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Plot
Summary
By
Michael J. Cummings...©
2004
........There
once lived in Westphalia, in the castle of the Baron of Thunder-ten-tronck,
a boy endowed with a gentle disposition. His name, Candide–meaning
pure
and sincere–reflected his amiability and innocence. According to the
castle’s servants, he was the son of the baron’s sister and a good and
honest man of the neighborhood. The baron’s sister decided not to marry
the man because he could not prove that he had descended from more than
71 generations of nobility.
........The
baron was one of the most important lords of the district, for his castle
had windows, a door, and a tapestry in a hall. Because his wife was a woman
of substance, weighing 350 pounds, she was highly respected. The baron
and baroness had their own son, Maximilian, and a daughter, a beautifully
plump young lady named Cunégonde.
........The
sage of the household was Dr. Pangloss, a thinker of great thoughts who
tutored the children. He instilled in them a powerful axiom: This is the
best of all possible worlds. Because it is the best world, everything in
it happens for the best even if it appears to be bad. Everything has a
reason for its existence–a good reason–even noses and stones and pigs.
Noses support spectacles; stones build castles; the meat of pigs feeds
people.
 ........One
day, while strolling in woods near the castle, Cunégonde observes
Pangloss conducting a scientific experiment on her mother’s pretty chambermaid,
Paquette. How interesting it would be, Cunégonde thought, to have
Candide experiment with her. After dinner the following day, she drops
her handkerchief and Candide picks it up. Behind a screen, he kisses her
hand. Their lips meet. They tremble with love for each other. But the baron
discovers them and sends Candide packing. Cunégonde faints. When
she comes to, the baroness slaps her. But, of course, all is for the best
in the best of all possible worlds. Only good can come from this turn of
events.
Soldiers Arrest Candide
........Candide
roams the countryside. When he arrives tired, hungry, and cold in the nearby
town of Waldberghoff-trarb-dikdorff, two Bulgars clap him in irons, haul
him off to their regiment, and teach him to march, shoot, and take beatings.
One day, after he wanders off innocently, four Bulgars catch up with him,
arrest him, throw him in a dungeon, and offer him this choice: Run the
gauntlet thirty-six times through the regiment’s two thousand soldiers
or be shot twelve times in the head. Candide chooses the gauntlet. After
two passes through, he is half-dead–all the skin ripped from his back–and
he requests to be shot. But before the soldiers can grant his wish, the
Bulgar King happens by and pardons Candide, believing him ignorant of the
ways of the world. A surgeon treats Candide, and in three weeks new skin
begins to grow.
........When
war breaks out between the Bulgars and Avars, Candide hides while canons,
rifles, and bayonets cut down thirty thousand men. Wondering what good
will come of the carnage–for this is the best of all possible worlds and
everything happens for a reason–Candide steals off to think. After climbing
over acres of bodies, he comes to a burned-out village where brains strew
the ground and the moans of the dying fill the air. He plods on to another
burned-out village and eventually arrives in Holland. There, people scold
him for begging. An orator preaching charity calls him a wretch who deserves
no food. However, an Anabaptist named James takes him in, provides him
beer and bread, and gives him two florins.
........“This
is indeed the best of all possible worlds, as Dr. Pangloss said,” Candide
thinks.
........
The next day, Candide gives his money to a disease-ridden beggar who spits
up a tooth every time he coughs. The beggar turns out to be Pangloss. After
Candide takes him to the Anabaptist for food, Pangloss tells Candide that
the Bulgars disemboweled Cunégonde, cracked the baron’s skull, cut
the baroness to pieces, killed Maximilian and the baron’s livestock, and
destroyed the castle. Candide asks how, in this best of all possible worlds,
Pangloss contracted such a hideous disease. He got it, he says, from the
baroness’s chambermaid, Paquette. But the disease is not without its good
points, for it infected Columbus–and he brought back riches from the New
World.
........After
Candide begs James to help Pangloss, James takes the doctor in and pays
for his medical treatment. Pangloss recovers after suffering the loss of
only an eye and an ear. James then hires him as a bookkeeper and takes
him and Candide on a business trip to Lisbon, Portugal. During their sea
voyage, James falls overboard and drowns, and the ship sinks. Candide and
Pangloss ride a plank to shore. After their arrival, an earthquake strikes,
leveling most of the city and killing thirty thousand residents. Inquisitionists
arrest Candide and Pangloss and offer them as sacrifices in a ritual designed
to prevent future natural disasters. Pangloss is hanged, and Candide is
flogged.
........“If
this is the best of all possible worlds,” Candide wonders, “what must the
other worlds be like?”
Cunégonde
Still Alive
........When
an aftershock strikes, Candide escapes with an old woman who says, “Follow
me.” In a hovel, she gives him food, treats his wounds, and lets him sleep.
Two days later, she takes him to a house outside town, leaves him a gilded
room uptstairs, and returns later with a woman wearing jewels and a veil.
When the old woman instructs him to remove the woman’s veil, he discovers
none other than Cunégonde. She had not died after all. Candide is
ecstatic.
........Cunégonde
tells him that the Bulgars had slaughtered her father, mother, and brother
and raped and stabbed her, but she managed to survive as a prisoner of
war. After three months, she was sold to Don Issachar, a Jew, who conducted
business in Holland and Portugal.
........“It
was he who established me here, in this country house,” she says.
........When
the leader of the Inquisition noticed her one day in town, he wanted her
for himself and forced Don Issachar to share her with him on alternate
days of the week.
........After
she concludes her story, Don Issachar arrives. It is his day to claim Cunégonde.
In a rage, Candide kills him. Then, after midnight, the inquisition leader
arrives and Candide kills him with the same sword. Fearing retaliation,
Candide, Cunégonde, and the old woman take jewels and money, saddle
three horses in the stable, and ride to Cadiz. There, a fleet prepares
to sail for South America, where Jesuit
priests are inciting natives to rebel against the kings of Spain and Portugal.
Thanks to his military skills, Candide gets a job as a captain, and he
and the two women are received aboard the ship.
........On
the voyage, Candide regains the optimism that Dr. Pangloss instilled in
him and observes that the new world they are going to will be a good world–the
best of all possible worlds. Meanwhile, the old woman tells the story of
her life. It is a tale of heartbreak and suffering in which a scheming
wench poisons the man she is to marry, pirates abduct and ravish her, and
warfare and slavery bring her to the brink of suicide. After enduring abuse
all over the world, she finally enters the service of Don Issachar and
entwines her fate with Cunégonde’s.
........When
the ship arrives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the governor ogles Cunégonde
and announces plans to marry her. The old woman, saying Cunégonde
hasn’t a penny to her name, urges the girl to accept the governor’s offer.
At that moment, another ship enters the harbor. Aboard are agents of the
Inquisition who have been following Candide. They plan to arrest him for
the murder of their leader. Candide flees to Paraguay with a valet, Cacambo.
There, they encounter Jesuit soldier priests at war with Spaniards. When
Candide meets the commandant, he discovers that the priest is none other
Cunégonde’s brother, Maximilian, who had not been killed by the
Bulgars after all. Candide informs Maximilian that his sister, Cunégonde,
is also alive.
Candide Fights Maximilian
........Father
Maximilian then explains how he survived and how he came to be a Jesuit
priest and army colonel assigned to Paraguay. He and Candide get along
well. However, when Candide says he plans to marry Cunégonde, Maximilian
turns on him, saying he is not worthy to marry a woman who is the product
of 72 generations of nobility. They draw swords. Candide kills Maximilian.
Candide and Cacambo flee and–thanks to the quick-thinking of Cacambo, who
dresses Candide in the dead Jesuit’s robes–pass out of Jesuit country unnoticed
and into terra incognita inhabited by fierce people known as Oreillons,
who eat Jesuits. Cacambo informs them that Candide is merely disguised
as a Jesuit, and the Oreillons send emissaries to verify the story. When
the emissaries return and report that Candide is indeed not a Jesuit, the
Oreillons treat their visitors to food and drink and escort them out of
their territory.
........Heading
down a river, they arrive at the land of Eldorado, where children play
games with emeralds and rubies. Gold is as commonplace as pebbles and rocks.
Villagers treat them to a feast consisting of a two-hundred pound condor,
roast monkeys, hummingbirds, soups, stews, pastries, and liqueurs. Apologizing
for the meagerness of the meal, their host tells them that this is a poor
village, by Eldorado standards. They later visit the modest home of 172-year-old
Eldorado man. Attesting to its humbleness are its silver door, its gold
walls, and an antechamber made of emeralds and rubies. The old man then
provides them transportation to the realm of the king. There they are welcomed
and taken on a tour of the king’s city, where they see cloud-scraping buildings,
squares paved with jewels, and fountains flowing with sweet liqueurs.
........Candide
and Cacambo spend a month in the king’s palace. The king wonders why his
guests seem so fond of such trivialities as yellow mud (gold) and common
stones (jewels) but tells them to take all they want. After three thousand
engineers construct a machine that will hoist Candide and Cacambo out of
the country, the two men climb on with eighty sheep weighted down with
gold, gems, and provender and ride over the mountains to a new land.
........On
the journey, two sheep sink in a swamp, seven or eight die of hunger in
a desert, and others fall off cliffs. The lesson here, Cacambo tells Candide,
is that material wealth does not last; only love and other noble virtues
endure. When they arrive in the Dutch possession of Surinam, a Negro tells
them a sad tale of how natives are exploited as they work sugar plantations,
and Candide–moved to tears–renounces Pangloss’s philosophy of optimism,
at least momentarily. With some of his dwindling gems, he buys passage
back to Europe and hires a scholar named Martin to accompany him. Cacambo
is to go to Buenos Aires to pick up Cunégonde and then meet Candide
in Venice.
........Candide
and Martin experience perilous adventures in France before traveling to
England, where they witness the execution of an admiral for an abominable
crime–he hadn’t killed enough men during a battle with the French. They
then travel to Venice to rendezvous with Cacambo. During their search for
him, they chance upon Paquette, the comely maid who was the subject of
Pangloss’s experiments in the baron’s castle in Westphalia. She had been
kicked out of the castle for promiscuous behavior shortly after Candide
was forced out for his advances toward Cunégonde. After hearing
her tale, they visit a Venetian nobleman and continue to search for Cacambo.
Weeks pass before they finally happen upon him at an inn. Cacambo tells
Candide that Cunégonde is in Constantinople.
........Candide
is down to two sheep–but still fabulously rich. After seeing a masquerade
staged at the inn by five kings, Candide, Cacambo, and Martin leave for
Constantinople. Candide regains his optimism, saying, “All is for the best.”
........Upon
arriving in the vicinity of Constantinople, they book passage on a galley
to search for Cunégonde along the shore of the Sea of Marmara. Wonder
of wonders, two of the galley slaves rowing the ship are Pangloss, who
slipped out of the noose during his hanging, and Maximilian, who was cured
by an apothecary of the wound inflicted by Candide. Both had ended up in
Constantinople through adventures of their own.
Cunégonde
Changes
........They
find Cunégonde with the old woman–the one who accompanied Candide
to South America–at the house of the Prince of Transylvania. Cunégonde
has grown ugly and slovenly. The old woman suggests that they purchase
a farm nearby and live there while there lot in life improves. When Candide
announces that he still plans to marry Cunégonde despite her ugliness,
Maximilian objects, as before, saying his sister must not marry below her
station. Candide, Cacambo, Martin, and Pangloss plot against Maximilian,
deciding to return him to the galley temporarily as a slave and then to
Jesuits in Rome permanently. Carrying out this scheme further depletes
Candide’s money; in fact, no assets remain but the farm.
........Over
time, Cunégonde and the old woman turn peevish and overbearing.
Cacambo withers under his work load, and Pangloss pines for the glory of
teaching in a German university. Martin realizes that life is the same
everywhere–miserable–and he bides his time. Then Paquette arrives with
a cleric, Brother Geroflée, with whom she had been keeping company.
They, too, are disillusioned with life. They all decide to call upon a
dervish to ask him why there is so much misery and evil in the world and
what they should do to improve their lives. After the dervish tells them
simply to “remain quiet,” Pangloss says he would like to discuss philosophy
with him, including the essence of the soul, the origin of evil, and the
idea that the world they live in is the best of all possible worlds. The
dervish slams his door on them.
........On
their way back to their farm, an old man who grows fruit with the help
of two daughters and two sons invites them into his home for beverages
and oranges, limes, lemons, apples, and coffee. He tells them that working
the land prevents him and his family from falling into poverty, crime,
and boredom.
........Candide
and Pangloss conclude that man was born to labor gainfully. They all then
work the farm, cook, embroider, build, and bring in bumper crops. Pangloss
observes that all the events leading up to their success with the farm
prove that this is the best of all possible worlds after all.
........Candide
agrees, saying, “We need to cultivate our garden.”
..
Setting
.
The
mid-18th Century in Europe, South America, and the city of Constantinople
and its environs. Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) is partly in Europe
and partly in Asia.
Main
Characters
.
Candide
A naive, gullible youth who is blind to the evils of the world. His name,
derived from the Latin candidus, means pure, sincere, white.
Candide is the novel's protagonist.
Dr.
Pangloss A philosopher and tutor of Candide. He insists that earth
is the best of all possible worlds. He represents the philosophy of Leibniz.
(See Theme 1, below.)
Cunégonde
A young woman loved by Candide and ill-used by others. She is shallow and
featherbrained.
Cacambo
Candide’s guide in South America. He is resourceful and down-to-earth in
contrast to Pangloss.
Martin
Pessimistic but intelligent travel companion of Candide.
Old
Woman Servant of Cunégonde who accompanies Candide to South
America. Although she has suffered many injustices, she is a survivor who
always perseveres.
James
(Jacques) Benevolent Dutch Anabaptist who helps Candide.
Paquette
Pretty maid of Cunégonde’s mother. Pangloss takes advantage of her–and
contracts syphilis.
Maximilian
Brother of Cunégonde who believes Candide, because of his background,
is unworthy to marry Cunégonde.
.
Title
.
The
complete title of Candide is Candide, ou L’Optimisme (Candide,
or Optimism). Although the title page says the book was translated
from German by Doctor Ralph, it was written by Voltaire in French, and
there was no Doctor Ralph. Voltaire fabricated this information in an apparent
attempt to fool censors on the lookout for iconoclastic works by Voltaire.
.
..
.
Type
of Work and Style
.
Candide,
probably written in 1758 and published in 1759, is a novel of satire, irony,
sarcasm, and hyperbole. Candide has also been identified by the
French term conte philosophique, meaning philosophical novel or
philosophical story, a genre Voltaire is credited with inventing. His contes
philosophiques (which also include Micromégas and Zadig)
are characterized by a “swift-moving adventure story in which characterization
[counts] for little and the moral (or sometimes immoral) lesson for much”
(Brumfitt, J.H. Voltaire: Candide. Oxford, England: Oxford
University Press, 1968, Page 9.) Voltaire’s sentences are brief and sharp
as a burr. Modern English speakers studying French will find that the original
text is easy to understand (although translating it is not so easy because
of the subtlety and power of Voltaire’s wit). The narrative moves at lightning
speed. However, because Voltaire sustains his rapid-fire presentation of
details throughout the novel and resorts again and again to irony, hyperbole,
and sarcasm for effect–couched in the same sentence patterns–his style
becomes tedious and onerous at times. Admirers of Voltaire–and they are
legion–will fiercely dispute this viewpoint, maintaining that Candide
is a masterpiece from beginning to end..
.
.
..
Themes
.
Theme
1 The naiveté of optimism in a cruel, corrupt, and bellicose
world. In developing this theme, Voltaire satirizes the philosophy
of Gottfried
Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716) and his disciple, Christian Wolff (1679-1754),
the philosopher and mathematician who popularized this philosophy.
Theme
2 Bigotry, superstition, tyranny, intolerance, and suppression of
the truth are among the chief evils of the world. Voltaire uses razor-edge
wit to mock the practitioners of these evils. Ironically, however, he himself
suppresses the truth. For example, while deriding abuses of the Society
of Jesus (Jesuits)–an order of Roman Catholic priests–he selectively
manipulates the facts, depicting every Jesuit as a reprobate. In truth,
many Jesuits died horrible deaths in noble causes. For example, Isaac Jogues
(1607-1646), a French Jesuit missionary who ministered to North American
Indians, was captured and murdered by Mohawk Indians, who displayed his
head on a pole, after he attempted to end hostilities between the French
and the Indians. Francis Xavier (1506-1552), a Spanish Jesuit who spread
Christianity in the Malay Archipelago, the Spice Islands, India, and Japan,
was considered a selfless man, dedicated to serving the poor. Rather than
imposing his ways on native populations, he adopted their ways.
Theme
3 Although men claim to respect and honor women, they ill use them
at every opportunity. All of the major female characters in Candide
are raped and treated cruelly by male overseers.
Theme
4 Catastrophes belie the view of optimists that every event occurs
for a good reason as part of a divine plan. In Chapter V of Candide,
the description of an earthquake and its aftermath is based on accounts
of the powerful earthquake that occurred in Lisbon, Portugal, at 9:40 a.m.
on Nov. 1, 1755. It killed 60,000 people, according to some estimates,
and caused fires that burned for nearly a week.
Theme
5 Unremitting pessimism is as bad as unremitting optimism. Both
positions have no effect on the status quo. It is the status quo that Voltaire
attacks in Candide.
Theme
6 “We must cultivate our garden.” (Il faut cultiver notre jardin.)
These final words of the novel express the moral of Voltaire’s novel: Human
beings must work diligently to survive in this world and improve the status
quo.
.
Voltaire’s
Education and Religion
.
Voltaire
received an excellent education in Paris at the College of Louis le Grand,
operated by the Jesuits–the
same Roman Catholic priests he ridiculed in Candide. Voltaire later
renounced Roman Catholicism in favor of deism, a religion that posited
the existence of a God who created the universe but remained detached from
it. Deists believed that knowledge of God was inborn and could be summoned
through the application of reason. They therefore rejected revealed religion
and Christian churches. Although atheists admire and frequently quote the
works of Voltaire, Voltaire himself was never an atheist. He once remarked,
“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” (Si Dieu
n’existait pas, il faudrait l’inventer.)
Who
Was Leibniz?
Gottfried
Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was a brilliant mathematician, philosopher,
and all-around thinker who received a law degree at the University of Leipzig.
A devout Lutheran, Leibniz contended that earth is the best world possible
inasmuch as it was created by a benevolent, omniscient, all-powerful God.
It was this idea that Voltaire mercilessly satirized in Candide.
Leibniz also contended that nothing happens without a good reason. Voltaire
ridicules Leibniz and his philosophy as simple-minded and unrealistic,
refusing to recognize any logic–there was much–in the position of Leibniz.
In Candide, Dr. Pangloss represents Leibniz, observing, “Tout est
pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes possible.” ("All is for the best
in the best of possible worlds.”) The reputation of Leibniz continues to
suffer under the crush of Voltaire’s wit even though Leibniz was an original
thinker who was a more versatile scholar than Voltaire. Besides making
his mark in philosophy, Leibniz pioneered the development of integral and
differential calculus and greatly furthered the science of dynamics, which
focuses on motion and its causes: force, energy, mass, and momentum. Leibniz
also promoted the development of academies and made significant contributions
in theology, politics, diplomacy, law, history, and philology.
.
Study
Questions and Essay Topics
-
Pangloss, who represents the
German philosopher Leibniz, persistently maintains that "this is the best
of all possible worlds." Write a short, satirical essay about a public
figure in your community who is overly optimistic.
-
To what extent does an optimistic
outlook improve or impair society? To what extent does a pessimistic outlook
improve or impair society?
-
Which television news organizations
in America and Britain (for example, NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, BBC, CNN) tend
to present a Panglossian view of the world? Which news organizations tend
to present a pessimistic view of the world? Which news organization tend
to present an objective, balanced view of the world?
-
With whom would you rather spend
an afternoon, Voltaire or Leibniz. Explain your answer.
-
Voltaire became a deist. In
a comparison/contrast essay, explain the difference between deistic view
of God and the traditional Catholic or Protestant view of God.
-
On his adventures, Candide visits
a place in South America called El Dorado, whose streets are paved with
gold. Spanish explorers actually searched for such a place in South America.
Research the legend of El Dorado, then write an informative essay about
it.
-
Are there any characters in
Candide
who reject the view of Pangloss and see life as it is?
-
If you were to write a book
like Candide, which attitudes, customs, political views, and religious
beliefs in today's world would you satirize?
Free
Texts
Complete
Text of Candide: Online Library of Literature
Complete
Text of Candide: Online Books
Complete
Text of The Monadology, by Leibniz: Online Books
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