Voltaires Book Candide: the Sufferings of the People - Research Paper Example

Voltaire1 in his book “Candide” creates a virtual image of the eighteenth century Europe by creating somehow imaginary characters he makes to portray the reality of religion and political battle that underlies the struggle for power at the time. During the struggle, several disasters befall the people of Europe both the civilians, and the soldiers alike. Voltaire tries to argue out Donald Kagan’s2 observations when he asserts that the rich, who controls most of the European governments of the time and the governors takes part in stirring war in the entire European continent and sit back to watch as the people suffer various atrocities both from the rulers, religious leaders as well as from the European soldiers. (Donald) In order to continue surviving in Europe, the people are forced to overlook the kind of cruelty that they have been subjected to and to assume the temporality of nature’s occurrences3. According to Dieckmann, Voltaire uses satire to bring out this school of thought that sharply emerges in the eighteenth century Europe as a means of coping with the pains of life. This paper will examine how Voltaire has used satire in his book to portray optimism, a philosophical view of the eighteenth century to overlook some of the horrors of the period. Such an analysis will consider superstition, the tyranny of organized religion, the tyranny of political leadership, war, diseases (especially the sexually transmitted diseases), and the cruel punishment inflicted on the innocent civilian Europeans by religion and political leadership in the eighteenth century Europe. 4 The main character in this book “Candide5” is portrayed as a man of sufficient determination amidst disillusionment in the entire book. His life is described from a premature background as struggling to chart his destiny despite the many pitfalls on his way. Candide is said to have been forced to join the Bulgarian army when found lost. He is then found taking a walk and accused of deserting the army and he is court-martialed. The judgment passed on Candide is rather terrible and can only take a daring man to choose either one or the other. The two options left for him to choose are executed or running the gauntlet, which entails running in the middle of two lines of men (soldiers), instructed to strike him with weapons. (Davis) This he does twice and after the second turn, his body is highly mutilated and is only pardoned when the king finds out that Candide is a meta-physician and is therefore ignorant of the world. Here, Voltaire builds up a contention in the Bulgars camp to portray the kind of persecution that goes on in the army. The sufferings of Candide begin just at the moment he is indoctrinated into the Bulgars’ army. He is forced to undergo several episodes of the terrible ordeals as part of the initiation and disciplinary measures for a successful life of a deserving soldier. Despite all this, Candide still holds to Pangloss’6 teachings that all happens for the best of life that is to come. As such, he asserts, “no things can be otherwise as they are; for as all things have been created for some end, they must necessarily be created for the best end.” (Dieckmann) This is the meta-physical belief that is held by Candide even as he undergoes the sufferings in the army. Grobe argues that, the hope that all will end and that human sufferings are designed for some future goodies is the only spirit that drives Candide and enables him to endure the suffering and afflictions he undergoes in Bulgaria. (Grobe) The sufferings and endurance of Candide in the camp is used just to symbolize the kind of bullying that was going on in most of the army camps in the European countries of the eighteenth century versus the belief they held while enduring those atrocities. A hope that all are geared towards a better future which is yet to come, that the troubles they are subjected to by the authorities only help to pave the way for the good times to come7. Voltaire8 uses this to express the dangers that underlie the weird belief when he exposes the mutilated body of Candide after choosing to run the gauntlet. Although the theory keeps one’s soul on track in order to keep moving up the ladder amidst tribulations in life, it is really a throwback to one’s fundamental rights of life endowed on each one as the most precious gift by his creator. It is because of the pains that the soldiers undergo while on training and in the camp that makes them cruel and inhumane when they deal with other fellow humans.9 Candide on his way after being pardoned at the Bulgarian camp meets bodies of dead civilians who have been killed during the war and their houses still on fire. A scene is then immediately follows where a protestant orator is teaching people about charity and asks Candide if he thinks the pope is the anti-Christ to which he says he knows not and asks for food, a reply which earns him even more scorn when the orator’s wife dumps human waste on his head besides receiving curses from the protestant orator himself which Dynes associates with the humbleness of the optimists. (Dynes) Voltaire portrays the tyranny of religion by building the characters of the Dutch orator who displays the pettiness of the religious leaders’ in Europe during Voltaire’s time10. The orator stresses theological doctrines as people around him suffer the havoc of war, deprivation and paucity. This shows the colony of the mind by the religious class by wanting only to convert the citizens into their religion other than helping them overcome the difficult times that they are facing. The people here tend to have a strong belief of religion as the only channel of hope left for them by their creator and so believe that their gods will help them overcome the challenges. This according to Voltaire is a mere optimism which has no firm base in alleviating human suffering and he refers to it in simple terms as religious Brain washing carefully inflicted upon them by their religious leaders. Candide after being mistreated by the clergy’s wife and is now under the care of a well wisher relates his misfortunes to the argument of optimism by Pangloss11 that all is meant for the best for he now enjoys the hospitality of the brethren because of the ill mistreatment. Largely, Jacques’s death is brought about by religious optimism. His damnation represents Voltaire’s prime opposition of the optimistic belief held by most people of the time that bad luck and evil happenings such as those are always balanced with good. Jacques death is a clear opposite of the belief as he succumbs to death while trying to save an evil sailor who in the contrary survives the gallows. (Dieckmann12) Voltaire reproves the theory of optimism by letting Jacques, a good, kind and religious man dies while the sailor, a bad man, evil, selfish and Unreligious is saved from death. The book paints Jacques as an Anabaptist, an altruist who fails to change humanity for the superior but simply end up duping his own philanthropy13. Pangloss still holds to the theory of optimism by responding to Jacques’s death dismissing the dangers that belie it asserting that it had all been planned, he argues that the bay outside Lisbon had been created purposely for Jacques to drown in. He seems to be convinced that the world that God created is certainly flawlessly premeditated and executed and therefore anything that happens in it is not a matter of chance but a pre- planned occurrence.14 The two men, Pangloss and Candide while in Lisbon witnesses a terrible earthquake, the deadliest and historical Lisbon earthquake15. They see people in vessels coming to dock die under the chock of the seawaters, fires consuming many people on formally dry lands, houses falling and roofs being flung upon the pavements and around thirty thousand people are killed in this terrible disaster. (Dynes) Pangloss in his analysis of the phenomenon based on his pre-consumed theory of optimism argues that the sufficient reason for the phenomenon is merely an assurance for the best, he says, “all that is for the best. If there is a volcano in Lisbon, it cannot be so elsewhere. It is impossible that things should be other than they are; for everything is right.” (Dieckmann) This according to Voltaire is a mere consolation that cannot bring anyone dead back to life. Voltaire describes the sufferings of the people because of the infectious syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease and associates it with the travels of Christopher Columbus. Mason asserts that this has been used to bring out the optimistic theory by arguing out the minds of the people that the disease was meant to move maize all the way from America into the European continent. This theory holds that it was not in any way associated with any evil occurrence but had been formally planned for the good of the European continent signified by the coming of maize into the continent. (Mason16) Voltaire’s book Candide has been designed artistically and magnificently to warn men of their errors and the regularity in the pain of suffering that bear upon them because of their outdated beliefs. It is a quest for a true change in people’s mindsets, an urge and a call to perceive things in a very new dimension. Voltaire’s main intention in writing his book is to persuade man to find a remedy for any misfortune or bad condition that threatens his life. Voltaire can be considered as the father of reasoning as he urges people to look at things on the level of cause- effects relationship17. In the real sense, not everything that happens is predestined to happen the way they do but everything has a cause, which must be identified in order to come up with the remedy for the same. “Candide” therefore is the pioneering literary work that helps in creating this impression on human race not only in Europe but also in the entire world and is worth mentioning as the genesis of reason among many men across the globe.18 Works cited Davis, James N. Reading Literature in the Foreign Language. Oxford University press: London, 1992. Dieckmann, Herbert. Philosophy and literature in the 18th century France. Paris: Penn State University Press, 1971. Donald, Kagan. Western heritage. London: Prentice Hall, 2010. Dynes, Russell R. The dialogue between Voltaire and Rousseau on the Lisbon Earthquake. New York : Princeton Publishers, 1999. Grobe, Edwin P. Discontinuous Aspects in Voltaire's Candide. London: The John Hopkins University Press, 1967. Mason, H.T. The Modern Language Review. London: Oxford university Press, 1970. Read More