1104 Voltaire
they help prompt Candide into leaving the utopia
that is Eldorado, the only place where everything
does, in effect, go more or less well. In this respect,
his hope functions as a literary device in the tale: It
is a means of advancing the plot so that the hero can
eventually renounce his mentor’s ideas.
The hope of seeing Cunégonde again also serves
another purpose: It prevents Candide from lapsing
into extreme pessimism. Every time he is overcome
with “despair,” “grief,” or “black melancholy,” or is
“sunk in his sorrow,” he springs back to life by focus-
ing on her, even when he has essentially renounced
the philosophical optimism espoused by Pangloss.
This desire “to see Mademoiselle Cunégonde again”
is what differentiates Candide from his friend Mar-
tin. His innate hopefulness is his “one great advan-
tage over Martin” for although Martin claims that
“it is always a good thing to hope,” he himself has
“nothing to hope for.”
Despite his ultimate goal, Candide frequently vac-
illates between hope and despair. His low points never
last long, however, and faced with the dejection of oth-
ers, Candide often urges them to take heart, despite his
own suffering. For example, when he is first reunited
with Cunégonde in Lisbon, she confesses that her
“heart is almost closed to hope”; Candide encourages
her, stating that “all will be well.” This exchange takes
place on the eve of their voyage to the New World, a
world which, by rights, should represent the hope of
new beginnings. Before his arrival in South America,
Candide expects that “the new world . . . is the best of
possible universes.” By the time of his return journey,
all has changed, and in chapter 19, in a moment of
despair, Candide cries to an absent Pangloss, “I shall
have to renounce your optimism.”
In Candide, the eponymous hero witnesses almost
every known evil—violence, intolerance, hypocrisy,
plunder, war, natural disaster, rape, cannibalism,
slavery, and religious fanaticism—yet he remains
hopeful. Rather than succumb to pessimism, as does
his friend Martin, or maintain a blindly optimistic
philosophy, as does his tutor Pangloss, Candide finds
a middle ground that enables him to live in relative
happiness. Optimism, then, is a literary device in
Candide, but it is also a philosophical theory to be
challenged at every stage of the story.
Katherine Ashley
Innocence and experIence in Candide
That Voltaire’s Candide is a story about inno-
cence and experience, particularly the dangers of
not learning from experience, is apparent in the
eponymous hero’s name: Candide, or candid, means
innocence or purity. Candide is a young man who
unconditionally accepts the teachings of his tutor,
the foolish philosopher Pangloss, who believes that
they live in the “best of all possible worlds” and that
all is therefore for the best. Since Candide has no
independent knowledge of the world, he adopts this
opinion. Yet, once he is separated from his tutor,
Candide is exposed to a variety of human vices and
gains firsthand experience of violence, suffering,
and despair. Because his experiences are difficult
to reconcile with Pangloss’s optimistic philosophy,
Candide begins to ask questions, to think for him-
self, and ultimately he rejects Pangloss’s teachings.
As such, Candide comments on human nature and
the nature of evil, but it also warns of the dangers of
philosophical inaction taking precedence over direct
experience.
At the outset, experience is not presented in a
particularly positive light. Candide’s troubles begin
when Cunégonde attempts to put Pangloss’s “les-
son in experimental physics” into practice. Like the
biblical Adam, Candide’s carnal knowledge leads to
his expulsion from the “earthly paradise.” Thereafter,
the other residents of the castle are either killed or
forced to flee. This initial incident shatters their
world, but it allows Voltaire to compare Candide’s
progress on the outside with that of his peers.
Consequently, although Candide was brought up
“never to judge anything for himself,” his learn-
ing process begins almost immediately. Conversely,
Cunégonde, the young baron, and Pangloss learn
little from their experiences: Cunégonde grows ugly
and ill-tempered, Pangloss persists in rationalizing
his experiences so that they coincide with his beliefs,
and the young baron is just as arrogant at the end as
he is in the beginning.
Location is also linked to the themes of inno-
cence and experience: Virtually every chapter of
Candide takes place in a different locale. Cacambo,
Candide’s friend, states that it is a “very great plea-
sure to see and do new things,” but the constant
movement serves another purpose. Through the