The name of the protagonist of Voltaire's story "Candide, or the Optimist" is the Innocent. Candide from French is impartial, simple-minded, as well as pure, artless. A young man with "the most pleasant disposition", he "judged things quite sensibly and very sincerely."
Candide, the nephew of the baron, a powerful nobleman, lived in his castle in the province of Westphalia. Having fallen in love with the daughter of the baron, and Kunigunda reciprocated him, and being alone with her, he could not resist an ardent embrace, after which the baron was thrown out of the castle with a "healthy kick". On the way he was kidnapped by recruiters and sent into the army to serve the king.
The Misadventures of the Innocent
Voltaire presents the Innocent as a person for whom freedom is a natural right. But in the Prussian army, as, indeed, in any other, this is not so. They tortured him, put him on his knees and wanted to kill him because he wanted to go "wherever he could." The king himself passed by and pardoned the Innocent. Then a war broke out in which Candida managed to hide from the fights, avoid the bayonet and survive.
The reader is jarred by the cynicism with which Voltaire describes the bloody spectacle presented to the hero, left after the battle. It's good when the author's satire does not make it hard to worry about the hero's misadventures. But whether it is applicable to the theme of war and suffering is a separate question.
Candide, leaving the "theater of war", came to Holland and was forced to beg. He turned to a Protestant priest for help, but he rudely drove him out, because the Innocent did not confirm that the Pope was the Antichrist. He turns to the good Anabaptist Jacob and receives not only bread, but also a position in the factory. The Anabaptists, also Protestants, preached freedom of conscience and universal brotherhood.
Soon, Jacob, on his trade affairs, sets out on a ship to Lisbon and takes with him Candide and Panglos - the philosopher, the former mentor of the Innocent, whom he met in Holland by the will of fate. After the storm and the subsequent shipwreck, Candide and Panglos get out on the land of Lisbon, and then a terrible earthquake begins. Voltaire mentions a historical event in his story - the Great Lisbon earthquake of 1755. The tremors were followed by a fire and a tsunami. The earthquake has turned the capital of Portugal into ruins, taking about 90 thousand lives in 6 minutes.
After the earthquake, "the sages of the country did not find a more sure way to save themselves from final destruction than to create a beautiful auto-da-fe for the people." Auto-da-fe is the burning of heretics. Voltaire's heroes were captured - "one for speaking, and the other for listening with an approving air" to free-thinking speeches. Both were taken to "cool rooms where the sun never bothered." Due to the impossibility of lighting a fire - it was pouring rain, Candida was only whipped, and his friend was hanged. But when the anatomist took Pangloss's body, it turned out that he was still alive. Long after, Candide would meet him as a galley slave.
Voltaire's historical optimism
From the point of view of knowledge of the sources, the concept of "optimism" arose in the review of the Jesuit Louis-Bertrand Castel on the publication of "Theodicy" by Wilhelm Leibniz. The full title of the treatise is "Experiments of theodicy on the goodness of God, the freedom of man and the beginning of evil." The notion of optimism in the review had an openly mocking connotation. Over time, the term came to be used in a neutral manner to express Leibniz's position.
It consisted of the following:. To a possible objection, according to which, Leibniz replied:
The influence of Leibniz's position, especially in the first decades after the publication of the treatise, was enormous. The question of whether our world is the best or not, various answers to it, excited many philosophers of that century to such an extent that the principle of abundance and optimism by some thinkers began to be perceived as the main idea of the 18th century.
The doctrine of optimism in a cartoon form was defined by Voltaire as follows:. A certain impetus for Voltaire in writing the story was the so-called "Letter of Providence" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, addressed to him, where Rousseau advocates optimism, comparing it, among other things, to fatalism. Voltaire's reaction to the letter was, written by him in 1757, the story "Candide, or Optimism."
The main character, after being whipped, seeing his mentor Panglos, a supporter of the doctrine of our world as the best, hanged, exclaims: "If this is the best possible world, then what are the others?" The philosopher Pangloss taught as follows:.
Voltaire's plan
To some extent, sharing the idea of Leibniz about the harmony of peace on earth pre-established by God, Voltaire shows the Innocent in his story against the background of events close to historical ones. He describes the chaos that happened from the earthquake, the tragedy and the loss of life of millions of people in the colonial wars of Spain, England, France, who fought for the redivision of the world, with a grain of irony, adding obscene comments in the descriptions of scenes where the vicious deeds of mortals are manifested.
The simple-minded again meets with his beloved Kunigunda. Her story about her experiences, like the story of her handmaid about the chilling circumstances of her life, also refute world harmony and prove the widespread evil on earth. But the optimism of the heroes is inexhaustible: “Hundreds of times I wanted to commit suicide, but I still love life,” says the old servant.
Fate separates the lovers again, but Candide cannot imagine happiness without his beloved and strives with all his heart to return to her.
The wanderings and searches of the heroes who had to be present during the battles of the Seven Years War, the capture of Azov by the Russians and other events serve the author as a reason to ridicule feudalism, military affairs and various religions. As for all enlighteners of the 18th century, fiction for Voltaire was not an end in itself, but only a means of promoting his ideas and views, a means of protest against autocracy and religious dogmas that contradict the true faith, an opportunity to preach civil freedom. According to this attitude, Voltaire's work is highly rational and journalistic.
What does Voltaire offer to humanity in his work?
The vicissitudes of the Innocent against the background of adventures, travel and exoticism lead him to the realization of the absurdity of both pure optimism and pure pessimism, to the realization of the great role of chance in his life. Under favorable circumstances, he could have remained an exemplary citizen, but here he even had to kill. Already in the middle of Voltaire's narration, Candide exclaims: "Oh, my God! I killed my former master, my friend, my brother. I am the kindest man in the world and, nevertheless, I have already killed three; of these three, two are priests."
The satirical style of narration does not leave the reader indifferent, forcing him to wonder what the author's frank irony over the fate of people will lead to. What conclusion will the Innocent make after 30 chapters of his life, in which he constantly asks the question: "Why was such a strange animal like man created?" And when he, together with his comrades, at the end of a long journey ends up in Constantinople, asks the dervish to the sage - he "was considered the best philosopher in Turkey", hears in response: "What do you care about this? Is this your business?"
Dervish said that he cultivates his garden with his family. "Work drives away three great evils from us: boredom, vice and need," he says. “We must cultivate our garden,” concludes the Innocent in the end.
“We must cultivate our garden” - with this thought Voltaire ends his philosophical novel, urging to do your own thing and try to correct the world not with loud words, but with a noble example.
