Voltaire’s Candide Affirmation?

Humanities 112
Assignment 1: Essay

In Voltaire’s Candide, or as I would like to call it, the Expect the Unexpected book, there are numerous surprise twist. Throughout this dramatic satire Candide goes through several tragedies. During each event his understanding and belief in his faith is tested and put into question, as shown in chapter six. Voltaire particularly picks on the Resurrection Story. He toys with the readers mind by challenging the validity of and devaluing the Resurrection story. Candide suffers the loss of many loved ones, and then they are reintroduced again in later chapters of the story. In the end, Voltaire does the exactly opposite of what he sets out to do, but reaffirms his belief in god. In chapter six, Candide was relieved to find out that he was not going to be burned in the slow fire, but was beaten instead. This would have given him and the condemned a sense of false hope. Instead they burned two of the condemned men and hung Dr. Pangloss. Like Candide, I felt amazed, shocked, confused, and a little terrified for his fate. On other hand, in keeping with Dr. Pangloss theory, “that all things happen for the best possible end” (Voltaire, Chapter 6: How the Portuguse Made a Superb Auto-Da-Fe` to Prevent Future earthquakes and how Candide Underwent Public Flagellation, 1758), gives you hope for Candide’s future, even if he is in doubt. By the time we get to chapter twenty-eight Candide is a better circumstances. He has become a man of means. He comes across Dr. Pangloss and the Baron, two men he thought to be dead, on a ship serving as oar slaves. He finds this hard to believe for he saw Dr. Pangloss hung and he killed the Baron (Voltaire, Chapter 28: What Befell Candide, Cunegund, Pangloss, Martin, etc..., 1758). He is surprised the two are alive and buys their freedom. Candide take strong interests into how the two men are still alive, in particular Dr. Pangloss. The doctor gave a detailed account of being hung but not killed, almost dissected, whipped, and lastly on the galley as an ore slave. Dumbfounded by his mentor’s encounters, Candide was astonished that Dr. Pangloss still held on to his theory of best possible ends. Why wouldn’t he? In the end, the doctor was reunited with Candide and was a free man once more. The doctors saying “all things work for the best end”, takes me to the text of the Bible “We know that all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord (Varous, 1995).” In essence though Candide suffered through tremendous hardship, like most men in the Bible, he too survived and flourished. Though he may not have ended up a rich man, he was a man of some comfort and means. Thus, the doctor’s theory may have been correct.

Works Cited
Varous. (1995). Romans 8:28. In Varous, The Holy Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing.
Voltaire. (1758). Chapter 28: What Befell Candide, Cunegund, Pangloss, Martin, etc... In Voltiare, Candide.
Voltaire. (1758). Chapter 6: How the Portuguse Made a Superb Auto-Da-Fe` to Prevent Future earthquakes and how Candide Underwent Public Flagellation. In Voltire, Candide.

References

[ (Voltaire, Chapter 6: How the Portuguse Made a Superb Auto-Da-Fe` to Prevent Future earthquakes and how Candide Underwent Public Flagellation, 1758) ]