Candide And The Enlightenment Analysis

Candide is a representation of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was an era of change, the way people think changed, scientific ideas changed along with many other beliefs. Voltaire was an Enlightenment philosopher that changed the meaning of the word optimism, wrote many books to spread new ideas throughout the area. Candide is about a man that lives during the Enlightenment, as he travels and lives through the Enlightenment he realizes that the world should be changing. when Jacques drowns Candide’s response is why was it you of all men, men that shouldn’t have drowned in the very harbor. Candide says this after Pangloss is hanged “If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are others?” Candide is thinking about the world he lives

Candide is a youthful disciple of Dr. Pangloss. Candide travels through Europe and South america, experiencing misfortune that was hard for him to believe. In the book Candide questions whether this is the best of all worlds, by the end of the book he concludes that the best thing in the world is to cultivate one’s own garden. Candide is a good-hearted but hopelessly naïve young man. Pangloss, his mentor, teaches him that their world is “the best of all possible worlds.” Once he is banished from his adopted childhood home, Candide travels Europe and South Africa, he meets with a wide variety of misfortunes, all the while pursuing security and following Cunégonde, the woman he loves. His faith in Pangloss’s optimism is constantly tested. Pangloss is a philosopher and Candide’s tutor. His optimistic belief that this world is “the best of all possible worlds” even though Pangloss’s own experiences contradict this belief, but he remains faithful to it. Jacques is a humane Dutch Anabaptist that cares for the itinerant Candide and Pangloss. Despite his kindness, Jacques is pessimistic about human nature, he drowns in the Bay of Lisbon while trying to save the life of a sailor. Candide and the characters are a representation of the

in the very harbor” Candid does not think he should have died, especially like that (Voltaire 13). Candide thinks that most of the people killed in the bay should not have died but that Jacques was the best person out of all of them.

Candide says this after Pangloss is hanged “If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are others?” Candide is questioning whether he lise in the best possible world or not two of his friends have died for no reason (Voltaire 13). Candide also says “ well if I had been only whipped I could put up with it, for I experienced that among the Bulgarians (Voltaire 13). In El Dorado Candide was surprised him the most and gave him the greatest pleasure was the palace of sciences, he was amazed by how the had all lots of great scientific buildings with no judicial buildings or system, yet a striving city (Voltaire 45). El Dorado is a very scientifically advanced city, which surprises