The world is so full of violence and cruelty that it will never be able to eradicate them. In order to cope with the daily tragedies, many people ignore them or try to find a “brighter side”. Candide by Voltaire shakes the protagonist’s belief in optimism. Voltaire denounces philosophical optimism with the help of symbolism and hyperbole in Candide.
This philosophical blind optimism is best described as the belief that everything will be fine and the refusal to accept that suffering would occur if there were no better outcomes. Voltaire uses hyperbole to satirize this idea. Candide and Pangloss are the two main characters who argue that they have the best of worlds. The tragedy that occurs is the reason for this overstatement. It’s a way to mock optimism and bring satirical humor to it. Voltaire does this to make everything sound as good as possible. For example, he calls Candide “the gentlest character” (15), and describes the castle of the baron as “the most beautiful castle” (22). This hyperbole shows the optimistic perspective, but also that it is foolish to limit one’s views due to optimism. Overstating small details is a great way to argue for optimism, because it highlights a peculiar perspective on life.
Voltaire is not only a master of overstatement. He also uses its opposite: litote, or understatement. In the spirit of a straight-forward, philosophical optimism, Voltaire exaggerates the small and unimportant, and minimizes or omits the more important, impactful, details. For example, Candide writes, “It was a great pity that the sage Pangloss had been hanged in an auto-dafe, contrary to local custom; he could have told us some amazing things concerning the moral and physical evils which afflict the world HTML0 HTML0 _ HTML0 HTML0 HTML0 HTML0 HTML0 HTML0 HTML0 HTML0 HTML0 HTML0 HTML0 HTML Candide’s attitude is to ignore the sad past of the woman, and not to dwell on it. Instead, Candide says it is a great pity Pangloss did not come to them to give his opinion on how “the best world” is still possible. What would Pangloss’s reaction be if he had seen pure nature? It’s all right, I’m not going to argue; but I have to admit that it was a cruel fate for me to lose Lady Cunegonde then be roasted on a stick by Oreillons” (56). These understatements serve to demonstrate the absurdity and irrationality of philosophical optimism.
Voltaire, in a series of overstatements and understatements, denounces Candide’s and Pangloss’s optimism. To fully denounce this, Voltaire uses symbols. Candide finally lets go of optimism in the novel’s final chapter. After countless attempts to dispel it, Candide says, in response to Pangloss’s repeated assertion that they lived in “the most perfect of all worlds”, “I am also aware… that our garden must be cultivated” (113). This “garden,” which represents life, is not governed by optimism, but rather each individual has the power to decide what happens in their garden. Voltaire, Candide and the characters have all gotten rid their blind optimism. These are the ways that characters can achieve, i.e. “cultivating an garden” is in their power. Candide realizes, however, that optimism is “…a mania that insists on everything being fine even when it is not (69). His idea of “cultivating our gardens” is a final acceptance that blind, philosophical positivism is foolish. Voltaire denounces the optimism of the world by using this symbol. It provides a more realistic outlook on the life.
Voltaire targets Candide’s optimism with a number of literary devices. The hyperbole and understatements are both used to bring out the humor in Candide, but they also draw attention to its twisted perspective. Voltaire used the symbolism associated with the garden as his last attempt to demonstrate the shortcomings of optimism. The garden symbolizes a more definitive way of living than the constant wishfulness and ignorance of life that often leads to further tragedy. Voltaire suggests that instead of pretending violence and cruelty do not exist, it is more beneficial to accept them and deal with them.
