Candid, a miniature classic

Candied (1759) is a miniature classic of the enlightenment age by Voltaire (1694-1778), a French philosopher, entailing all the consistent theories and philosophies of the era. The tone of the story is absurd, sarcastic, exaggerated, ironic and especially so much satiric that the masterpiece causes the author enjoy the rank of one of the greatest satirists as Jonathan Swift. With euphemism, hyperbole and understatement, the author creates a mockingly satirical atmosphere with short, compact, well-organized, well-structured, symmetrically balanced group of sentences that can best sustain the rhythmic flow of the fast-pace plot. The narrator of the whole story is third person and this was the best ever narrative technique to suit Voltaire’s special purposes of a picaresque narrative entertaining the philosophical discussions.
The passage under analysis is in a satirical tone and sentence structure is emphatically rhythmic, starts with a remarkable turn in the story as the hero, after bearing a series of hardships, finally reaches at the decisive moment, the marrying to his beloved but with an ironic state of affairs that devalues the romantic charm of the situation, leaving the hero in a stoic retreat and posing the reality of life even bitter than earlier, leaving no space for any sort of foolish ‘all is good’ optimism. In response to Candide’s consultation about marrying Cunegonde, Dr. Pangloss answers that she can marry him ‘with her left hand’. The phrase reminds us the contrast that Pangloss’ status decline in the end of the story, serves for the theme of anti-optimism and is a result of his unreasoned use of word magic just to philosophize the state of affairs with no actual reasoning. Martin’s answer, Cacambo’s advice and old woman’s approval, all of this constitutes a step towards the development of their characters. Also Voltaire’s art and style of narration aggrandizes the effect by his skilful handling of concluding comments and making them sharply witty as in the end this passage happens to be.
Henceforth, Voltaire involves the reader in a series of juxtaposed contrasting situations and state of affairs to help prove his viewpoint against Liebnizian optimism. The distance between idealism and reality is inaccessible. When, in the story, the ideal state of affairs happens to occur, it seems far worse than ever. The narrative technique here suggests the theme of the story. The desire having been fulfilled became detestable rather than idealized. The underlying message is the proven sublimity of the reason over the blind faith in optimism. The sentences are the best structures of coordination and subordination that creates an unending rhythm and the effect is the successful absorption of the attention of the reader. The worse mental state of most of the characters of the story is depicted to achieve a heightened sense of pessimism in the concluding part, except Martin who is already a pessimist and resultantly is in a better mental condition because, “he took things as they came”. The exiled packs remind us on-going anarchy and corruption in the world institutions outside the farm. The tone of the passage is grave, serious and having a mysterious interest of story-telling style. The words chosen by Voltaire entertain our sense of understanding and meet our eyes with gaiety. The sharp bitterness in concluding remarks of the old woman consisting of a compact-phrased account of all the horrifying miseries they had experienced earlier philosophize the resultant shattered state of minds that have become unable to bear the heavy weight of time.
The author makes the characters voice his opinions, also creates the situations or event-flow to help support accumulation of the proof of his viewpoint. As the discussion of ‘convulsion of anxiety or lethargy of boredom’ helps serve not only as supporting evidence against over-philosophizing of the events and the life but also as a prediction, a ground for the end of all of this philosophizing in a work ethics formulae. Another example of this technique is Pangloss’ confession of believing ‘nothing of the kind’ (optimism), who has been the embodiment of Liebnizian optimism throughout the story. As coincidence plays a greater part of the plot indicating the role of accident and chance in the life and its surroundings rejecting the appeals of foolish optimism, a coincidence brings back Paquette and Friar Girofleo in a miserable state. The whole story of their misery is abbreviated in short, loaded and successive phrases. And this makes the protagonist “hesitate more than ever” that sparks in terms of his perfection to maturity from naivety. Voltaire uses euphemism, ‘play her trade’ understating Paquette’s prostitution achieving a biting humorous effect. The last greetings of Pangloss to Paquette are to devalue the solidity and authenticity of the so called philosopher not only in terms of the personality but also the theory, reflecting him in the most degenerated state of the fools. The tone of the passage is direct and satirical and creates an effect of vividness. The last comments by Martin and Pangloss also offer a contrast of the character statistics of both the ‘types’.
The main quality of the language use of Voltaire is his sentence to sentence rhythmic overflow that renders the text a quality of strong and fast pace plot. He avoids long predications, and with compact little phrases and clauses sustains the flow of the plot while keeping patterns symmetrical. His word choice renders often a mood and tone most suited to the situation or author’s plan. His vivid and direct expression with prevailing verb patterns involves the reader’s mind not just in the course of events but also in the philosophical discussions. He satirizes Dr. Pangloss at his writing ‘an excellent paper’ to prove Candide’s right to marry Cunegonde. He satirizes the common so called philosophical practices based on no reason and a magic of words. The loosely connected clauses cause grip and carry impressively the sequence and incidence of the text. The concluding theme of the first paragraph ‘the double satisfaction’ is literary machinery, the satire on the both corrupted institutions of formal society, the religion and the class system. An example of figurative language in the text is Pan Gloss’ failure to ‘shrine’ at some German university which, at the same time, is a Juvenilia satire on the theology of the professor. His failure symbolizes the failure of his theology as well. The state of affairs in the beginning of the second paragraph of the text is in definite clauses and phrases so beautifully and vividly interwoven in the mainstream of the story that it recalls the whole of the incidence happened before. The second half of the paragraph contains a symbol of the packs of exiles being transferred through the ships indicating the corruption of the political and religious authorities and creating an effect of anarchy and unrest in the external real world which serves the purpose of the story theme that the world is a utopian at all. This symbol is introduced in a story-telling narrative style that fits to harmonize the part of the text with continuity. Also a repetition, ‘more candis, more pashas, more effendis’, occurs to heighten the effect and deepen the mood. At the end, the old woman compares all past physical miseries with the psychological one and creates an effect of irony that aggrandizes the effect of pessimism in case that all miseries end up with a greater misery. In the next paragraph, the phrase “press the point” is an alliteration followed by an ironical situation that the embodiment of the over optimism Pangloss has himself come to disbelieving it by the irrational nature of world, its outlandish coincidences and his long run miseries. Martin’s ‘detestable principles’ is an ironic statement that means its reverse. Candide’s hesitation ‘more than ever’ symbolizes the last phase of the character development of the protagonist towards maturity when now he is ready to reject false philosophies. The compact phrases describing the story of Paquette and Girofleo add sequence and harmony to the passage. The last greetings of Pangloss to Paquette get his stature of the philosopher downsize equally as a person and as a theologian and is a comic burlesque, a satire as sharp as of Juvenalian effect.
The very first sentence of the text adds information about Candide’s having no literal desire but being forced by the lineage pride of the barrens to marry his once-adorned beloved. This context underscores the theme of the story as well. More the like, old man’s comparison of all past miseries to the recent psychological one serves as a guide to the whole background story and bewares us of the past incidents as rape, buttock cut off, flogging and hanging in an auto-da-fe and dissection. The last greetings by Pangloss to Paquette also illuminate our vision of the text. We come to know about the past incident of Pangloss’ syphilis due to his sexual relations with Paquette and his resultant loss of an eye, an ear, a nose as a remedy to be cured. Thus, the context illustrates our vision of the text and the story.