Candid or Optimism – Voltaire
Candid (or optimistic) is a novel, and yet it contains much of life’s misfortunes and human triumphs. It is said to have been written as a satire on the all-encompassing optimism espoused by some German philosophers of the time.
Sincere, whose ‘general appearance was that of utter simplicity’, is the illegitimate nephew of a German baron. In the baron’s castle, he lived at the height of luxury, under the tutelage of the scholar, Panglosswho preaches to him that this world is “the best of all possible worlds”.
‘It is provable’, Pangloss would say, ‘that thing cannot be other than they are. Because since everything is made for a purpose, everything must be for the best possible purpose. Noses, you observe, were made to hold spectacles: consequently, we have spectacles. Legs, it is clear that they were created to wear breeches, and are supplied with them.
The events of the novel are the antithesis of the by pangloss guardianship. Open the book at random, you are likely to find yourself in the middle of a misadventure. Almost all human catastrophes that can occur occur in Sincere. From an early age, Sincere he seems entangled in webs of pain from which he apparently could not escape.
When he falls in love with the baron’s young daughter, cunegona, the Baron expels him from his home. Soon after, he is recruited into the army of the bulgarians. He leaves the camp for a short walk and is brutally flogged as a deserter. Suffering and danger soon become Cándido’s constant companions.
As he flees from the devilish evil of life to destinations around the world, misfortune stalks him like an implacable enemy. As much as Pangloss holds fast to his philosophy, Candide’s simplicity is soon replaced by skepticism as he struggles to find a justification for all the human anguish he has witnessed.
voltaire it also sheds a searching light on the hypocrisy and corruption of organized religion through the characters featured in the story. The reader learns of the daughter of a Dada vicious Catholic Inquisitor, who has a lover; et a Franciscan friar who is a thief, despite the vow of poverty he had taken. voltaire it also features a Jesuit colonel who is homosexual.
However, SincereContrary to the meaning of the title, it is a very complex book. Juxtaposed with calamity is joy, and alongside pain and death is the celebration of life. At various points, Sincere believe cunegona, Pangloss, and the Baron are dead, only to find out later that they had survived. As much as these “resurrections” seem out of step with the overall tone of the novel, perhaps because of them the reader comes to know the writer’s true motive.
With their gloomy canvases of misery, voltaire it may have been extolling the resilience of the human spirit and its triumph over adversity. Perhaps by representing the vices of man, she was also admiring the virtues of humanity. Perhaps far from mocking optimism, he renounces nihilism. His novel is an eloquent account of the vicissitudes of life and the rise and fall of man’s fortunes.
Thus, in the expansive dialogue between its two main characters we learn that Sincere is anything but simple, nor is it Pangloss quite an old fool. Even though they were battered warriors, they had a reverence and yearning for life despite the mental and physical torture it had inflicted on them.
The novel also reveals voltaire romantic side. the love between Sincere and cunegonaso between female daza and Florentina Ariza in Marquez’s love in times of cholera, endure, despite the many disappointments and ravages of life. That he would continue to love a woman throughout her life despite the debris of her soul was another sign of her indestructible optimism.
Finally, after the labors of a lifetime that sometimes made him want to cut his throat, Sincere find peace in the simple life of agriculture. In a way, his final lesson for the reader is that nature is not just a place to visit, it is our home. Reading of candide it is endless pleasure, and a roller coaster of joy and sadness. In it there are parts of our life that we know perfectly well. The book is a true classic and an amazing celebration of literature.