Voltaire’s Candid, Essay Example

Candide

A study of Candide helps explain how socio-cultural artistic forces can assist historical change. It also underscores the significance of placing a study of culture within historical contexts. In this case, it exposes some of the intellectual, religious, political, and socio-economic presuppositions of the time.

The surprise ending in Chapter 6 was that Candide would be spared execution (How the Portuguese Made a Superb Auto-De-Fe to Prevent Any Future Earthquakes, and How Candide Underwent Public Flagellation). It became clear that the ending would diverge from the path of the initial story when the earthquake hit. By then, the other “offenders” had  been executed but not Candide. The surprise ending seemed like a thinly veiled plot device when the old woman whisked Candide away from his fate.

The surprise ending in Chapter 28 was when Pangloss expresses his unrelenting believe that everything happens for the best (What Befell Candide, Cunegund, Pangloss, Martin, etc.). Having heard his horrific story, there was never a point where it seemed the story would diverge from its onset before Pangloss uttered his allegiance to the idea that everything happens for a good reason. Voltaire was purposely unsuccessful at convincing the reader of the validity of the ending. Along with Pangloss’s claim to be a philosopher (a lover of wisdom, a freethinker), it was absurd that he would still champion the voice of Leibnitz given what he had been through.

A major development in world culture from the Renaissance to the contemporary period is the ease with which sensibilities perceive violent acts. The suffering described in Candide was noted matter-of-factly. The writer’s chronological proximity to the Dark Ages probably calloused him to the plights of his characters. Similar such stories were probably still discussed as sort of Renaissance Era urban legends where, although some of the details had changed, much of the sorrowful events had came from some real event. Voltaire’s message about respecting empirical realities in opposition to strict idealism was one of the major dovetails in collective Occidental thinking at that time.

References

Voltaire. (n.d.). How the Portuguese Made a Superb Auto-De-Fe to Prevent Any Future Earthquakes, and How Candide Underwent Public Flagellation. In Candide (Chapter 6). Retrieved from http://www.literature.org/authors/voltaire/candide/chapter-06.html

Voltaire. (n.d.). What Befell Candide, Cunegund, Pangloss, Martin, etc. In Candide (Chapter 28). Retrieved from http://www.literature.org/authors/voltaire/candide/chapter-28.html