Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas
explored in a literary work.
The Folly of Optimism
Pangloss and his student Candide maintain that “everything
is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.” This idea
is a reductively simplified version of the philosophies of a number
of Enlightenment thinkers, most notably Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz.
To these thinkers, the existence of any evil in the world would
have to be a sign that God is either not entirely good or not all-powerful,
and the idea of an imperfect God is nonsensical. These philosophers
took for granted that God exists, and concluded that since God must
be perfect, the world he created must be perfect also. According
to these philosophers, people perceive imperfections in the world
only because they do not understand God’s grand plan. Because Voltaire does
not accept that a perfect God (or any God) has to exist, he can afford
to mock the idea that the world must be completely good, and he
heaps merciless satire on this idea throughout the novel. The optimists,
Pangloss and Candide, suffer and witness a wide variety of horrors—floggings,
rapes, robberies, unjust executions, disease, an earthquake, betrayals,
and crushing ennui. These horrors do not serve any apparent greater
good, but point only to the cruelty and folly of humanity and the
indifference of the natural world. Pangloss struggles to find justification
for the terrible things in the world, but his arguments are simply
absurd, as, for example, when he claims that syphilis needed to
be transmitted from the Americas to Europe so that Europeans could
enjoy New World delicacies such as chocolate. More intelligent and
experienced characters, such as the old woman, Martin, and Cacambo,
have all reached pessimistic conclusions about humanity and the
world. By the novel’s end, even Pangloss is forced to admit that
he doesn’t “believe a word of” his own previous optimistic conclusions.
The Uselessness of Philosophical Speculation
One of the most glaring flaws of Pangloss’s optimism is
that it is based on abstract philosophical argument rather than
real-world evidence. In the chaotic world of the novel, philosophical
speculation repeatedly proves to be useless and even destructive.
Time and time again, it prevents characters from making realistic
assessments of the world around them and from taking positive action
to change adverse situations. Pangloss is the character
most susceptible to this sort of folly. While Jacques drowns, Pangloss
stops Candide from saving him “by proving that the bay of Lisbon
had been formed expressly for this Anabaptist to drown in.” While
Candide lies under rubble after the Lisbon earthquake, Pangloss ignores
his requests for oil and wine and instead struggles to prove the
causes of the earthquake. At the novel’s conclusion, Candide rejects
Pangloss’s philosophies for an ethic of hard, practical work. With
no time or leisure for idle speculation, he and the other characters
find the happiness that has so long eluded them. This judgment against
philosophy that pervades Candide is all the more
surprising and dramatic given Voltaire’s status as a respected philosopher
of the Enlightenment.
The Hypocrisy of Religion
Voltaire satirizes organized religion by means of a series
of corrupt, hypocritical religious leaders who appear throughout
the novel. The reader encounters the daughter of a Pope, a man who
as a Catholic priest should have been celibate; a hard-line Catholic
Inquisitor who hypocritically keeps a mistress; and a Franciscan
friar who operates as a jewel thief, despite the vow of poverty
taken by members of the Franciscan order. Finally, Voltaire introduces
a Jesuit colonel with marked homosexual tendencies. Religious leaders
in the novel also carry out inhumane campaigns of religious oppression
against those who disagree with them on even the smallest of theological
matters. For example, the Inquisition persecutes Pangloss for expressing
his ideas, and Candide for merely listening to them. Though Voltaire
provides these numerous examples of hypocrisy and immorality in
religious leaders, he does not condemn the everyday religious believer.
For example, Jacques, a member of a radical Protestant sect called
the Anabaptists, is arguably the most generous and humane character
in the novel.
The Corrupting Power of Money
When Candide acquires a fortune in Eldorado, it looks
as if the worst of his problems might be over. Arrest and bodily
injury are no longer threats, since he can bribe his way out of
most situations. Yet, if anything, Candide is more unhappy
as a wealthy man. The experience of watching his money trickle away
into the hands of unscrupulous merchants and officials tests his
optimism in a way that no amount of flogging could. In fact, Candide’s
optimism seems to hit an all-time low after Vanderdendur cheats
him; it is at this point that he chooses to make the pessimist Martin
his traveling companion. Candide’s money constantly attracts false
friends. Count Pococurante’s money drives him to such world-weary
boredom that he cannot appreciate great art. The cash gift that
Candide gives Brother Giroflée and Paquette drives them quickly
to “the last stages of misery.” As terrible as the oppression and
poverty that plague the poor and powerless may be, it is clear that
money—and the power that goes with it—creates at least as many problems
as it solves.
