Voltaire’s Candide Essay, Research Paper
“All is Not for the Best”
10-K
Candide
Voltaire’s Candide is the story of an innocent man’s experiences in a mad and evil world, his
struggle to survive in that world, and his need to ultimately come to terms with it. All people
experience the turmoil of life and must overcome obstacles, both natural and man-made, in order to
eventually achieve happiness. In life, “man must find a medium between what Martin (scholar and
companion to Candide) calls the “convulsions of anxiety” and the “lethargy of boredom”" (Richter
137). After a long and difficult struggle in which Candide is forced to overcome misfortune to find
happiness, he concludes that all is not well (as he has previously been taught by his tutor, Dr.
Pangloss), and that he must work in order to find even a small amount of pleasure in life.
Candide grows up in the Castle of Westphalia and is taught by the learned philosopher, Dr.
Pangloss. Candide is abruptly exiled from the castle when found kissing the Baron’s daughter,
Cunegonde. Devastated by the separation from Cunegonde, his true love, Candide sets out to different
places in the hope of finding her and achieving total happiness. On his journey, he faces a number of
misfortunes, among them being tortured during army training, yet he continues to believe that there is a
“cause and effect” for everything. Candide is reunited with Cunegonde, and regains a life of prosperity,
but soon all is taken away, including his beloved Cunegonde. He travels on, and years later he finds her
again, but she is now fat and ugly. His wealth is all gone and so is his love for the Baron’s daughter.
Throughout Candide, we see how accepting situations and not trying to change or overcome obstacles
can be damaging. Life is full of struggles, but it would be nonproductive if people passively accepted
whatever fate had in store for them, shrugging off their personal responsibility. Voltaire believes that
people should not allow themselves to be victims. He sneers at naive, accepting types, informing us
that people must work to reach their utopia (Bottiglia 93).
In Candide, reality and “the real world” are portrayed as being disappointing. Within the
Baron’s castle, Candide is able to lead a Utopian life. After his banishment, though, he recognizes the
evil of the world, seeing man’s sufferings. The only thing that keeps Candide alive is his hope that
things will get better. Even though the world is filled with disaster, Candide has an optimistic attitude
that he adopted from Dr. Pangloss’ teachings. In spite of his many trials, Candide believes that all is
well and everything is for the best. Only once, in frustration, does he admit that he sometimes feels that
optimism is “the mania of maintaining that all is well when we are miserable” (Voltaire 41). Candide’s
enthusiastic view of life is contrasted with, and challenged by the suffering which he endures
throughout the book. Voltaire wrote this book in a mocking and satirical manner in order to express
his opinion that passive optimism is foolish (Richter 134).
Candide eventually learns how to achieve happiness in the face of misadventure. He learns that
in order to attain a state of contentment, one must be part of society where there is collective effort and
work. Labor, Candide learns, eliminates the three curses of mankind: want, boredom, and vice. In
order to create such a society, man must do the following: love his fellow man, be just, be vigilant,
know how to make the best of a bad situation and keep from theorizing. Martin expresses this last
requirement for such a society succinctly when he says, “Let’s work without speculating; it’s the only
way of rendering life bearable” (Voltaire 77).
One of the last people that Candide meets in his travels is an old, poor Turkish farmer who
teaches Candide a lesson which allows him to come to terms with the world and to settle down
happily. The revelation occurs when Candide and his friends hear of the killing of two intimate
advisors of the sultan, and they ask the Turkish farmer if he could give them more details about the
situation.
“I know nothing of it, said the good man, and I have never cared to know
the name of a single mufti [advisor] or vizier [sultan]… I presume that in general those who
meddle in public business sometimes perish miserably, and that they deserve their fate; but I am
satisfied with sending the fruits of my garden there.” (Voltaire 76)
Upon learning that this man did not own “an enormous and splendid property” (Voltaire 76), but rather
a mere twenty acres that he cultivates with his children, Candide is startled. He sees that the man is
happy with his life, and at that point Candide decides to build his own life around the principal of being
productive. He decides that all he needs to be happy is a garden to cultivate so that he, too, can keep
from the three great evils.
Candide’s garden symbolizes his surrender to the world and his acceptance of it. He eventually
realizes that his former ambitions of finding and achieving a perfect state of happiness were fulfilled,
though his successes were not as great as he had wished. Instead, he has found happiness in a simple
way of life. He also learns that everything in life is not evil, which he perceived to be the case while
undergoing misfortunes. He also concludes that Dr. Pangloss was right all along, “everything is for the
best.”
Throughout the entire book, we observe Candide searching for happiness, sustained by his
dream of achieving that happiness. He believes, in his optimistic way, that he will find Cunegonde, his
true love, and Dr. Pangloss, his mentor, and all will be well. When Candide is reunited with both he
realizes that he was right not to lose hope. In essence, it was Candide’s optimism that keeps him from a
state of total dejection, maintaining his sanity during troubled times. Candide eventually achieves
happiness with his friends in their simple, yet full, lives. The book’s ending affirms Voltaire’s moral that
one must work to attain satisfaction. Work helps Candide overcome his tragedies and enables him to
live peacefully and in contentment. The message of Candide is: “Don’t rationalize, but work; Don’t
utopianize, but improve. We must cultivate our own garden, for no one is going to do it for us”
(Richter 161).
Bottiglia, William. “Candide’s Garden.” Voltaire: A Collection of Critical Essays. New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968.
Richter, Peyton. Voltaire. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980.
Tsanoff, Radoslav. Voltaire’s Candide and the Critics. California: Wadsworth Publishing
Company, Inc., 1966.
Voltaire. Candide. New York: Viking Publishers, 1976.