Seeing Past Cynicism in Candide

Seeing Past Cynicism in Candide

Voltaire has been considered a controversial and cunning master of cynicism since he first began to publish late in his life, and this reputation has continued ever since. His views on the various whims and beliefs of man are unequivocally dismissive; he regards much if not most of the philosophical and religious thought of his time to be nothing more than man's willingness and even desire to fool himself. He also reflected heavily on the cruelties that men were capable of committing to each other, out of greed or perhaps even worse out of misplaced "noble" intentions like nationalism and, again, religion. Perhaps no work of Voltaire's more clearly expresses his sarcastic and cynical view of the world and humanity than his most famous work, Candide, published in 1759 and subsequently translated into many languages in many different editions over the years. This short satirical novel traces the voyages of Candide, a young and incredibly naive young man whose "face was the true index of his mind" (Voltaire, 1).

Though educated as an optimist, believing that the world we live in is the best world possible, and that therefore everything that happens in it is for the best, Candide's adventures do not seem to support the philosophy he so ardently adheres to. Rather, through his eyes the reader is given an almost literal crash-course in Voltaire's own brand of cynicism. Throughout the book, there is a heavy satire of contemporary philosophies, religious beliefs, governments and officials, and even literature, as the improbable events pile up so quickly that there is hardly room for a story. One of the chapters is even titled "How the Portuguese Made a Superb Auto-De-Fe to Prevent Any Future Earthquakes, and How Candide Underwent Public Flagellation," which gives an idea of the tone of the novel (Voltaire, 13). Yet for all its apparent sarcasm, Voltaire is really only ridiculing human establishments, but retains a faith in the individual spirit.

This might seem a difficult proposition to make at first; human institutions are, in fact, made up of individual humans. But even the institutionalized characters in Voltaire's novel show their ineptitude not through direct fault of their own, but rather through their associations with others. Pangloss, Candide's tutor and sometime adventuring companion, has suffered nearly unspeakable miseries that he relates to Candide with about as much emotion as the recitation of a grocery list. Candide expects that Pangloss would have abandoned his optimistic theory of life after all of the things he has been through, but Pangloss insists he still believes that everything that happens is for the best "for, after all, I am a philosopher, and it would not become me to retract my sentiments; especially as Leibniz could not be in the wrong'" (Voltaire, 81). Even in this moment of supreme individual stupidity and rigidity, which Voltaire plays up with brilliant sarcastic comedy, Pangloss attributes his continued optimism to the intellectual worship of Leibniz. This instance shows that men are generally not stupid individually, in Voltaire's view, but rather that they are dependent on others for this quality.

Other examples of stupidity and other negative human qualities being obtained through association abound. In Paraguay, Candide has an unlikely encounter with the brother of Cungeund, whom he plans to marry. Immediately after embracing him as a brother himself, Candide reveals his intentions to marry Cunegund, and explains his careful reasoning over the brother's angry protestations. After Candide again insist that he will marry Cunegund, her brother responds thusly: "We shall see to that, villain!' said the Jesuit, Baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh, and struck him across the face with the flat side of his sword" (Voltaire, 36). IThough never identified by name, this brother is more human and humane when identified as Cunegund's brother. As a Jesuit priest and a Baron, however -- which is how he is identified in this brief passage of angry reversal and arrogant outrage -- this character has many prideful notions about his and his sister's station, and feels an obvious contempt for Candide. It is not really the man himself that is so petty and impetuous, but rather the training in the religious and aristocratic institutions that cause him to behave so foolishly.