Optimism In Voltaire’s Eyes

The positive thought of “everything is for the best”, that Voltaire so deeply criticizes is the fuel to the sixth and seventh chapter. The opening discussion point is the astonishing death of Pangloss, the philosopher. This event completely demoralizes Candide who questions the life statement he has lived to up to this point in the book. “If this is the best of all possible worlds [. . .] what can the rest be like?” (37). This is the game Voltaire is slowly introducing to us, his novel is based on making fun of the possibility of a person truly accepting a life that is cemented on the belief that all is for the best, that horrible moments are simply meant to be. This is becoming clearer through the pages that show how a positive attitude is slowly destroyed by horrible events that are inevitable through the journey.

The effects that Pangloss’ death have on Candide, change the course of his beliefs, the ideas he once stood up for are crumbling into pieces. Candide tells us the following after Pangloss’ death: “but when it comes to my dear Pangloss being hanged [. . .] I must know the reason why” (37). The theory Voltaire criticizes looks perfect on paper, the belief that everything is perfect and meant to be, is shown to be a way to free the individual’s mind from the catastrophes of life. It becomes the obligation of each individual to apply this theory in his personal life but you need to factor in the inevitable negative and sometimes absolutely illogical events that happen in one’s life. When it is our turn to suffer we can’t understand what is happening, why if everything is meant to be for the best do we have to suffer? Is living to the thought that everything is for the best, truly optimism or is it a simplistic, mediocre way to take refuge behind a weak lie, that all we live has to happen, that we are powerless in fate’s hands?

Voltaire quickly changes the suffering events in his novel to keep showing examples of how this life statement crumbles when being obligated to live terrible events by going back to the optimistic Candide. The one that feels that his “past life seemed like a nightmare and the present moment a happy dream” (39). We are back to the show Voltaire is plotting, the show that shows an individual who falls back to the theory his writer hates when confronting the good moments of his life but is thrown back to the lamenting and questioning when confronting the bad moments. This chapter leaves one huge question in my mind, what does Voltaire propose?