Humor And Irony In Voltaire's Candide

The word “enlightenment” can have many different meanings, though all dealing with the subjects of man and some type of scientific advancement. The best way to describe enlightenment is being a time of exploration and scientific advancement. Enlightenment is something that has been researched, highly discussed, and even written about. Voltaire’s well known French satirical tale Candide is among many of the written examples of enlightenment, which also happens to be one of the tale’s main themes. Voltaire is able to reflect a number of ideals about freedom and individuality while using humor and irony in his work. Though Candide in many ways represents enlightenment, a majority of the time during the novel, enlightenment is being tested by being
Optimism was created to basically view life as a glass halfway full instead of halfway empty. It is a philosophy which states that we as a people live in the best of all possible worlds and that God created this world involving the laws of physics. It is quite interesting that this is a major theme in the story, considering the fact that Voltaire is known for famously mocking this idea. Voltaire uses satire to mock and criticize this idea using one of the main character’s Pangloss. Pangloss can be seen as a pre-enlightenment philosopher who preaches the importance of optimism by stating “For, everything having been made for a purpose, everything is necessarily for the best purpose” (Voltaire. 360) and “ the fall of man and the curse entered necessarily into the scheme of the best of all possible worlds.” (361). As Pangloss speaks about the good optimism brings, now naive Candide feels as if he is able to overcome all the cruelties that he encounters such as rapes, robberies, diseases, an earthquake, and many betrayals while still feeling like he lives in the greatest world. Looking at all the terrible things Candide has to endure in a way suffering and optimism go hand in hand. Voltaire has made the novel offer a multitude of pain, misery, and loss with an intention to emphasize the flaws of optimism. With more complex and pessimistic minded characters coming across, even Pangloss
In Lisbon's harbor, there is a vicious storm circulating which destroys the boat. Jacques attempts to save a sailor, but is thrown overboard during the process. Watching nobody making an attempt to save him, Candide “was just going to jump after him, but was prevented by the philosopher Pangloss, who demonstrated to him that the Bay of Lisbon had been made on purpose for the Anabaptist to be drowned” (Voltaire. 389). Candide is yet again shocked by Pangloss’ actions by stopping him from saving Jacques, but behold Pangloss starting to once more, preach about destiny and the greater good. He claims that Jacques being thrown overboard and drowning is somehow meant for the best, not even recognizing that either one of them had an opportunity to save his life. If Pangloss did not look at this situation as an optimist and thinking that something good would come out of it, he would not have had the urge to stop Candide from saving Jacques. This is a situation where the cruelty and suffering seems inescapable but can also reconcile with some of the values of enlightenment. Enlightenment touches on testing authority and obtaining self authorization. In this case Candide could have disobeyed Pangloss’ command to not save Jacques because he knew that saving him was the right thing to do. If