Discussion Topic
Voltaire's treatment of rationalism, skepticism, and romanticism in Candide
Summary:
In Candide, Voltaire critiques rationalism, skepticism, and romanticism through satire. He mocks rationalism by portraying Pangloss's unwavering optimism as absurd. Skepticism is addressed by illustrating the futility of questioning everything without action. Romanticism is satirized through exaggerated and unrealistic portrayals of love and adventure, highlighting the impracticality of romantic ideals in the harsh realities of life.
How does Voltaire relate to Rationalism, Skepticism, and Romanticism in Candide?
Voltaire's Candide is a quintessential satire: there is hardly a paragraph that does not express ridicule. The main focus of this ridicule is the Optimism of Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz based upon a syllogism that since God created the world and since God is perfect, therefore the world is perfect. In his assessment of the foolishness of this philosophy, Voltaire has his characters experience almost every kind of misfortune possible, yet they emerge believing that there is a reason for everything and the world is good. In Chapter XI, for instance after Pangloss has lost and ear and a nose to the ravages of syphilis, he justifies all his misfortune:
...it is an indispensable feature of the best of all possible worlds, a necessary ingredient: for if Columbus, on an island off the Americas, had not contracted this disease- which poisons the source of all procreation, and often even...
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prevents procreation, contrary though this be to nature’s great plan- we would have neither chocolate nor cochineal....
In the end, Candide decides in Chapter XIX that being optimistic is "a mania for insisting that everything is all right when everything is going wrong."
Along with criticizing Optimism, Voltaire expresses much of the philosophy of Skepticism promulgated by David Hume, who questioned religion and this philosophy of a perfect God. Hume asked why such a perfect God would create an imperfect world. Furthermore, Hume expressed the belief that mankind is fallible, an idea which brings into question all truths that man holds. As he questions Optimism, Voltaire at times has his characters exemplify the tenets of Rationalism. For instance, while the friends are in the utopia of Eldorado, Candide complains that Lady Cunegonde is not there and he wants to leave. But, the king of Eldorado reasons, "It's a foolish thing to do...when a man is fairly well off somewhere, he ought to stay there." However, the Romantic Candide, who is given to his personal and emotion musings about Cunegonde, rejects this reasoning and, as Voltaire writes, "...the two fortunate men decided to be fortunate no longer."
How does Voltaire address rationalism, skepticism, and romanticism in Candide?
All three of these schools of thought are definitely portrayed in Voltaire's classic satire Candide.
Voltaire shows these schools in different ways, however.
You can see the young Candide as an embodiment of Romanticism. He is also romantic. That is to say, he is romantic in his love for Cunegonde. He is also a very Romantic figure. He is the sort of innocent Rousseau celebrated in his work, and goes out to meet the world in a spirit of trust, even love.
Dr. Pangloss is very much a figure of rationalism. Again, he embodies rationalism, much as Candide does Romanticism. He has a rational reason and a theory for everything. All that happens is explained, even explained away, and he meets the world with his theories first, his emotions a distant second.
More than one reader has seen Pangloss as a satire on the philosopher Leibniz. You can see what happens to Candide, and what happens to Pangloss and his theories, as Voltaire's position, which you could call a deep, even profound, skepticism. This is reinforced by the way that no system is allowed to stand unchallenged, and no public explanation of the way the world works is allowed to go unskewered.
Candide may be a Romantic figure (and again, a romantic one), and Dr. Pangloss may celebrate rationalism, but Voltaire can be seen in the workings of the plot and the novel's events, and his world view is very skeptical.
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