candide witnesses an auto-da-fé. He expresses

the dread Candide as he observes the scene before him. He is utterly dismayed when he notices

one of the implicated figures is none other than Dr. Pangloss. The over-riding theme of the

novel, a refutation of optimism, is once again furthered by the last words of the chapter;

“Pangloss deceived my cruelly, after all, when he told me that all is for the best in this world.”

(Ch. 8, pg. 21) When Don Issachar discovers Candide and Cunégonde together, Candide kills

him, along with the Grand Inquisitor having witnessed the murderous scene.

Upon arriving in Buenos Aires, Candide and his beloved were, almost immediately, torn

apart again. Upon meeting the fugitives, Governor Don Fernando quickly proclaims his

affections for Cunégonde and his intent to marry her. Before either can object, Candide is forced

to run again, as he is ruthlessly pursued for the murders of Don Issachar and the Inquisitor. It is

there, in his newest destination of Paraguay that Candide meets the Baron face to face. Once both

had discovered the other’s identity, they quickly embraced each other and were overjoyed at the

significance of their meeting. However, when he expressed his desire to marry the Baron’s sister,

Cunégonde, the Baron was aghast by the proposal. After being struck by the blunt-end of his

adversary’s own weapon, Candide thrusts his sword into the belly of the Baron. The following

describes the mortified reaction he experiences as soon as the deed is done:

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“Alas, dear God! I have killed my former master, my friend, my future brother-in-law; I am the

mildest man alive, yet I have now killed three men, two of them priests.” (Ch. 15, pg. 38)

The killings of Don Issachar, the Inquisitor, and the Baron are all examples of a change

which occurs within Candide. Voltaire seeks to prove that the unfortunate, if not tragic, events

that surround mankind, inherently corrupt our very nature. When Candide is first introduced, he

is a pleasant, intellectually engaged youth, but the more despair and destruction he witnesses, the

more he disproves Pangloss’s optimism.

For as much satire as Candide possesses, it is almost equaled in the properties of a

tragedy. Candide becomes a character who can be sympathized with; one can only wonder at the

depths of his misfortune. This is, of course, an instrument Voltaire uses to further his argument

that the world is not only good; that the world possesses nature and events that are broken and

corrupt. Furthermore, that the best of all ends are not always met, in the “best of all possible

worlds.”

It is important to note another occurrence taking place around this time in the novel.

When Candide arrived in Paraguay, having departed from Cunégonde, he had with him a valet

named Cacambo. Voltaire describes Cacambo as a foil of Dr. Pangloss’s character. Intelligent,

and morally honest, he is more a man of action than a man of words; the chief contrast between

he and Pangloss. He helps Candide through a number of predicaments. Especially during their

experience in El Dorado, in which Cacambo becomes a translator for Candide when they

communicate with the King.

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Slavery is a subject only briefly touched upon, in the novel, however it is ripe with the

wit and satire every reader has come to expect. Candide and Cacambo, succeeding their

departure from El Dorado, come across a miserable man lying on the street. When they reached

him, they discovered he was a negro man, missing both his left leg and his right hand. They find

out, eventually, that it was the man’s master who had punished him for trying to run away. The

negro man goes on to explain further; “Alas! I don’t know if I made their fortune, but they

certainly didn’t make mine. Dogs, monkeys and parrots are a thousand times less miserable than

we are; the Dutch fetishes who converted me to their religion tell me every Sunday that we are

all children of Adam, whites and black alike. A am no genealogist; but if these preachers are

telling the truth, then we are all second cousins. In which case you must admit that no one could

treat his relatives much more horribly than this.” (Ch. 19, pg. 52)

The encounter with the negro man, like so many of the grievous situations Candide finds

himself in, leaves him overcome with sadness and grief at the cruelty and discouragement in the

world. Voltaire brings into the fire all institutions within society, politics and religion. When it is

all done, he calls out, yet again, begging familiar questions, from the folly of Pangloss’s words;

“Oh Pangloss! 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.” (Ch. 19, pg. 52)
Bibliography

- Voltaire. Candide. New York: Penguin Books, 2005.

- SparkNotes. 2009. Barnes & Noble. 4 May 2009.

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/candide/characters.html

- Magee, Bryan. The Story of Philosophy. New York: DK Publishing, Inc., 2001.