97
See also: Gulliver’s Travels 104 ■ Jacques the Fatalist 105RENAISSANCE TO ENLIGHTENMENT
violent misadventures, and an
eventual reunion with his lost love,
Cunégonde, only to find that he
no longer desires her. Yet the
misfortunes come so fast and furious
and and are related in so matter-of-
fact a tone that the overall effect is
comic. Women are violated by men;
armies destroy each other; people
are robbed and enslaved. Reversals
of all kinds make life, health, and
happiness precarious. In a world of
greed, lust, and brutality (often in
the name of religion), good deeds
are scarce. Measured against the
heartlessness of reality, Panglossian
optimism is patently naive.Personal influences
Although vibrant with melodramatic
incident, Candide is a tale of ideas,
albeit with autobiographical roots.
Voltaire had known personal
misfortune, including abuse by
Jesuit teachers, loss of favor in the
French court, and expulsion from
Prussia. In addition, two publiccatastrophes worked on his
imagination and profoundly
affected his views on God and free
will: the earthquake that destroyed
Lisbon, Portugal, in 1755, and the
start of the Seven Years’ War (1756–
63), which unleashed destruction
in Europe. Both events feature in
Candide in fictionalized form.
Within the book, a narrative
of intertwining personal stories
becomes a thread that connects
depictions of contrasting social
systems. The first community we
encounter is the feudal castle from
which the hero gets expelled. There
is a utopian interlude in Eldorado,
an egalitarian nation of natural
plenty. Finally, Candide, now living
on a farm in Turkey, visits a family
farm dedicated to cooperative work,
where the people are happy. The
ending, with Candide saying “We
must go and cultivate our garden,”
indicates that it is possible to be
happy—by means of hard work,
and an absence of philosophy. ■The old woman
(daughter of Pope
Urban X and the
Princess of Palestrina):
Everybody’s life is
a tale of misfortune
and suffering.Count Pococurante
(a Venetian nobleman):
No product of the arts
can give untainted
pleasure. Artistic
endeavor is always
overpraised.The Turkish farmer:
Politics brings misery:
it is better to cultivate
your farm, since work
banishes boredom,
vice, and poverty.Dr. Pangloss
(Candide’s old tutor):
Everything that
happens reflects
God’s supreme and
harmonious purpose
for humankind.Martin
(scholar and former
publishing hack):
The world is senseless
and detestable. It was
created by the forces
of evil to drive us to
complete madness.Gullible and naive, Candide is
incapable of forming his own opinions
on life: his vision of the world—his
ideas on determinism, optimism, and
free will, for example—are constructed
by the views of the people around him.Voltaire
Son of a notary, François-
Marie Arouet was born
in Paris, France, in 1694.
A dramatist and poet, he
adopted “Voltaire” as a nom
de plume. His satirical verse
earned him a stretch in the
Bastille prison, Paris, in
1717–18. After two years
in England (a country that
he found more tolerant and
rational than France), his
Letters Concerning the English
Nation (1733) was suppressed
in his homeland; it was seen as
a critique of the government.
A study of Louis XIV
restored him to favor at
Versailles, where he became
royal historiographer in 1745.
Later, in Berlin, he become
close friends with the Prussian
king, Frederick the Great. He
wrote his philosophical tales
at his estate at Ferney, France,
when in his 60s—including
Candide. He also worked for
agricultural reform as well as
for greater justice for wronged
individuals. He died in Paris in
1778, at 84.Other key works1718 Oedipus
1733 Philosophic Letters
1747 Zadig
1752 Micromégas (short story)US_096-097_Candide.indd 97 09/10/2015 12:36