Helping an old man to cross the road essay

Voltaire’s Candide: A Discussion Guide By David Bruce

Copyright 2009 by Bruce D. Bruce

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Preface

The purpose of this book is educational. I have read, studied and taught Voltaire’s Candide, and I wish to pass on what I have learned to other people who are interested in studying Voltaire’s Candide.

This book uses a question-and-answer format. It poses, then answers, relevant questions about Voltaire, background information, and Candide. I recommend that you read the relevant section of Candide, then read my comments, then go back and re-read the relevant section of Candide. However, do what works for you.

Teachers may find this book useful as a discussion guide for the novel. Teachers can have students read chapters from this short novel, then teachers can ask students selected questions from this study guide.

The long quotations from Voltaire’s Candide in this study guide, unless otherwise indicated, come from an 18th-century translation by Tobias Smollett. The short quotations (with page numbers in parentheses) are from the translation by Lowell Bair.

This study guide will occasionally use short quotations from books about Voltaire and Candide. The use of these short quotations is consistent with fair use:

§ 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use

Release date: 2004-04-30

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include —

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a

commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

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(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

Source of Fair Use information: <http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/107>.

“An Appreciation”

What are some anecdotes André Maurois tells about Voltaire? Can you find some other anecdotes about Voltaire?

Anecdotes by André Maurois

• At Ferney, Voltaire played a daily game of chess with Father Adam, a Jesuit. One hopes that the father was a patient man, for when Voltaire was losing, he would overturn the board, playing the game to the end only when he was winning. (Source: Andre Maurois, “An Appreciation,” Introduction to Voltaire, Candide, p. 2.)

• Voltaire was controversial and thought to be impious. Because of the attacks against him, he lived at Ferney, close to the border with Switzerland, where he could escape if necessary. While on her deathbed, Queen Maria Lecszinska wanted his impiety to be punished. However, her husband the King answered, “What can I do? If he were in Paris, I should exile him to Ferney.” (Source: Andre Maurois, “An Appreciation,” Introduction to Voltaire, Candide, p. 11.)

• During his life, Voltaire was often under attack by censors, and he lived close to the border so he could escape to Switzerland if necessary. When the case against Voltaire’s Man With Forty Crowns was called, a magistrate asked, “Is it only his books we shall burn?” (Source: Andre Maurois, “An Appreciation,” Introduction to Voltaire, Candide, pp. 11-12.)

• At Ferney, Voltaire had a church built. In it, he had a stage built for the performances of plays, saying, “If you meet any of the devout, tell them that I’ve built a church; if you meet pleasant people, tell them I’ve finished a theater.” (Source: Andre Maurois, “An Appreciation,” Introduction to Voltaire, Candide, pp. 2-3.)

• At Ferney, Voltaire built a church. This inscription appeared over its porch: Dei Erexit Voltaire. Translated: “Voltaire Erected [This] to God.” Visitors used to look at the inscription and remark, “Two great names.” (Source: Andre Maurois, “An Appreciation,” Introduction to Voltaire, Candide, p. 2.)

• At Ferney, Voltaire had a church built. He also had a tomb for himself built, half in and

half out of the church. That way, Voltaire explained, “The rascals will say that I’m neither in nor out.” (Source: Andre Maurois, “An Appreciation,” Introduction to Voltaire, Candide, p. 2.)

An Additional Anecdote

• A man who wanted to start a new religion approached Voltaire for advice. Voltaire told him, “I would advise that you first get yourself crucified, then rise on the third day.” (Source: John Deedy, A Book of Catholic Anecdotes, p. 243.)

If you feel like doing research, give information about Voltaire’s biography. (Avoid plagiarism — don’t simply download information; instead, put the information in your own words and tell the source(s) of information you used.)

• Voltaire lived from 1694 to 1778. He was a French writer who is today known primarily as a satirist. He crusaded against evil and ignorance, and he is an icon of the 18th-century Enlightenment. Today, Voltaire is primarily known for his satire Candide, which he published in 1759.

• The Enlightenment supported reason, science, and the equality of man. It influenced the American Revolution.

• Voltaire’s full name was François-Marie Arouet (the name “Voltaire” was a pseudonym), and he was born on November 21, 1694 in Paris, France. King Louis XIV ruled France. The Jesuits have been known for providing excellent educations to many people, and the Jesuits educated Voltaire at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, which he attended from 1704 to 1711.

• Voltaire studied law from 1711 to 1713, and he worked as a secretary to the French ambassador serving in Holland, then a place of relative tolerance and freedom.

• Voltaire’s satire and criticism frequently got him in trouble, including time spent in prison and time spent in exile. He criticized both the government and the Catholic Church, so he made many enemies. He hated tyranny and religious intolerance.

• For five months in 1716, Voltaire was forced into exile from Paris. He was imprisoned in the Bastille, a famous prison in Paris, from 1717 to 1718.

• In 1718, at age twenty-four, Voltaire wrote his first play, a tragedy titled Oedipe, which gained him fame.

• Voltaire became wealthy in 1726. He also again spent time in the Bastille in 1726. He was allowed to leave the Bastille as long as he moved to England.

• Voltaire stayed mainly in England, then relatively a place of tolerance and freedom, from 1726 to 1729. He was famous, and English VIPs loved him. He was also good at learning new languages, and he became fluent in English.

• Voltaire wrote much, often in English. Two essays that he wrote in English were “Essay Upon Epic Poetry” and “Essay Upon the Civil Wars in France,” both of which were published in 1727.

• After three years in England, and back in France, Voltaire wrote his Philosophical Letters, a comparison of two governments: the English government and the French government. He preferred the English government, and so his book was banned and he had to go into exile from Paris again.

• Voltaire was elected to the French Academy in 1746.

• Voltaire spent time in Holland and in Berlin.

• In 1759, Voltaire bought an estate at Ferney, which was close to Switzerland. That way, if he needed to leave quickly, he could go to Switzerland, where he would be safe.

• In 1759, Voltaire published Candide, his most enduring work. Many historical events influenced his writing of his masterpiece:

• In 1755, an earthquake hit Lisbon, Portugal, killing many people.

• In 1756, the Seven Years’ War began in the German states.

• In 1757, an English Admiral was unjustly executed.

• On his return to Paris in February 1778, Voltaire was treated as a hero.

• On May 30, 1778, at age 84, Voltaire died in Paris.

Chapter 1: “How Candide was brought up in a beautiful castle, and how he was driven from it.”

Voltaire is an Enlightenment writer. What is the Enlightenment?

• The Enlightenment is also known as the neoclassic movement. It followed and was influenced by the Renaissance, and it was both an artistic and a philosophical movement.

• The Enlightenment was an optimistic movement. It believed that Humankind can make progress in solving the problems of the world. By using reason and logic, Humankind can make things better. The Enlightenment supported reform of social structures.

• The Enlightenment was anti-ignorance. It supported science, and it rejected superstition.

• The Enlightenment loved Greco-Roman art, including literature and architecture.

• Enlightenment gardens were laid out in geometric patterns, reflecting the Enlightenment’s love of geometry and mathematics.

• Enlightenment poets such as Alexander Pope and John Dryden used metrical patterns that were almost clocklike in their regularity (but they were masters at varying the rhythms for artistic effects).

• Enlightenment authors used satire. By criticizing society’s evils, they were hoping to make society better. Voltaire’s Candide attacks bad ideas and hopes to make society better.

• Dr. L. Kip Wheeler of Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tennessee, writes this:

For me, I have found one useful exercise to understand the difference between the Enlightenment and the Romantic aesthetic that followed. This exercise is examining the architecture of English and continental gardens in each period. In the Enlightenment, the garden would be kept neatly trimmed, with only useful or decorative plants allowed to grow, and every weed meticulously uprooted. The trees would be planted according to mathematical models for harmonious spacing, and the shrubbery would be pruned into geometric shapes such as spheres, cones, or pyramids. The preferred garden walls would involve Greco-Roman columns perfectly spaced from each other in clean white marble, smoothly burnished in straight edges and lines. If a stream or well were available, the architect might divert it down a carefully designed irrigation path, or pump it into the spray of a marble fountain. Such a setting was considered ideal for hosting civilized gatherings and leisurely strolls through the grounds. Such features were common in gardens from the 1660s up through the late 1790s. Nature was something to be shaped according to the dictates of human will and tamed according to the rules of human logic.

On the other hand, the later Romanticists might be horrified at the artificial design imposed upon nature. The ideal garden in the Romantic period might be planted in the ruins of an ancient cloister or churchyard. Wild ivy might be encouraged to grow along the picturesque, rough-hewn walls. Rather than ornamental shrubbery, fruit trees would be planted. The flowers might be loosely clustered according to type, but overgrown random patterns caused by the natural distribution of wind and rain were considered more aesthetically pleasing. Even better, rather than planting a garden, a Romanticist nature-lover would be encouraged to [go] walking in the untamed wilderness, clambering up and down the uneven rocks and gullies of a natural stream. Many Romanticists who inherited Enlightenment gardens simply tore the structures down and allowed the grounds to run wild. Nature was considered something larger than humanity, and the passions it inspired in its untamed form were considered healthier (more “natural”) than the faint-hearted passions originating in falsely imposed human design.

Source: http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/faculty/wheeler/lit_terms_E.html

Date: 25 June 2004

Candide can be regarded as a picaresque novel. What is a picaresque novel?

• A picaresque novel has a vagabond, usually of low birth, as a hero. The vagabond wanders from place to place and has many adventures. In a picaresque novel, odd events occur, such as a character who is thought to be dead suddenly turning up very much alive. This happens often in Candide, which takes the picaresque novel to an extreme — it is a satire, after all.

• Picaresque novels often depict a corrupt society, which is certainly the case in Candide. Its hero lives by his wits, which is kind of the case in Candide, but the title character is naïve and frequently taken advantage of.

Candide is a satire. Define “satire.”

• Satire is humorous criticism. The humor, however, can be scathing.

• Satire is an attempt to make the world better. By attacking and exposing human stupidity, the satirist hopes that the end result is that the human stupidity is replaced with human intelligence.

• Satire was a popular literary device of the Enlightenment.

• Unfortunately, satire does not always work. Sometimes, people think that the satire is about someone else, not themselves.

• “Satire is a mirror in which people see everyone else’s face but their own.” — Jonathan Swift, author of “A Modest Proposal” and Gulliver’s Travels.

What do we learn about Candide and Cunegonde in Chapter 1?

• Candide has a gentle character. He is described as having “rather sound judgment with great simplicity of mind” (17).

• Apparently, Candide is a bastard. According to the servants, Candide may be the love child of the Baron’s sister, who would not marry the father because he could prove only 71 generations of nobility.

• Cunegonde is 17, plumb, and pretty.

• Candide thinks that Cunegonde is beautiful. She also has a romantic interest in Candide.

• Candide and Cunegonde are on the verge of having sex when they are discovered by the Baron, who drives Candide from his castle with kicks to the butt.

• We see satire here, of course. According to the servants, Candide may be the love child of the Baron’s sister, who would not marry the father because he could prove only 71 generations of nobility, while she herself has 72. Exaggeration is an important part of satire.

Describe Pangloss’ philosophy.

• Pangloss believes that this is the “best of all possible worlds” (18).

• The Baron’s castle is the best of all possible castles, and the baroness is the best of all possible baronesses.

• This philosophy seems rather silly. Certainly, it runs afoul against the existence of evil. Wouldn’t the best of all possible worlds lack evil?

• Pangloss teaches “metaphysico-theologo-cosmonigology” (18). This word combines three fields of philosophy:

Metaphysics is the study of “being” or existence.

Theology is the study of God.

Cosmology is the study of the universe.

We also see the letters “nig” here. “Niggardly” meant “very little.” We will see that

Pangloss has very little intelligence, despite his education.

If you feel like doing research, describe Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (sometimes spelled Leibnitz) and philosophical optimism. (Avoid plagiarism.)

• Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716), a mathematician, scientist, and philosopher, really did believe that this is the best of all possible worlds. He believed that partly on religious grounds. If God created the world, and if God is all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful, then the world that He created must be the best of all possible worlds. Leibnitz’ philosophy is that of philosophical optimism.

• Leibniz wrote his Theodicy (1710), in which he defended God against evil. A theodicy is a defense of God’s divine attributes — all-good (omnibenevolent), all-knowing (omniscient), and all-powerful (omnipotent) — despite the presence of evil in the world.

• Evil exists, obviously, in this world, but Leibniz believed that this so-called evil must serve a higher purpose of which we are unaware.