Optimism as a Farce in Candide - Assignment Example

11 September Optimism is a Farce in Candide Optimists have it worse than pessimists because they prepare for the best andso fail in having the best. This is one of Voltaire’s strongest messages in his comedic novel, Candide. Candide is the naive protagonist of the story. The fact that he is an illegitimate son already foreshadows a future of misfortunes. For a long time, he trusts his teacher, Pangloss, whose philosophy emphasizes that people already exist in the “best of all possible worlds” and that this perfect world is only awaiting for people to embrace it (Voltaire 2). Despite believing in optimism’s utopian vision, after Candide kisses Cunegonde, his life swiftly declines to hell. The same ill fate occurs to other characters, including Cunegonde and her family, as well as Pangloss. This essay explores Voltaire’s satire of optimism and humanity’s inhumane social institutions. Optimism opposes planning and realization of people’s inability to understand the limitations of foresight and the magnitudes of inhumanity; therefore, the only best possible world is not the most positive one, but only what people can make of it on a daily basis of survival. Optimism will not result in the best of possible worlds because it disregards planning and consideration of the limits of foresight. Voltaire demonstrates that people can only think positive, but nature is too chaotic to foresee. When natural disasters happen, good fortunes can easily turn upside down. Candide and Pangloss undergo several natural calamities, where they almost died. One of these instances is a shipwreck, which is followed by a cataclysmic earthquake. As strangers to another land, people believe that they have caused these disasters. They punish Candide and Pangloss to the point of almost killing them. Because of their optimism, Candide and Pangloss did not plan for and consider these mishaps, and even with optimism, it is ironic that worse goes to worst for them. In addition, the fate of the old woman, Cunegonde’s maid, also emphasizes the role of bad luck and severe human actions that eroded her former power and beauty. Marsh asserts that the old woman illustrates the path from “beauty to ugliness” and “sin to grace” (146). This old woman is a symbol for life’s inherent volatility. Voltaire seems to be saying that disasters, whether man-made or nature-based, can happen anytime, so people cannot control who they will be and what their life will turn out in the future. Earthquakes stand for uncertainties in life that can shake people’s lives forever. People can only aspire to plan, but they cannot plan for everything. Furthermore, they can only wish for the best, but the best is unrealistic for Voltaire. Humanity’s foresight has its limitations in an environment where chaos and changes frequently take place. Political systems are corrupt and inhumane, so it is impossible to attain Pangloss’ idea of “best of all possible worlds.” The evil and inconsistencies of human values and conduct derail optimism’s best intentions of making people feel safe and secure. Watts notes that Candide is also Voltaire’s way of criticizing “Eurocentricism,” because it fails to provide “alternative systems of war and peace, notions of friend and enemy” (343). Eurocentricism, in particular, produces and justifies colonization, which basically uses wars and different forms of violence to attain more territories. Territories mean power and wealth. Chapter three of Candide attacks the essence and effects of war. Voltaire unmasks the irony that the masses, who do not decide when and do not understand why their state will go to war with another state, suffer most from the wars. Their men die from wars, while their women are raped or killed, or both. Children also perish from violence and hunger. After Candide leaves the Bulgarians, he witnesses the plentiful negative effects of the war: “The earth was strewed with brains, arms, and legs” (Voltaire 10). Old men and women may have survived, but the quality of their lives is terribly corroded with lost body parts that the war destroyed. They weep for their lives and their dead children. Voltaire further shows the meaninglessness of wars. When Candide stumbles on Pangloss, the latter explains that “vengeance” (Voltaire 14) is the primary root of the war. The Bulgarians assailed the Baron’s lands and the Abares took revenge, by doing what the Bulgarians did in the past. Voltaire then unearths the foolhardiness of wars because they are based on human passion and not logic. Candide demonstrates that politics cannot make the best of all worlds since it is based on hasty decisions with no foresight of repercussions and the cycle of violence it perpetuates. People have formed corrupt social institutions that undermine the notion of a best life. Education is corrupt and so people are bred to be corrupted. Candide and Pangloss escape shipwreck by a slim margin, only to survive an earthquake. What they do not escape, however, is humanity’s stupidity. The novel depicts that “it had been decided by the University of Coimbra, that the burning of a few people alive by a slow fire, and with great ceremony, is an infallible secret to hinder the earth from quaking” (23). A superstitious university is Voltaire’s ironic and satirical assessment of education. People should know better than connecting disasters with human conduct, and yet a university promotes barbaric penalties based on superstitions. Religion takes a hard blow in Candide too. The old woman tells Candide that she loses one of her buttocks, because of an Imam who instructs his soldiers to “cut off a buttock of each of those ladies… heaven will accept of so charitable an action, and send [them] relief” (Voltaire 52). This experience demonstrates the fallibility of religion because it is man-made. Humans have limited goodness and knowledge, which makes the best world a limited idea too. The best of all worlds does not exist because people are inhumane and dull. People are supposed to be rational decision-makers, but Voltaire uses Candide to depict humanity’s true depth and range of intelligence. Pangloss has sex with a wench, who gives him syphilis. He should have been more careful as a teacher, but he lets his lust override his logic. Pangloss continues to think positive, nevertheless, and he says that the reason of his condition is “a necessary ingredient in the best of worlds,” and compared it with Columbus, who also acquires the same disease, but which has subsequently enabled future generations to enjoy their “chocolate” and “cochineal” (Voltaire 15). His analogy, however, is inappropriate and underlines Pangloss’ dim-witted character. Voltaire explores his belief on European colonization, when Candide and Cacambo reach El Dorado. The old man of the village remembers the insatiability and materialism of Europeans: “… we have hitherto been sheltered from the rapaciousness of European nations, who have an inconceivable passion for the pebbles and dirt of our land, for the sake of which they would murder us to the last man” (Voltaire 81). These pebbles and dirt are diamonds that meant nothing to his people, and yet Europeans found it enough reason to colonize and destroy them. Voltaire narrates that old civilizations were happy with their simple lives, until the Europeans came to destroy their happiness. Europeans claim to spread civilization and Christianity through colonization, and yet they only spread death and the termination of diverse histories and cultures of all those societies they conquered and oppressed. Furthermore, man is too stupid and biased to create the best world. Pangloss says conflicting statements, which demonstrates his ignorance, not wisdom. He argues that all causes can produce good ends, but he also reminds Candide: “…all over the globe there is no letting of blood or taking a glister, without paying, or somebody paying for you” (Voltaire 16). Pangloss is saying that people look after their own needs and interests, resulting in greed and violence. If this is the case, then how can evil lead to something good? Candide satirizes optimism, when it cannot hold true for a dull and brutal world. Racial discrimination is another indicator of people’s capricious and shallow nature. Candide exhibits unconcealed racism against the Jews. The Inquisitor, through “auto-da-fe” forces a Jew to share his house and Cunegonde with him (Voltaire 32). When the Inquisitor and the Jew also die: “…the Inquisitor was interred in a handsome church, and Issachar's body [the Jew] was thrown upon a dunghill” (Voltaire 37). Two bodies meet dissimilar fates because they have different races and religions. Through this example, Voltaire argues that when people hold illogical biases and execute arbitrary actions by virtue of color, religion, and other physical aspects, people cannot expect the best world. They can only expect the worst world. Voltaire argues that the only best possible world is not the most positive one, but only what people can make of it on a daily basis of survival. Optimism is a horrible way to live, because it looks toward the future that no one can control. Candide says: “…we must cultivate our garden” (Voltaire 167). Voltaire is saying that people cannot hope for the best world. They can only make do with what they have with each day that they have. He recommends for people to just mind their own business, since society is corrupt, and it cannot be changed at all. He suggests that without interference from politics, religion, and shallow education, people will be better off, because they can concentrate on their own ways of simple existence and co-existence. Wars and colonization cannot be conceived during one’s pursuit of simple needs. Voltaire lampoons optimism because the best world is unreal. The best world only wastes people’s time and energy. Candide shows that people are evil and dull, so their institutions make it impossible to attain the best world for them. Furthermore, nature is a chaotic beast that can turn fortunes into bad luck in an instant. With this dismal depiction of human nature and uncertainty of life, Voltaire offers an alternative way of living- one that does away politics and large-scale social institutions. He recommends self-reliance, where people focus on their own basic needs and some wants. He ends his novel with a paradox: a simple life is the perfect life, though it is not perfect at all. Works Cited Marsh, Leonard. “Voltaire's Candide.” Explicator 62.3 (2004): 144-146. Print. Scherr, Arthur. “Voltaire's Candide.” Explicator 59.2 (2001): 74-76. Print. Voltaire. Candide. 10 Mar. 2012. Web. < http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19942/19942-h/19942-h.htm>. Watts, Carol. “A Comedy of Terrors: ‘Candide’ and the ‘Jus Publicum Europaeum.’” South Atlantic Quarterly 104.2 (2005): 337-347. Print. Read More