Candide Essay Topics

Optimists choose to value a glass that is half filled with water. Pessimists acknowledge the missing water, and complain as they tell the waitress to fill up the glass. Optimism is a trait that certain people exhibit, displaying a distinctive outlook on life. It is a tactic that involves focusing on the positive sides of an issue while struggling through terrible circumstances. Throughout the novel Candide, the author Voltaire uses the base principle expressed by the optimistic philosophy to convey one mans quest for personal happiness.

While Candide, the main character, is forced to strive through a repetition of hopeless events, he is reminded to live by the philosophy “All is for the best”.

Essay Example on Specific Examples Of Satire In Candide

Candide grows up in the Castle of Westfalia under the influence of Dr. Pangloss. Dr. Pangloss firmly believes that “Things can not be otherwise; for since everything was made for a purpose, everything is necessarily for the best purpose” (Voltaire 18).

Shortly after hearing the powerful conclusion drawn from Dr. Pangloss, Candide is expelled from the castle for engaging in a relationship with the baron’s daughter, Lady Cunegonde. This first act ignites the early questioning of Dr.Pangloss’s theory “All is for the best”.

Another character that challenged the philosophy of Dr. Pangloss was Lady Cunegonde. After being captured by the Bulgars, doubts began to arouse in her mind. Lady Cunegonde watched innocently as Dr. Pangloss was hung by order of his Eminence the Inquisitor. Following this event, Lady Cunegonde exclaimed, “I see now that Pangloss cruelly deceived me when he told me that all was for the best in the world” (Voltaire 36).

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Though Dr. Pangloss had taught Lady Cunegonde to accept every event and make to best of situations, she finds it impossible to justify that a pure life may be taken away for a positive reason.