MODL 5304 Postings

Enlightenment thought took on various characteristics depending on the thinker, but in general it was a time of challenging accepted laws and doctrines with scientific and natural explanations. With his novella Candide (1759), Voltaire took the literary opportunity to contrast the recent thought reflected in Pangloss’ argument that “this is the best of all possible worlds”, with reality.  One of the questions answered in Candide is, “what is the natural state of human nature?”  Instead of blaming the nature of humanity as tainted with original sin, Voltaire argues that humans are naturally good and it is the illogical social conventions, the hypocritical religious institutions, and the ambitious martial/political machines that jade and corrupt an otherwise happy existence.  The lack of cosmopolitanism is obvious throughout the work both on a general and individual level.  The naïve and good-natured Candide traverses a world where he sees armies that rape and murder innocent civilians, religious persons who beat and burn their fellow neighbor, and social elites who separate humans according to the manufactured ideas of noble and common.  After Candide has murdered the Inquisitor and the Jew, Cunégonde asks how someone “born so good-natured” could commit two murders in as many minutes.  Candide’s reply reveals Voltaire’s contempt for the institutions that change good into evil, and innocence into degradation:  “when one is in love, jealous, and has been whipped by the Inquisition, one becomes a stranger to oneself” (18).  Voltaire argues that even though murder is a crime against nature it is the unnatural actions of others that corrupted Candide.  While being horribly whipped to the rhythm of religious hymns Candide questions “If this is the best of all possible worlds, what on earth are the others like?” (13). The one community in which Candide does find harmony is in El Dorado.  In this mythical city Candide experiences a society that lacks many of the attributes that Voltaire sees as destructive in the contemporary world.  When Candide asks, “you don’t have monks who teach, who argue, who rule, who conspire, and who burn people who don’t agree with them?” the reply is an unequivocal “We’d have to be mad” (39).  In El Dorado Voltaire defines the perfect religion as the acknowledgement of one God who is continually thanked.  There is not the “religious zeal” that leads to “dreadful excesses” as experienced previously by Candide (7). El Dorado’s monarch interacts as an equal with the people he governs.  Candide is astonished at the protocol to embrace the king, as humiliation and inequality are unnatural.  There are no jails, no courtrooms, and no political or military ambition.  In Candide’s world there are laws for war, but the only law mentioned in this utopia is the law against tyranny.  Instead of expending their time with killings and humiliations, the people of El Dorado devote themselves to scientific achievement as is revealed in their huge gallery of “mathematical and astronomical instruments” (40).  By the end of the novella Candide accepts the imperfection of the world and determines with his companions to avoid evil through manual labor.  Voltaire’s enlightened vision involves a world devoid of “boredom, depravity, and poverty” because humans are united in the belief, “Let us work without philosophizing” (78 & 79).  The limited cosmopolitanism found at the end of the story is summed up in the narrator’s words that they all “did something useful” (79).