Candide by Voltaire

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Candide by Voltaire

• NOTES

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Time Period

• Enlightenment18th century France and England
• A.k.a. the Age of Reason
• Climate of Inquiry

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Lessoning Control of the Church

• The Protestant Reformation
• The Printing Press
• Scientific Developments
• The New World (America!)

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Philosophies of the Time

• Rationalism Rene Descartes (math) humans, by
  reason alone, can discover universal truths
• Rationalism Sir Isaac Newtonmechanical science.
  All truth found in nature rejection of
  supernatural religion. Emphasis placed on
  principles of deduction (1687)

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Philosophy cont.

• Deismthe clockmaker God God made the world,
  then he let it alone no divine intervention
• Optimism
• 1) Gottfried Wilhelm LeibnitzGerman
  mathematician and scientist. Founder of the
  philosophy of optimism.

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• Leibnitz cont.world is organized according to a
  pre-established harmony. There is a reason for
  everything that happens. Followed two main
  assumptions 1) God is perfect therefore
• 2) Of all the worlds God could have created, he
  must have made this one perfect, the best.
• Leibnitz believed evil had a beneficial value.

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2) Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

• English poetwrote heavily about belief of
  optimism
• Voltaire knew Pope in England (during Vs exile)
  and admired him until V. decided that optimism
  was a bunch of hooey
• A little learning is a dangerous thing
• Whatever is, is right

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3) Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

• Humanity is naturally good but is corrupted by
  the environment, education, and government
• Since society brings out aggression and egotism,
  it is better for man to be a noble savage
• Rousseau sides with Pope and Leibnitz

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Voltaire (1694-1778)

• French philosopher and rational skeptic
• Believed in writing the truth
• He championed knowledge against ignorance, reason
  against superstition, skepticism against theology
• Twice imprisoned in the Bastille b/c of his
  writing and his big mouth
• Twice exiled
• Nearly everything he published was banned, burned
  or suppressed

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Voltaire cont.

• His famous cry was Crush the infamous thing
  (superstition)!
• He constantly fought against the system that
  tortured and plundered in the name of religion
• Menenriched by your sweat and miserymade you
  superstitious, not that you might fear God, but
  that you might fear them.
• He was NOT an atheist

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Voltaire cont.

• Considered the fountainhead of the Enlightenment
  and the intellectual spearhead of the French
  Revolution
• A conservative in all but religion
• Believed in a God who was a creator and punisher
  of evil, but he attacked any religion he felt to
  be guilty of superstition, intolerance, or
  persecution
• His townFerney (teacher will comment on)

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Quotes by and about Voltaire

• Voltaire If God did not exist, it would be
  necessary to invent Him.
• Victor Hugo He was an age. To name Voltaire is
  to characterize the entire eighteenth century.
• Will Durant Italy had a Renaissance, Germany
  had a Reformation, but France had Voltaire.

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Influences on Candide

• Leibnitz, Pope, and Rousseau Optimism
• The Seven Years War between France and
  Prussiavery bloody war
• The Lisbon earthquake Voltaire wrote Candide as
  a direct response to this event in 1755 the
  quake, a tidal wave, and a resulting fire left
  30,000-40,000 dead.

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Influences cont.

• Followers of optimism explained horrors away with
  the idea that it was all for the best the living
  would inherit from the dead the city would be
  rebuilt, providing jobs. If it had not happened
  there, another place would have suffered.
• Voltaire did not accept this. He wrote Candide to
  illustrate what he perceived as the stupidity of
  this type of optimism. He wrote the whole novel
  in three days at the age of sixty-five.

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Technique in Candide

• Voltaire intends for Candide to be a satirical
  parody. He makes it a parody on the popular
  adventure novel, and he attacks nearly everything
  and everybody. It deals with the problem of evil,
  both natural and man-made.
• The satire is used to mock Rousseau and those
  that abuse power.
• See the Readers Guide for more on technique.

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CANDIDE (CH 1, 2, 17, 18, 19, 30, and
supplements) Background

• Candide is subtitled Optimism and tells a tale
  of the woes that befall a naïve simpleton who is
  brought up to believe that this world is the best
  of all possible worlds. The point of Voltaires
  story is to show how Candides optimism is
  foolish in a world in which peoples lives are
  shaped for the most part by cruel and
  incomprehensible forces.

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• The plot of Candide takes the form of a quest
  the young mans quest for union with his beloved,
  Cunegonde. They go through a series of
  separations and reunions, as Cunegonde is taken
  as booty by the Bulgarians, held prisoner by the
  Grand Inquisitor, and forcibly kept as a mistress
  by the Governor of Buenos Airesin this, the best
  of all possible worlds. What happens to Candide
  himself is no better, but the two lovers somehow
  survive. The tale is told with great verve and
  hilarity, and, like all quests of this kind, the
  journey involves much suffering but ends in
  wisdom.

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• Voltaire makes fun of both the adventure novels
  and the pastoral romance novels of his time
  shipwrecks, kidnappings by rival suitors,
  unexpected reunions between long-lost characters,
  love-sick heroes, far-off (and made-up) settings.
  This entire book is a parody (mimics another
  style for the purpose of ridiculing it. Ex Weird
  Al Yancovics parodies on famous songs).

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Literary Focus

• Satire is writing that ridicules human weakness,
  vice, or folly in order to bring about social
  reform. An expert satirist like Voltaire uses a
  variety of tools to expose his subject to
  ridiculefrom witty barbs to heavy bludgeons that
  flatten his opponents sacred cows. As Voltaire
  exposes one absurdity after another, readers
  become convinced that they would be fools not to
  agree with his point of view.