Great Works of Literature II

Pangloss is a very interesting character in this story and could be considered the driving force behind the satire which Voltaire creates.  “Everything necessarily serves the best end.”  This quote is essentially the very basis of Pangloss’s belief.  This optimism, that everything happens for a reason, is the main target of satire for Voltaire.  What makes Pangloss such an interesting character is the fact that he is completely unbelievable.  He is a greatly exaggerated version of a person of faith.

An important part of the satirical nature of Pangloss is the absolutely expressive amount of  hardships that he goes through, he has syphilis, is nearly killed, and put in prison and through all this he still maintains his crazy belief that all is right with the world this way.  He also is the reason for a mans death.  He could have saved the Jacques, but chose not to because “the bay of Lisbon had been formed expressly for this Anabaptist to drown in.”  The very nature of this character is utterly ridiculous.  Anyone with any sort of common sense would not follow the beliefs of Pangloss, but the fact that Candide follows him blindly is part of Voltaire’s commentary that there will alwasy be those who cannot, or do not want to think for themselves and would rather have someone do it for them.

When I finished reading Candide, or Optimism, I believed that Martin was the character in this story that made the most sense with his philosophy and thinking, at least based on the story’s pace and events that occurred during Candide’s journey to find Cunegonde. Martin, quite the opposite of Pangloss, believes that life is full of misery and hopeless and that everything that happens was for the worst. However, I believed that his thinking was true because all of the events that happened to Pangloss, Cunegonde, Martin, Candide and the other characters were things that happened for the worst, contrary to Pangloss’ philosophy that all things in the world are for the best.

In the ending, when all of the characters were reunited and lived in a different place, I found it to be pretty ironic when it came to Pangloss’ optimism. Although no one died, everyone came together with the worst possible outcome. It turns out that Martin was the one who was correct. Everything turned out bad for Candide, especially, since his love for Cunegonde turned out to be different from what he wanted. She became ugly and his heart didn’t want them to be married. Even though he lost everything and his last hope would reside in Cunegonde, it turned out that even she wasn’t the best possible outcome for him.

While I am not yet finished with Candide, I have done some research on it.

I was amused at Voltaire’s inclusion of the character Pangloss the philosopher. He plays the role of teacher to Candide, yet his teachings are flawed. Pangloss confuses cause and effect in his logical reasoning, which is obviously intentional and done for satirical effect. It has been noted that Voltaire used Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s theories of Theodicy and Optimism (which heavily focused on God and religion) to construct Pangloss and his irrational theories.

Personally, I see Pangloss as an archetypical philosopher, one who makes flawed assumptions based on very little actual scientific knowledge, yet considers himself more intelligent than others. I am an advocate of science and do not believe that archaic philosophies should be applied to everyday life if humanity should wish to progress (Organized religion, anyone?) I also believe that philosophical thinking is a good exercise for the mind, but it seems too antiquated to be used in terms of modern, everyday life. In my opinion, had humanity not clung to dated morals and utilized the scientific method from the very start, we as a society could have advanced beyond where we are today.