Voltaire’s Candide As A Reaction To The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment is known as the great ‘Age of Reason’ — it is defined as the period of rigorous scientific, political, and philosophical discourse that characterised European society during the ‘long’ 18th century: from the late 17th century to the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. This was a period of huge change in thought and reason, which was decisive in the making of modernity. Centuries of custom and tradition were brushed aside in favour of exploration, individualism, tolerance, and scientific endeavour, which, in tandem with developments in industry and politics, witnessed the emergence of the ‘modern world’.
The Enlightenment is simply a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries in which ideas concerning God, reason, nature, and humanity were manifested. These ideas provoked many thinkers to reflect, express, and react. Voltaire was one of the thinkers at the time of the Enlightenment.
Voltaire’s Candide was a satirical signature to all prepackaged systems of thought and belief — a satire on churches and churchmen, and a pessimistic rumination on human nature, and the problem of free will. It was no fable inhabiting some make-believe or symbolic location; rather, it was a report on the current state of the world, deliberately set among the headlines of the day. Voltaire’s Candide is an extraordinary case. It was written between July and December 1758 and published simultaneously in Geneva, Paris, and Amsterdam in January 1759.
Candide was published anonymously at first since Voltaire did not want to relive the 11 months that he spent in the Bastille for satirical verses that ridiculed the government, and especially the regent, Philippe II, Duke of Orleans in 1717.
This article will examine Voltaire’s stance on optimistic reason over superstition and science over blind faith as a work that not only belongs to the Enlightenment but also reacts to it, satirically.
The satire in Voltaire’s Candide reprimands the age of romanticised reason and criticises “the best of all possible worlds.” There are countless incidents of rape, disembowelment, torture, and being hanged. Being hanged was nearly a punishment for every crime there is, even petty theft. There was war, massacres, genocides, killings, and many incidents that lead the reader to ultimately doubt that “the best of all possible worlds” could not precisely be the best for everyone no matter how you look at it.
Voltaire completely deconstructs Leibniz’s argument in his satire. The satire in Voltaire’s Candide reprimands the age of romanticised reason and criticises “the best of all possible worlds.” There are countless incidents of rape, disembowelment, torture, and being hanged. Being hanged was nearly a punishment for every crime there is, even petty theft. There was war, massacres, genocides, killings, and many incidents that lead the reader to ultimately doubt that “the best of all possible worlds” could not precisely be the best for everyone no matter how you look at it.
Voltaire’s Candide, or Optimism, is a story of a young man named Candide who believed in his tutor’s rosy worldview that “all is for the best.” Throughout the book, he’s on a pursuit to find the girl he loves, while facing a litany of challenges which bring him against the worst humanity could offer.
Voltaire not only denies the optimism of the Enlightenment towards reason but also criticises through irony and repetition of satire in his Candide the hypocrisy of clergymen and Muslims. As evident in the following extract when the old woman, who was accompanying Candide, the protagonist, and his lover, Cunegund, was telling her story:
“My captain kept me concealed behind him, and with his drawn scimitar cut down everyone who opposed him; at length I saw all our Italian women and my mother mangled and torn in pieces by the monsters who contended for them. The captives, my companions, the Moors who took us, the soldiers, the sailors, the blacks, the whites, the mulattoes, and lastly, my captain himself, were all slain, and I remained alone expiring upon a heap of dead bodies. Similar barbarous scenes were transacted every day over the whole country, which is of three hundred leagues in extent, and yet they never missed the five stated times of prayer enjoined by their prophet Mahomet.” (Voltaire 27).
Voltaire draws upon the Great Lisbon earthquake to highlight the satire of “the best of all possible worlds” as evident in the following extract:
“Pangloss endeavored to comfort them under this affliction by affirming that things could not be otherwise that they were.
“For,” said he, “all this is for the very best end, for if there is a volcano at Lisbon it could be in no other spot; and it is impossible but things should be as they are, for everything is for the best.” (Voltaire 11–13).
Voltaire’s satire stretches far into the theory of evolution, far before Darwin even came up with it in a scene where two women have two apes as lovers as evident in the following extract when Candide, the protagonist, and his valet, Cacambo, come across two apes who are lovers of women, but Candide kills the two apes thinking he saved the damsels in distress:
“He was about to continue when he felt himself struck speechless at seeing the two girls embracing the dead bodies of the monkeys in the tenderest manner, bathing their wounds with their tears, and rending the air with the most doleful lamentations.
“Dear sir,” replied Cacambo, “you are surprised at everything. Why should you think it so strange that there should be a country where monkeys insinuate themselves into the good graces of the ladies? They are the fourth part of a man as I am the fourth part of a Spaniard.” (Voltaire 40–41).
It is important to note that Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859 while Candide by Voltaire was published in 1759.
From Voltaire’s view, his satire devours all there is to criticise, till he comes across slavery and can no longer accept the use of satire as evident in the following extract when Candide was venturing with his valet :
“O Pangloss!” cried out Candide, “such horrid doings never entered thy imagination. Here is an end of the matter. I find myself, after all, obliged to renounce thy Optimism.”
“Optimism,” said Cacambo, “what is that?”
“Alas!” replied Candide, “it is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst.”
And so saying he turned his eyes towards the poor Negro, and shed a flood of tears; and in this weeping mood he entered the town of Surinam.” (Voltaire 54).
The hundred-page novella ends with Candide, the protagonist, stating that he no longer wants to philosophise and would rather do some actual work to cultivate his garden as evident in the following extract:
“Excellently observed,” answered Candide; “but let us cultivate our garden.” (Voltaire 97).
The ending may require some contemplation, especially since nothing in Candide should be taken at face value, but rather looked into, traced, and contemplated.
In the end, the Enlightenment consisted, in essence, of the belief that the expansion of knowledge, the application of reason, and dedication to the scientific method would result in humankind’s greater progress and happiness. The Enlightenment outlook was buoyant, reformist, and humanitarian.
However, that is not exactly how things went down. The outlook started innocent, but when left unguided and unbalanced, it gave way to proving that knowledge is not enough to elevate lost souls because ‘all in the best’ might not be the best in everyone’s case. There will always be casualties.
Thus, the examination of Voltaire’s Candide showed that the optimistic reason became the new superstition and science was the blind faith over humane aspects of consideration in the time of the Enlightenment.
