A brief summary of the themes of Voltaire’s Candide

“This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.” — Voltaire

This is a presentation from my undergraduate years at the London School of Economics. I thought maybe someone could use it, in whatever way. Beware academic language.

Context

Lisbon Earthquake of 1755

The Battle of Kolin — The disastrous defeat of Frederick the Great by the Austrians, caused by Frederick’s overconfidence.

Seven Years War in 1754

Themes

The satire evolves around the following two themes:

1. Satirization and ridicule of the philosophy of Optimism espoused by Leibniz and Pope.
2. Satirization of organized religion such as the institution of the Church.

Satire on Optimism

• Parody of idle philosophers
• Pangloss’s school of thought named metaphysico-theologo-cosmolo-nigology
• Candide’s experience in war and army contradict teaching of Pangloss
• Mockery of blind optimism
• “This is the best of all possible worlds”
• Pangloss responds to Jacques’s death by asserting that the bay outside Lisbon had been formed “expressly for this Anabaptist to drown in.” This argument is a parody of the complacent reasoning of optimistic philosophers.
• At one point, when Candide is knocked down by rubble and begs Pangloss to bring him wine and oil, Pangloss ignores Candide’s request and rambles on about the causes and ultimate purpose of the earthquake
• The old woman’s story serves a dual purpose. The catalogue of her sufferings illustrates a vast array of human evils that contradict Pangloss’s optimistic view of the world. Direct experience dictates her worldview, and her pragmatism lends her more wisdom and credibility than any of her travel companions. Voltaire reiterates the importance of actual, verifiable evidence and the limited value of judgments based on empty philosophical rhetoric
• Like Pangloss’s unqualified optimism, Martin’s unqualified pessimism keeps him from taking active steps to improve the world.
• “Well, my dear Pangloss, Candide said to him, now that you have been hanged, dissected, beaten to a pulp, and sentenced to the galleys, do you still think everything is for the best in this world? —I am still of my first opinion, replied Pangloss; for after all I am a philosopher, and it would not be right for me to recant since Leibniz could not possibly be wrong, and besides pre- established harmony is the finest notion in the world.”
• The meal was certainly a sad affair, and the guests wept as they ate; but Pangloss consoled them with the assurance that things could not be otherwise: “For all this,” said he, “is a manifestation of the rightness of things, since if there is a volcano at Lisbon it could not be anywhere else. For it is impossible for things not to be where they are, because everything is for the best.”

Satire on Organized Religion

• Religious hypocrisy, i.e. Dutch orator cares more about his theological doctrine than helping people.
• Exaggeration to show the irrationality of certain beliefs, or any belief carried out to an extreme degree.
• Mockery of aristocratic belief in natural superiority by birth. For example, Baron’s sister refuses to marry Candide’s father because he has only 71 quarterings.
• Absurd reaction to earthquake
• ”It had been decided by the University of Coimbra, that the burning of a few people alive by a slow fire, and with great ceremony, is an infallible secret to hinder the earth from quaking”
• “No, my sister shall marry none but a baron of the Holy Roman Empire.”
• Cunégonde threw herself at his feet and bathed them with her tears, but the Baron was inflexible. “You unspeakable ass!” exclaimed Candide. “I have taken you from the galleys and paid your ransom, and I have paid your sister’s, too. I found her washing dishes, and she’s as ugly as a witch. Yet when I have the decency to make her my wife, you still pretend to raise objections.”
• Those of us who work in the factories and happen to catch a finger in the grindstone have a hand chopped off; if we try to escape, they cut off one leg. Both accidents happened to me. That’s the price of your eating sugar in Europe…The Dutch fetishes, who converted me, tell me every Sunday that we are all children of Adam, black and white alike. I am no geneologist; but if these preachers speak the truth, we must all be cousins. Now, you will surely agree that relations could not be treated more horribly.

Practical over contemplative action

• The characters finally realize their desires, but misery still reigns in the world outside their garden.
• Candide and his friends are wealthy and secure—in a perfect position to try to change the world for the better. Yet, rather than engaging the world in an attempt to improve it, they withdraw from it in an attempt to escape their own petty unhappiness.