Candide's Contrasting Conceptions

Candide’s Contrasting Conceptions

Most everyone has heard of the difference between an optimist and a pessimist in regards to a drink; one views the glass as half full and the other views the glass as half empty. Add to this mix the realist, who would just as soon drink the water from the glass, and you have three of the world’s most prominent ideologies expressed in simplistic terms. What would happen, however, if these three ideologies were not contained to this acceptable conception, but, instead, were put on steroids and used to totally discount all other worldviews? This is precisely the case with three of the main characters in Voltaire’s Candide: Pangloss, Martin, and Candide. Pangloss represents unceasing and seemingly irrational optimism bordering on determinism, Martin embodies a relentless gravitational pessimism, and Candide, though less dogmatic with his own beliefs and willing to consider others, possesses an underlying philosophy of practicality that can be occasionally glimpsed throughout the book, coming to full light at the end. The first two philosophies often conflict with each other, but when combined with Candide’s finished worldview at the close of his journeys, improve each other into a philosophy more sufficient than any of the three can be by itself.

The first ideology is that of Pangloss, a learned philosopher who taught Candide in his youth. Pangloss insists that the glass is not only half full, but that it is the best possible water in the best possible glass with the best possible proportions, and that it could not be any more or less full than it already is because it is the best that it could possibly be. This philosophy is first displayed in the beginning of the story as Pangloss is tutoring Candide. He makes the statement, “It is demonstrated… that things cannot be otherwise, for, everything being made for an end, everything is necessarily for the best end” (Voltaire 2). He continues in the same lesson, “those who have asserted that all is well have said a foolish thing; they should have said that all is for the best” (Voltaire 2). This extreme optimism doesn’t only view the good of the world as the best it possibly could be, but also the evils. After contracting an STD, losing an eye and an ear, being shipwrecked, caught in an earthquake, watching a friend drown, and almost dying, Pangloss makes the statement, “all this is for the very best. For if there is a volcano in Lisbon, it could not be anywhere else. For it is impossible that things should not be where they are. For all is well” (Voltaire 13). Pangloss holds to optimism to such a degree that it causes him to view the world through a lens that precludes even the possibility that some things happen that should not be, and thus creates a belief so arrested by optimism that it borders on determinism. His philosophy is shown to be insufficient at the end of the story when, after experiencing an immense amount of darkness, he still maintained that everything is wonderful “and believed not a bit of it” (Voltaire 93).

The next ideology is held by Martin, and it is diametrically opposed to Pangloss’. Martin asserts that, not only is the glass half empty, but it might as well be completely empty for all that it matters, and that it is a rather depressing glass of water after all. Right after Candide meets him, Martin is described as having “nothing to hope for” (Voltaire 55) and in one of their many discussions, when Candide asks Martin to what end the world was formed, he responds by saying, “To drive us mad” (Voltaire 58). After they arrive in Venice, Candide falls into a slump because he is afraid that Cunégonde is dead and, rather than consoling him, “Martin never stopped proving to him that there was little virtue and little happiness on earth” (Voltaire 71). Later, Candide tells Martin that he is very hard and Martin responds with, “That’s because I have lived” (Voltaire 75). Martin’s philosophy is opposite Pangloss’; he views the world as more possessed by evil than good and, rather than man being made to live in the “best of all possible worlds” (Voltaire 2), he concludes that “man was born to live in the convulsions of anxiety or the lethargy of boredom” (Voltaire 93). Martin’s philosophy is shown to be insufficient in the empty, sad life that it leads its adherents to when it causes them to believe that “God has abandoned [this world] to some maleficent being” (Voltaire 56).

The last ideology belongs to Candide himself and is a philosophy that focuses on practicality. Rather than trying to decide whether the glass is half full or half empty, Candide looks at the glass and debates between the two options for awhile, but in the end, decides that the purpose of the water is to be drunk, and the way it is regarded makes little difference to its purpose. He comes to grips fully with this philosophy at the end of the story, and although he bounces between the worldviews of Pangloss and Martin along the way, his inherent practicality can be observed surfacing from time to time in his journeys. Its first display is close to the beginning after Candide has escaped from unwilling enlistment in an army and is nearly starving. He encounters a preacher and asks for bread; when the preacher retorts by asking him if he is part of the good cause and believes the Pope is the antichrist, Candide responds with, “I had never heard that before… but whether he is or not, I have no bread” (Voltaire 7). Later, after an earthquake, Candide is lying wounded in the street and asks Pangloss to get him some oil and wine because he is dying. Pangloss responds with a proof about the earthquake and Candide replies, “Nothing is more probable… but for the love of God, a little oil and wine” (Voltaire 13). At the end of their journeys when Candide’s philosophy is realized, Pangloss gives him one last proof as to how everything transpired for the best to bring them to the pleasant gardening life they now lead, and Candide replies, “That is well said… but we must cultivate our garden” (Voltaire 96).

The three companions in this story display markedly different philosophies, and although each holds his own unique one, their beliefs influence each other and cause worldview changes in all three. Although Candide is initially the most indecisive in his belief system, his conception ends up being the one that causes the most change in their collective worldviews. At the end of their story, they are discussing their disgust with their current life of boredom, and they encounter an old man who, though not rich, had created a happy life for himself and his family by living by the montra, “work keeps away three great evils, boredom, vice, and need” (Voltaire 95). Candide reflects deeply on his advice and, the next time Pangloss tries to give him a spiel, interrupts, “I also know… that we must cultivate our garden” (Voltaire 95). Pangloss and Martin both acknowledge this practical philosophy’s merit and allow it to modify their own; Pangloss says that man was put in the garden of Eden to work and Martin makes the statement, “Let us work without reasoning… it is the only way to make life endurable” (Voltaire 95). Thus, though the three’s differing philosophies contrast and conflict throughout the story, they all inform and improve each other and, at the end, result in a philosophy more reliable and whole than any of the three by itself.