SCRIBBLE
CANDIDE by Amy Watton
U
pon first reading Candide, I immediately dubbed it a vague ‘big ideas novel’ because I’ll be frank, it’s not a book I would read for the sake of reading: it’s a book I would read because I would be subjected to studying it, specifically, exploring the philosophy of optimism and a theory prominent in the age of enlightenment (hence the time it was written, 1759). Whilst not initially enjoying the style of writing, the general plot and the very flat characters, I came to appreciate Candide a lot more after mulling it over in my head for a few months. Fortunately, time during lockdown allowed me to go beyond my Pinterest-level questioning and philosophising, and scrape just the surface of the ‘big ideas’ in this novel. Voltaire wrote this book with the intention of making a mockery of philosophical optimism, and he constructs an entire character (Pangloss), to satirize the ideas of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz who “believed that the world was perfect and that all evil in it was simply a means to a greater good.” 1. Essentially, we are apparently living in ‘the best of all possible worlds’. So, Pangloss’ absurd justification of living the best of all possible worlds being, “noses are made to wear spectacles, and so we wear spectacles” just strikes readers as something inherently detached from reality. Voltaire ridiculed this idea further through constructing a literal journey for his main characters in order to “systematically poking holes in the theory” 2. To create the mocking and satirical nature of the novel, he employed parody. This is shown by the excessive violence and general absurdity of each coincidence-led situation in which the protagonist, Candide, lands. Pangloss presents optimism as too easy and as Candide commits to his seemingly neverending journey, it is unsurprising his trust in his teacher’s theory diminishes significantly. He is exposed to death, war, torture and natural disasters. The episodic nature of the novel really shines through here as Voltaire’s use of devastating real life events, such as the Great Lisbon earthquake, hits like a series of punches. Life itself comes across very combative and openly antagonistic towards poor, innocent Candide. Surely the world would surely be fairly devoid of suffering if everything were truly the best of all possible outcomes. Then again, maybe the more indirect assumption I am making here is that good will always triumph over evil or at least there is some sort of dynamic equilibrium involved.3. I get the impression that every time the situation improves for Candide, Voltaire undermines it with somewhat cruel glee through
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