Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary
devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Resurrection
At various points, Candide believes that Cunégonde, Pangloss,
and the baron are dead, only to discover later that they have actually
survived the traumas that should have killed them. The function
of these “resurrections” in the novel is complicated. On the one
hand, they seem to suggest a strange, fantastic optimism that is
out of step with the general tone of the novel. Death, the only
misfortune from which one would never expect a character to recover,
actually proves to be “reversible.” On the other hand, the characters
who get “resurrected” are generally those whose existence does more
harm than good. Each “resurrected” figure embodies a harmful aspect
of human nature: Cunégonde reveals the shallowness of beauty and fickleness
of love, Pangloss’s optimism represents folly, and the baron’s snobbery
represents arrogance and narrow-minded social oppression. Through
these characters’ miraculous resurrections, Voltaire may be trying
to tell his readers that these traits never die.
Rape and Sexual Exploitation
Candide is full of uncommonly
graphic accounts of the sexual exploitation of women. The three
main female characters—Cunégonde, the old woman, and Paquette—are
all raped, forced into sexual slavery, or both. Both the narrator’s
and the characters’ attitudes toward these events are strikingly
nonchalant and matter-of-fact. Voltaire uses these women’s stories
to demonstrate the special dangers to which only women are vulnerable. Candide’s
chivalric devotion to Cunégonde, whom he wrongly perceives as a
paragon of female virtue, is based on willful blindness to the real
situ-ation of women. The male characters in the novel value sexual
chastity in women but make it impossible for women to maintain such
chastity, exposing another hypocritical aspect of Voltaire’s Europe.
Political and Religious Oppression
Candide witnesses the horrors of oppression by the authorities
of numerous states and churches. Catholic authorities burn heretics alive,
priests and governors extort sexual favors from their female subjects,
businessmen mistreat slaves, and Candide himself is drafted into
and abused in the army of the Bulgar king. Even the English government,
which Voltaire admired, executes an admiral for the “crime” of fighting
with insufficient audacity against the French. Powerful institutions
seem to do no good—and instead, much harm—to their defenseless subjects.
Voltaire himself protested loudly against political injustice throughout
his life. The characters in Candide, however, choose
a different route. Shortly after hearing about the politically motivated
killings of several Turkish officials, they take the old farmer’s
advice and decide to ignore the injustices that surround them, channeling
their wealth and energy instead into the simple labors that bring
them happiness.
