Study Questions &
Essay Topics
Study Questions
1. What is the
relationship between Candide’s adventures and Pangloss’s teachings?
Candide represents an extended
criticism of the ideas of the seventeenth-century philosopher Leibniz.
Voltaire casts Pangloss as a satirical representation of Leibniz.
Leibniz conceptualized the world in terms of a pre-determined harmony,
claiming that evil exists only to highlight good and that this world
is the best possible world because God created it. Leibniz’s concept
of the world is part of a larger school of thought called theodicy,
which attempts to explain the existence of evil in a world created
by an omniscient, omnipotent, perfectly good God. Voltaire criticizes
this school for its undiluted optimism. If this is the best possible
world, his story suggests, then why should anyone try to alleviate
suffering? Pangloss is also a parody of an excessively abstract
philosopher. Voltaire scorned philosophers who did not base their
arguments on knowledge gathered from a study of the world. Pangloss
talks about the structure of the world, but knows little about it
since he has lived an idle life inside a castle. Candide believes
Pangloss’s philosophy without question because he has never had
any direct experiences with the outside world.
Candide’s adventures begin with his expulsion from the
castle. The series of misfortunes that befall him serve as a re-education
via direct experience with the world. His experiences in the real
world directly contradict Pangloss’s optimism. In reality, the world
is a terrible place full of evil, cruelty and suffering. Thus, Candide
and the reader are forced to reject optimism. Still, the novel does
not conclude in favor of absolute pessimism either. Candide eventually
finds happiness in hard work and rejects all questions of good and
evil or optimism and pessimism. It is only when Candide gives up
adventures in travel, love, and philosophy that he discovers happiness
in tending his garden.
2. Is Voltaire’s
portrait of Eldorado optimistic or pessimistic? Why?
Eldorado is a utopia—an imaginary perfect
world. Candide decides that it is the “best of all possible worlds”
that Pangloss has taught him to believe in. Eldorado does not suffer
from religious persecution, petty squabbles, or social inequality.
Thus, Voltaire is optimistically proposing that human beings are
capable of creating a just, peaceful society. At the same time,
the kingdom is almost inaccessible to outsiders, and its king explains
that that is the only way it can remain perfect. Thus, a good society
is attainable only if it excludes the vast majority of humanity.
In addition, the jewels and gold that litter the streets of Eldorado
activate common greed in Candide, who has displayed little lust
for money prior to entering the kingdom. Rather than remain in Eldorado,
where the jewels are of no value, Candide elects to return to the
flawed outside world where they will make him rich. For him, the
prospect of being wealthy in an imperfect society is preferable
to the prospect of being an average man in a perfect society. Voltaire’s
portrait of Eldorado is not pessimistic; rather, he uses Eldorado
to convey a pessimistic portrait of human nature.
3. What is
the significance of Candide’s retreat to his garden at the end of
the novel? Does he find a credible solution to the problems and
evils he has experienced?
In his garden, Candide manages to find a
tolerable existence through self-directed improvement and work.
Practical action seems to be the only way to eliminate human suffering.
Each member of Candide’s household finds a skill to hone and then
uses it to contribute to the support of the household. Without any
leisure from their toil in the garden, the characters have no time
or energy to trade empty words about good and evil.
Candide’s garden does seem to alleviate his and his friends’
suffering, but the sincerity of Voltaire’s endorsement of this solution
is questionable. The characters have finally attained happiness,
but their previous experiences remind the reader that misery still
reigns in the world outside their garden. Candide and his friends
are wealthy and secure—in a perfect position to try to change the
world for the better. Yet, rather than engaging the world in an
attempt to improve it, they withdraw from it in an attempt to escape
their own petty unhappiness. Voltaire, who was himself quite active
in political and social causes, might view withdrawal into a garden
as a wise and viable solution for the problems arising from human
weakness, but it is unlikely that he saw it as the best of all possible
solutions to the misery in the world.
Suggested Essay Topics
1. Discuss the significance
of Jacques’ character. How does he fit in with Voltaire’s general
view of human nature? What is the significance of his death?
2. The old woman has thought
about suicide “a hundred times” but has refused to end her life.
Why might that be?
3. Martin claims that people
“live either in convulsions of misery or in the lethargy of boredom.”
Do the events of the novel support that statement? Is one of the
two options worse than the other? If what Martin says is true, what
does it imply about the value of social change and political activism?
4. How do the experiences of
the women in Candide differ from those of the men?
How do their reactions to those experiences differ from those of
the men?
5. What does Voltaire think about
European colonization of the Americas? Discuss the significance
of the character of Cacambo and of Candide’s encounter with the
slave.
6. Does Voltaire agree with Martin’s
outlook on the world? Why or why not?
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