Voltaire's novella Candide is nothing short of wild and fantastical, featuring a cast of characters who happen to survive the worst catastrophes in all sorts of exotics lands yet remain idiotically rooted in their flawed worldviews. Through the sheer, unignorable irony of the hopelessly optimistic Pangloss, Voltaire delivers an incisive critique of schools of optimistic philosophy dominating the Renaissance, as well as philosophy as a whole.
Through Candide's mentor Pangloss, Voltaire explores the folly of the blindly optimistic school of philosophy, the signature of his contemporary G. W. von Leibniz. Enraptured with the belief that the world was the creation of a purely good and powerful god, Pangloss asserts that the nature of this world was subsequently purely good; all the so-called misfortunes and calamities were all a part of God's goodwill that man cannot possibly fathom. Believing that the current world is the "best of all possible worlds," Pangloss quickly disregards misfortunes as all a part of some greater plan. Such a formula of thought is not necessarily detrimental; compared to cynical pessimism, a healthy view of misfortunes as an opportunity to grow is profoundly more positive in an individual's life. Nevertheless, Pangloss stupidly adheres to the extreme of this philosophy, even after enduring unspeakable misfortunes and afflictions. After contracting syphilis from Paquette and suffering for years without proper treatment, he maintains that it was for the greater good of the world, making the absurd connection that if syphilis were not transferred from the new world and subsequently passing down lineages to infect him finally, the Europeans would not have luxuries such as chocolate anymore. Furthermore, Pangloss made no effort to save Jacques from drowning, instead convincing Candide that the bay there were in was precisely molded by God for the death of the Anabaptist. With that utterly illogical and stupid gesture, Pangloss indirectly allowed the death of the perhaps only sane man in the entire novella. While his blindness to the misfortunes of others could be attributed to insensitivity, he is equally ignorant of his own terrible tragedies. In addition to suffering from syphilis, he was also hanged for heresy, surgically cut open, imprisoned, and enslaved, surviving all of them through sheer luck and sustaining minor lasting damage. While his survival was a miracle, Pangloss effectively experienced and witnessed all the evils and sufferings life has to offer, yet nonetheless remains optimistic in his worldview. Ultimately, even he is forced to come to terms with reality at the conclusion of the story due to the utter dichotomy between his perceived existence and reality.
It is apparent that Pangloss' philosophy is detrimental to his livelihood and existence, but his and others' absorption into philosophy is inherently useless and harmful to society. Many modes of philosophy were fundamentally incorrect, like Pangloss' optimism, which withstood the barrage of reality and facts through obstinate cognitive dissonance and had substantial dangers to them. Aboard the ship in the Bay of Lisbon, Pangloss' spiel about how Jacques-his benefactor-was destined to die in this bay which was supposedly made just for him to die in, causes not only Jacques' death but also the destruction of the whole vessel and the deaths of everyone else. In addition, after the earthquake that coincidentally happened right after, Pangloss was busily theorizing the causes of the earthquake while his companion Candide lay under rubble, begging for some oil and wine. In no plane of existence is the whole spectrum of misery and evil the characters witness and endure necessary to justify them gathered around the garden in the end. If everything that happened--both the good and the bad--were all a part of God's higher motives, then man could remain complacent while misfortunes and injustices continue to happen. However, hopelessly optimistic, Pangloss would stand by as people are unjustly tortured, raped, and murdered, justifying their tragedies as some wild fabrication of destiny. Consequently, philosophers like Pangloss, who base their ideas on assumptions and inferences rather than accepting the chaos-filled reality, are of no help in easing the already rife sufferings and hardships of the world. Even Martin, who is significantly more intelligent in his philosophy of pure pessimism, does not accurately define the world and is guilty of the same passiveness and inaction. Pangloss is the self-proclaimed professor of "metaphysico-theologico-cosmolo-nigology," a wholly obscure and useless term parallel to his and other philosophers' lack of practical contribution to society. Only at the end of the story, when Candide, Pangloss, and the rest settle on a farm to do physical, honest work, can they achieve happiness and be functional, beneficial members of society. Voltaire's criticism of philosophy through Pangross attests to the Enlightenment shift from theology and inference to explain the world to a more reason-dominated, practical approach.
Like other Enlightenment thinkers of his time, Voltaire does shy away from satirizing the ills of the 17th century and the hypocrisy of organized religion and the nobility. The cast of religious figures introduced in the novel has all ironically gone against the teachings of their own sects. For example, the Pope, the head of the Catholic Church, has an illegitimate daughter, completely violating his oath of celibacy and uprightness. Other members of the Catholic Church are not much moral or honorable; the Inquisition decides to hang Pangloss as a scapegoat to blame the earthquake on someone, especially since they regarded his teachings as heresy, and flogs Candide for merely listening to Pangloss' rants. Furthermore, the Grand Inquisitor, who should be exemplary in enforcing the dogma of the Church, keeps a mistress, whom he stole from a merchant and frequently squabbles over. Hypocritically, while threatening the Jewish merchant with religious oppression and persecution, the Inquisitor performs the same heretical and sinful acts. Even more religious figures are markedly hypocritical, like the Franciscan friar who steals jewels despite swearing an oath to poverty, the Parisian abbe who swindles money out of Candide, the monk Brother Giroflée who keeps a mistress, and the markedly homosexual baron-turned-Jesuit priest. It is apparent that none of these figures properly do their jobs, instead indulging in hypocritical sinful acts. In addition, Voltaire also satirizes the incredibly finicky nobility through the behavior of the Baron. Candide is forbidden from marrying Cunegode only because his family had 71 noble lineages instead of Cunegode's 72, an infinitesimal detail that the arrogant Baron continues to assert, even after he was disposed of his rank during the war and suffered countless miseries. Despite being violently cut apart during the war, stabbed by Candide, and enduring even more misery, he--a slave when chancing upon Candide at the end--nonetheless desperately clings to his pride and arrogance of the nobility of his nonexistent family to forbid him from marrying Cunegode. Furthermore, the wealthy governor of Buenos Aires, Don Fernando d'Ibaraa y Figueora y Mascarenes y Lampourdos y Souza, is just as absurd as his lengthy, unnecessary name of titles and noble ancestors. Meanwhile, the Venetian Count Pococurante spends his days in idleness and ennui, doing nothing valuable with his wealth, time, and life.
Voltaire portrays and satirizes a society rife with ills through the absurdity and hypocrisy of figures once considered the epitome of morality and unrighteousness in society. Adoration of theoretical philosophy does nothing to alleviate the evils in life, if not harm to society, and the prominent figures in society--religious heads and the nobility-- are wholly hypocritical and worthless. Voltaire argues that only through the lenses of reason, practicality, and hard work, like Cacambo illustrates, that one can live a worthwhile existence in peace and happiness.
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