Candide

... Dorado optimistically proposes that human beings are capable of creating a just, peaceful society. However, El Dorado is suggested as a false hope of optimism for Candide, for no true happiness can occur if he is not with Cunégonde. El Doaradian happiness is based around its idleness and isn't a true ... that Martin was correct. Pococurante, though very wealth and has accumulated large amounts of art and books still is quite unhappy. Every attempt by Candide to show Martin that Pococurante was happy fail as the Venetian detests most of his valuable possessions: his music, his books, hi...

• Word Count: 1904
• Approx Pages: 8

... have spectacles. Legs were visibly instituted to be breeched, and we have breeches.""(p.4) Even though these ideas can be considered illogical in real life. Candide and the rest of the people living in the Baron's castle never questioned the validity of Pangloss' philosophy. Maybe their conformity was due to a ... Although it was obvious that ! the Baron was powerful, the doors and windows of his castle have nothing to do with the Baron's power. Candide was obviously nave, but so were most of the characters in the story, since they didn't bother to question Pangloss' philosophy either. Vo...

• Word Count: 2153
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

... and ultimately, self-gratification. Perhaps the most significant reflection Voltaire satirizes is the philosophical optimism of Baron Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz, a very popular and sought-after German philosopher. Candide mocks Leibniz's beliefs in the form of Dr. Pangloss's visitation and optimistic belief that "everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds." In the story ... as a means of revealing Voltaire's rebellion against such an attitude. Voltaire hated optimism and parodied it efficiently and brilliantly though Pangloss's character he specifically created for ...

• Word Count: 2236
• Approx Pages: 9

... out good for them, but then something turns out awful for them. This book shows what despair and happiness really means through the characters experiences. Candide starts off in the beginning of the book with not much knowledge except for the knowledge Pangloss gave him. Pangloss, the castle's tutor, was an ... would always have someone who would help him or he would have some good outcome that would keep him alive and in high spirits. Candide had much anguish throughout the book from the beginning to the end, but always managed to have some good fortune and be happy. At ... a slave aga...

• Word Count: 1628
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... the church, atheism, and uncertainty. The bodies in which these philosophies take shape in are Pangloss as optimism, Martin and the world as pessimism, and Candide as the uncertainty. This uncertainty is also a representation of a person entering the world for the very first time, as John Locke had called it, ... with a Portuguese- (76). This man's name was Martin, and ultimately became the embodiment of pessimism for the rest of the book. Martin and Candide then make their way out to sea. They speak of many things including optimism and pessimism and the existence of God. Their conversa...

• Word Count: 1490
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... destruction of the castle of the Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh and the apparent death of the family. Although devastated by the loss of his love Cunegonde, Candide manages to keep his belief in optimism. Pangloss aides his belief by stating that he has caught a venereal disease that can be traced back to ... the Americas, but he believes that it is okay due to his belief in optimism. He explains to Candide, ". . . it's an indispensable part of the best of worlds a necessary ingredient; if Columbus in an island of America had not caught the disease, ... another 140 years. The Book of Job con...

• Word Count: 2219
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

... religion. He also shows the importance of education, reason, and science throughout the book, which are two very important Enlightenment ideas. Candide goes through several experiences with the military that are unsettling to him. Voltaire shows his hatred of religion throughout the novel and the ... only place where religion exists is in the perfect world of Eldorado. Candide's first unpleasant encounter with war/military comes in Waldberghoff-trarbk-dikdorff. He in encountered by two men who notice him by saying "Comrade ... him. A major part of the Enlightenment was science. Through ...

• Word Count: 969
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... happiness. The American and state governments give all American citizens access to free will and the chance to work towards their own personal version of joy. Candide's final statement, "but let us cultivate our garden" can be interpreted as secular salvation through work," means happiness can only be found when one ... Cunegonde, but a busy life on a farm, kept occupied by literally cultivating a physical garden. If he had not lost Cunegonde to begin with, Candide would have never persevered through the hardships that allowed him to obtain the pure joy he feels at the end of the novel....

• Word Count: 887
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... be considered as a bleak story where main characters compare life stories to distinguish whose life is worse. Just when you think this novel cannot get anymore depressing, it does. While Candide is generally considered a universal castigation, it is optimism that Voltaire is attacking. However, there are several other humorously critical themes throughout this novel worth talking about. These themes of mockery ... aristocratic snobbery, religious intolerance, militarism, and human nature. There is plausible reason to why Voltaire was so disgusted with optimism, or more particularly, Leibn...

• Word Count: 1624
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School