Philosophy Meets Desire

In Voltaire's story Candide, the whole plot and scheme of things is about philosophy, and desire. In the beginning Candide learns from his mentor,Pangloss, that life has a certain meaning. Candide absorbed Pangloss's lectures and took to heart what he was taught; "that there cannot possibly be an effect without a cause" (Voltaire 521). When Candide encounters horrible and devastating events, does he throw his hands up and lament? No. He keeps strong to his beliefs. However, throughout Candide's travels he continues to see things through naive eyes. He stay firm to his dream of being with Cunegonde. When Candide stumbles across a city called Eldorado, which is extremely wealthy and loaded riches, he finds it hard to believe. During his duration there he realizes that this place could be the best place for him. He recalls the wisdom bestowed upon him by Pangloss and ponders; "[t]his probably is the country where everything is for the best; for it's absolutely necessary that such a country should exist somewhere" (Voltaire 548). Oh really? Then why does Candide leave? He desires this "best of all possible worlds" with his Cunegonde (Voltaire 521). For this reason he cannot exist without her. Even though he has no way of knowing her current status or situation he is willing to go to great lengths just to full fill his desire. However, throughout this story Candide seems almost on the brink of happiness, yet he keeps having the carpet pulled out from under his feet. Does he through in the towel and call it quits? No. He strongly believes what he was taught by his beloved Pangloss.

Modern-day Satire in Song Deemed "Offensive"

Read Professor Piscitelli's blog about a recent incident regarding a satirical song he wrote. Do you wonder why Swift and Voltaire took such pains to create an "over-the-top" satire?

http://stevepiscitelli.wordpress.com/2010/09/05/offensive-or-remarkable/

Continued Theme...

In this reading of Voltaire, the differences between men and women are still heavily looked at. Yet in this story it is from a woman’s point of view instead of a man’s in which the other readings were told from. “The Old Woman,” starts as a back ground character, only nursing Candide but shortly is the one telling a story of her own. With all the women that she speaks about, she never once says anything bad, no matter the circumstance. She portrays herself almost as perfect, stating; “I grew in beauty, in charm, in talent, surrounded by pleasures, dignities, and glowing visions of the future. Already I was inspiring the young men to love;” (Voltaire 535). As she goes on she tells of the women that dressed and undressed her, how they would “fall into ecstasies” (535). She seems a bit conceited, but in all the women she details, they are pretty ladies, without mentioning flaws. Completely contrary to how men would have described a woman during that time, which would be viewed as ignorant, uneducated, and useless. She tells about how men mistreated them, by raping them and such. So men are still portrayed as stronger and in charge, despite their actions. But this is partially to her upbeat, positive attitude of even the worst things.

Many Contrasts

Many contrasts were found in my reading of Voltaire's, Candide. Good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, weak vs. strong, optimism vs. reality are a few. Candide was though of as a mild, well mannered man , so he was viewed as a weak man of low social status and even considered naive. As Candide lives life he becomes well versed in worldy knowledge, death and destruction. Candide realizes all things were not as his tutor, a follower of Leibniz doctrine, named Pangloss had taught him.
Pangloss taught Optimisim and this had help shelter Candides life even more. The evil and disasters of the world had begun to confuse Candide and made him slightly doubt the doctrine of cause and effect taught by Pangloss. The doctrine teaches that there cannot be an effect without a cause.That in the best off all possible worldsthe Baron's castle was the best of all castyles and his wife was best of all possible Barneses.Pangloss stated,"It is clear that things cannot be otherwise than they are, for since everything is made to serve an end, everything necessarily serves the best end"(Voltaire 521). Pangloss tried to explain noses were made for eye glasses so we have eye glasses. Candide then tries to justify within himself the evils when attacks on Leibnizian optmism occur.
I look at Voltaire's story of Candide as a story of only the strong survive. You have to learn from your hard knocks in life and use those lessons to grow and become stonger for survival. I believe Candide thought more this way at the end of the story and believed less in optimisim. Most of Candide discuss various forms of evil and the evil turns away his optimisim The many harsh situations Candide found himself in made him strong. He was beaten, lashed, witnessed much death and destruction from earth quakes to wars to a drowning of a friend .
The worldly evils in Candide were based on real historical events. The Seven year war, the death and destruction caused by the 1775 Lisbon earthquake to name a few made the writeings of Voltaire more solid and made you ponder on what his real meaning was in useing truth instead of fiction. This truth when applied to Candide caught him in still attempting to stay optimistic while having to deal in his mind the problem of good vs. evil.
Pangloss argured that all happenings were for the best but the Anabaptist and friend Jacques made a good arguement that had to make optimisim take a small step backward. Jacques thoughts were, "It must be that men have corrupted nature, for they are not born as wolves, yet that is what they become"(Voltaire 526). Candide felt this way also as he lost hope for the rest of mankind and changed his optimistic thinking. The world disasters brought forth the truth that if this were the best possible world. then it should be better than it is.

The Best of All Possible What?

I consider myself an optimist, but I do not think I could remain so if I led the life of any of the characters in Voltaire’s Candide. The horrors that they all went through would test even the toughest of all souls. But the matter of contention here is this: why keep the optimism? We all know that Voltaire has a problem with optimism and is letting everyone know about with the character Pangloss who has been diseased, almost hanged, dissected and imprisoned but stays on the bright side of life by justifying everything that happens. He even goes so far to claim that “the bay of Lisbon had been formed expressly for the Anabaptist to drown in” to justify not saving him (Voltaire 527). Think of how ridiculous it is for someone to think that a bay was formed expressly for the purpose of drowning one man? Or did he merely say it to justify not trying to save him at all? But, we do see Candide’s optimism waver when he says “It is mania for saying things are well when one is in hell” (552). He finally sees that maybe when things are bad, they are just bad. I understand that when things go bad maybe it is better to look on the brighter side things, but when it clouds your mind so you cannot see the truth it can be more of a hindrance to you than a benefit. Maybe if Candide would have thought about things more instead of being so naïve. He might not have had all of the horrors in his life because he would have been a little more cautious.

Using Ignorance to Enlighten?

In reading Voltaire’s Candide, I think it is very interesting the contrasts between Candide and everyone who he meets. Candide is presented as being very naive, but not simple, he is trusting and lacks an understanding of deceit, but is capable of learning through his experiences. During his stay at the castle of Thunder-Ten-Tronckh, Candide is educated by Pangloss, and is taught “. . . that things cannot be otherwise than they are, for since everything is made to serve an end, everything necessarily serves the best end” (Voltaire 521), and through the majority of the play Candide is shown as trying to reconcile that teaching he was brought up to believe, with the reality of the world.

As Candide matures and is subject to continual misfortune, he slowly loses his naivety and comes to the realization that not all was as he was taught. When he and Cacambo find Eldorado after a continual chain of mishaps, he reasons that “. . . whatever Master Pangloss said of the matter, I have often had occasion to notice that things went badly in Westphalia” (Voltaire 548). Through Candide’s adventures and his nature of taking things at face value, Voltaire shows us the many inconsistencies between what was envisioned as ideal, and what society actually produced. Voltaire’s extensive satire leaves almost no one untouched, and in that I think that he is trying to demonstrate that almost anything taken to an extreme can become foolish. I also think that a lot of the meaning and import of Candide’s message ties in with Immanuel Kant’s philosophical ideas that emerged not long after Candide was written.

Have We Moved Past the Past?

Today in class, I showed the following SNL skit that ran during the 2008 presidential election:  Sarah Palin/Hillary Clinton Skit (in case you missed it or in case you wanted to see it again).

What a  great discussion about how women have been represented in the literature of the Enlightenment Period. Both women were satirized in this skit because of their sexuality (or lack thereof), their education (or lack thereof), their beauty (you get the picture), and their "feminine" behaviors.

Curious to see where this takes us in Candide, for sure, but also in the literature that we have left to read.