Social Inequality and the Revolutionary Implications of Candide

France on the Eve of Revolution

The revolutionary period that would emerge in the decades following the scandal of Voltaire's work must first be understood in terms of the general disarray that consumed France in its political, social, and economic contexts. 1789 is generally seen as the touchstone of the revolutionary era, with its chronological proximity to the recent American war for independence and its attendant constitutional doctrine playing a large part in inspiring the response to widespread discontent. The rigid class system which divided France into three distinctly unequal segments — nobility, clergy, and peasantry — contained within it innumerable philosophical perspectives on how best to manage a France that was increasingly populated, gradually urbanizing, and grossly inefficient, as demonstrated by the poor economic conditions endured by so many. These tensions had doomed the old regime to inevitable decline.

At this critical juncture, "when the King called for an Estates-General in 1789, the social tensions plaguing the old regime emerged as a central issue of the Revolution" (CHNM, 1). It was apparent that discontent with the inherent inequality of feudalism, catapulted by Enlightenment revelations regarding natural rights, had reached a breaking point in France — one that would spill over into a decade of reckless, inchoate factionalism. Remarkably and presciently, Voltaire's Candide captures with acute insight the nature of that inequality and the horror of the violence that would spread in the wake of a centuries-long suppression of popular fury.

Candide as Political Satire

Published well ahead of the French Revolution, Candide captured in 1759 an increasing sense of dismay over life in the deeply unequal feudal system. In this important satire of human hypocrisy, Voltaire provides a humorous but shockingly blunt window into the starkly apparent absence of reason, and yet the indisputable manner in which policy may be carried out solely to retain unchallenged power. When the titular protagonist is sentenced to an auto-da-fé, it is dictated by the Inquisitional Portuguese government that he and his companions be held responsible for an earthquake that had just transpired. This open hostility toward governmental and ecclesiastical intervention resulted in Candide being placed on the banned list both in France and by the Catholic Church.

Its popularity among ordinary readers and the enthusiastic reception of its thinly veiled disgust with aristocratic authoritarianism demonstrated a clear resonance with the public. The work voiced what many people felt but lacked the platform or language to express.

The Critique of Panglossian Optimism

The transformation of the title character from the naïve pupil of the foolishly optimistic Pangloss into a world-weary witness of many horrors is devastating, yet it projects a clear revolutionary impression. The work itself becomes a vocal criticism of the Panglossian idea that "'It is demonstrable . . . that things cannot be otherwise than as they are; for as all things have been created for some end, they must necessarily be created for the best end'" (Voltaire, Ch. 1). This perspective grows increasingly ludicrous in the face of war, carnage, inequality, and exploitation. Encounters with such extreme pessimists as Martin only reinforce that Pangloss's philosophy is something of a farce.

Crucially, we come to view Panglossian optimism as a template for the complacency that had allowed the inequality of feudalism to persist. The notion that some connection between divine absolutism and the social order of man could justify a deeply unequal system was precisely the ideological underpinning the Enlightenment sought to dismantle.

Works Cited

Center for History and New Media (CHNM). "Monarchy Embattled." George Mason University, 2005.

Voltaire. Candide. Penguin Classics Reissue Edition, 1950.