The originality of the conflict, plot and system of images in Voltaire’s philosophical story “Candide, or Optimism”. "Candide, or Optimism" (Voltaire): description and analysis of the novel from the encyclopedia

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"Candide" is a tragicomedy. Tragedy is in wars, evil, diseases, oppression and tyranny, in intolerance and blind superstition, stupidity, robberies, disasters (like the Lisbon earthquake) faced by Candide and his teacher Pangloss (an image that transparently hints at Leibniz). Comic effect lies in the explanations that Pangloss, and sometimes Candide, try to give to human misfortunes.

The pinnacle of the cycle and Voltaire’s work in general was the story “Candide, or Optimism.” The impetus for its creation was the famous Lisbon earthquake on November 1, 1755, when the flourishing city was destroyed and many people died. This event renewed the controversy surrounding the position of the German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz: “Everything is good.” Voltaire himself earlier shared Leibniz's optimism, but in Candide an optimistic outlook on life becomes a sign of inexperience and social illiteracy.

Outwardly, the story is structured as a biography of the main character, a story of all kinds of disasters and misfortunes that befall Candide in his wanderings around the world. At the beginning of the story, Candide is expelled from the castle of Baron Thunder-ten-Tronck because he dared to fall in love with the baron’s daughter, the beautiful Cunegonde. He ends up as a mercenary in the Bulgarian army, where he is driven through the ranks thirty-six times and only manages to escape during a battle in which thirty thousand souls were killed; then he survives a storm, a shipwreck and an earthquake in Lisbon, where he falls into the hands of the Inquisition and almost dies at an auto-da-fé. In Lisbon, the hero meets the beautiful Cunegonde, who has also suffered many misfortunes, and they go to South America, where Candide finds himself in the fantastic countries of Orelion and Eldorado; through Suriname he returns to Europe, visits France, England and Italy, and his wanderings end in the vicinity of Constantinople, where he marries Cunegonde and all the characters in the story gather on the small farm he owns. Apart from Pangloss, there is no happy heroes: Everyone tells a chilling story of their suffering, and this abundance of grief makes the reader perceive violence, cruelty as the natural state of the world. People in it differ only in the degree of misfortune; any society is unfair, and the only happy country in the story is the non-existent Eldorado. By depicting the world as a kingdom of the absurd, Voltaire anticipates the literature of the twentieth century.

Candide (the hero's name means "sincere" in French), as it says at the beginning of the story, "is a young man whom nature has endowed with the most pleasant disposition. His whole soul was reflected in his face. He judged things quite sensibly and kind-heartedly." Candide is the model of the “natural man” of the Enlightenment, in the story he plays the role of a simpleton hero, he is a witness and victim of all the vices of society. Candide trusts people, especially his mentors, and learns from his first teacher Pangloss that there is no effect without a cause and everything is for the best in this best of worlds. Pangloss is the embodiment of Leibniz's optimism; the inconsistency and stupidity of his position is proven by every plot twist, but Pangloss is incorrigible. As befits a character in a philosophical story, he is devoid of a psychological dimension, an idea is only tested on him, and Voltaire’s satire deals with Pangloss primarily as the bearer of a false and therefore dangerous idea of optimism.

Pangloss in the story is opposed by brother Martin, a pessimistic philosopher who does not believe in the existence of good in the world; he is as unshakably committed to his convictions as Pangloss, just as incapable of learning lessons from life. The only character to whom this is given is Candide, whose statements throughout the story demonstrate how little by little he gets rid of the illusions of optimism, but is in no hurry to accept the extremes of pessimism. It is clear that in the genre of a philosophical story we cannot talk about the evolution of the hero, as the depiction of moral changes in a person is usually understood; The characters in philosophical stories are deprived of the psychological aspect, so the reader cannot empathize with them, but can only watch in a detached manner as the characters go through different ideas. Since the heroes of Candide, deprived inner world, cannot develop their own ideas naturally, in the process of internal evolution, the author has to take care to supply them with these ideas from without. Such a final idea for Candide is the example of a Turkish elder who declares that he does not know and never knew the names of muftis and viziers: “I believe that in general people who interfere in public affairs sometimes die in the most pitiful way and that they deserve it. But I’m not at all interested in what’s going on in Constantinople; it’s enough for me that I send fruits from the garden I cultivate there for sale.” In the mouth of the same Eastern sage, Voltaire puts the glorification of work (after “Robinson” a very frequent motif in the literature of the Enlightenment, in “Candide” expressed in the most capacious, philosophical form): “Work drives away three great evils from us: boredom, vice and need.” .

The example of a happy old man suggests to Candide the final formulation of his own life position: “We must cultivate our garden.” In these famous words, Voltaire expresses the result of the development of educational thought: each person must clearly limit his field of activity, his “garden,” and work in it steadily, constantly, cheerfully, without questioning the usefulness and meaning of his activities, just like a gardener cultivating the garden day after day. Then the gardener’s work pays off in fruits. “Candide” says that human life is difficult, but bearable, one cannot give in to despair - action must replace contemplation. Goethe would later come to exactly the same conclusion in the finale of Faust.

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4 Common features of Voltaire’s philosophical stories

Andre Maurois in " Literary portraits" called the story "Candide" the pinnacle of Voltaire's creativity.

This story was written in 1759 and became an important milestone not only in the development of the philosophical genre, originating from Montesquieu's Persian Letters, but also in the history of all educational thought.

The story tells about the misadventures of the young man Candide, a pupil of a Westphalian baron, who is in love with the daughter of his teacher Cunegonde, a student of the home teacher Dr. Pangloss, who develops Leibniz’s idea that “everything is for the best in this best of worlds.” The cruel trials to which Candide, Cunegonde, Pangloss, Candide's servant and friend Cacambo are subjected, whom fate carries all over the world from Bulgaria, Holland, Portugal (where the famous earthquake of 1755 occurs) to Argentina, the legendary and happy country of Eldorado, Suriname, and then Paris, London, Venice, Constantinople. At the end of the story, Candide, having married the extremely ugly Cunegonde and accompanied by the sick Pangloss, who has lost his optimism, finds refuge on a small farm and finds in physical labor The answer to all philosophical questions is: “You need to cultivate your garden.”
Contemporaries perceived the story “Candide” not only as a satire on Leibniz’s theodicy, but also as a radical denial of faith in “all-good providence,” which undermined the foundations of any religion, including deistic. Human world Voltaire portrayed a completely anesthetized

nim: people act in it without any guidance or direction from above, and nowhere is there a supreme judge to support virtue and punish vice. Voltaire believes that good and evil have no

no supernatural causes, and their sources are rooted in the earthly world.

Voltaire traditionally divides evil into physical and moral,

By the first he means illness, injury, death. Moral evil, by

Voltaire, includes violence, cruelty, injustice,

the oppression that people commit against each other is committed by malicious intent or out of ignorance, by one's own personal will or in accordance with inhumane laws. And there is no deity behind all this either. Voltaire does not agree with Leibniz that our world, as a result of the divine dispensation, is the best possible.

However, it does not plunge the reader into hopeless despair, like Pascal. The ending and the general meaning of the philosophical story are not at all pessimistic. Candide breaks out of the circle of misfortunes that haunted him, he gets his own home, where he lives with the woman he loves. The central character, who has until now been chasing around the world the ghost of prosperity bestowed from outside, meets a hardworking Turkish peasant. The Turk says: “Work drives away three great evils from us: boredom, vice and need” (4,

185). Candide comes to the conclusion that “you need to cultivate your garden” (ibid., 186). Thus, as an alternative to Leibnizian optimism and Pascalian pessimism, Voltaire puts forward the principle active work person to improve their life.

“Thus, Voltaire, on the one hand, rejects the traditional Christian view of man’s earthly destiny as a vale of suffering and mourning predetermined by God: the evil reigning here, making human life unbearably painful, can and should be eliminated. On the other hand, Voltaire reveals the groundlessness of hopes that this

evil is somehow eliminated by divine providence and a person has the right to expect that without his targeted efforts everything will seem to be on its own

will arrange himself “for the better.” According to Voltaire, only constant and intense worldly activity, illuminated by reasonable goals and knowledge of the means to achieve them, can lead to an improvement in man’s position on earth.” Kuznetsov p.123

Let's turn to the construction of the story. The story is structured as a kind of adventure novel. This genre was very popular among readers - Voltaire's contemporaries. The hero of the story, the young man Candide, experiences a series of adventures, finds himself in different parts of the world, and finds himself in the most unimaginable situations. There is also a love motive in the story.

Despite the obvious signs of the adventure genre, the story is rather a parody of it. Voltaire leads his heroes through so many adventures, following each other in a dizzying

at a pace that it is impossible for a real person to imagine the possibility of experiencing them. This parody, inherent in the entire narrative as a whole, from the very beginning does not allow the reader to take the eventful side of the story very seriously. Thus, he draws attention to those thoughts that Voltaire considers necessary to express in the course of the events depicted. Most often, the author puts these thoughts into the mouths of his characters. The story is about the meaning of human

life, about freedom and necessity, about the world as it is, about what is more in it - good or evil.

The story “Candide, or Optimism” ironically plays on the traditions of the baroque or “Greek” novel, where the heroes wander and suffer, but do not lose their physical charm and do not grow old. In Voltaire, on the contrary, Cunegonde in the finale is portrayed as looking dull and grumpy, which spoils Candide’s enjoyment of the long-awaited marriage.

At the same time, the plot motifs of the English educational novel are subject to ironic stylization in the story. The teacher/student situation in this novel parodies the relationship between teacher and student in old novels such as The Adventures of Telemachus. Pangloss and Martin in Voltaire's story adhere to the opposite philosophical systems, as do Tom Jones's mentors (Squire, who regards human nature as virtuous, and Thwack, who considers it vicious). Voltaire's hero is given the opportunity to test the philosophical postulates of Pangloss and Martin, just as Tom tests the views on human nature of his teachers and the Mountain Hermit. The parody of the “teacher-student” situation lies in in this case is that the student’s experience does not confirm, but refutes the teacher’s opinion that “everything is for the best in this best of all worlds.”

At the center of the story is a clash of ideas, the bearers of which Voltaire makes two heroes - the philosophers Pangloss and Martin. In the story, they are Candide's teachers and express two points of view on the world. One of them (Pangloss) is an optimistic assessment of what is happening, the other (Marten) - on the contrary, comes down to pessimism and consists in recognizing the eternal imperfection of a world in which evil rules.

Voltaire tests these philosophies on the fate of Candide, who, based on his own experience, must decide which of his teachers is right. Thus, Voltaire affirms an empirical approach to

resolving philosophical issues.

As for the characters in the story, it should be noted that they are not full-blooded characters. They are only carriers of philosophical theses.

The central character of the story, the young man Candide, has a “speaking” name. Translated, it means “simpleton.” In all life situations, Candide shows naivety and simplicity. And this is intentional. The human appearance of the hero and his name should emphasize the impartiality and sincerity of the conclusion to which he ultimately comes.

Voltaire's focus is on the idea and its fate. Therefore, the composition of the story is built according to a logical principle. The connecting link is the development of thought. . At the beginning of the narrative, Voltaire turns his main attention to the philosophy of Pangloss, which Candide accepts. Its essence is concentrated in the phrase that is repeated many times by Pangloss and Candide - “Everything is for the best in this best of worlds.” Then Martin appears, and Candide becomes acquainted with his views. Then, at the end of the story, he draws his conclusion. Thus, the story is built, as it were, on the replacement of one system of views by another and a conclusion that draws a line under

thoughts of the characters. Since the views of Martin and Pangloss are opposed to each other, this introduces an atmosphere of controversy into the story.

Voltaire needs to resolve this dispute. How does he do this?

Emphasizing the complete contradiction of the philosophy of optimism with the truth of life,

Voltaire exaggerates the situations in which Pangloss finds himself and turns the image of Pangloss into a caricature. Thus, Pangloss pronounces his famous phrase “Everything is for the best in this best of worlds” at the moment when the ship on which he and Candide are sinking, when the terrible Lisbon earthquake occurs, when he was almost burned at the stake. This gives the story a satirical edge. Already the name Pangloss, which Voltaire gives to the hero, means “know-it-all” in translation from Greek and speaks of the assessment that the author gives him.

The theory of optimism is exposed in Voltaire by the selection of facts.

There is little joy in the events described in the book. Voltaire, with his story, first of all demonstrates the abundance of evil in the world. Both the laws of nature and human laws are incredibly cruel. All the characters in the book suffer crushing blows of fate, unexpected and merciless, but this is told with humor rather than compassion. The troubles and torments of the characters are usually associated with the grotesque physical bottom: they are flogged, raped, their bellies are ripped open. These sufferings are deliberately reduced, and they are cured from these terrible wounds incredibly easily and quickly, so the story about them is often presented in the tone of a sad and cheerful obscene anecdote. These troubles and misfortunes, of course, are too many for one story, and the density of evil and cruelty, their inevitability and unpredictability are intended to show not so much their excessiveness as their everydayness. As Voltaire talks about something everyday and familiar, about the horrors of war, about the dungeons of the Inquisition, about the lack of rights of a person in a society in which religious fanaticism and despotism reign. But nature is also cruel and inhumane: stories about the bloody mud of war or judicial arbitrariness are replaced by pictures of terrifying natural disasters - earthquakes, sea storms, etc. Good and evil are no longer balanced and do not complement each other. Evil clearly prevails, and although it seems to the writer (and, we add, to one of the characters in the book - the Manichaean philosopher Martin) to be largely timeless, that is, eternal and irresistible, it has its own specific carriers. But Voltaire's view is not hopelessly pessimistic. The writer believes that by overcoming fanaticism and despotism, it is possible to build a fair society. Voltaire's faith in him, however, is weakened by a certain amount of skepticism. In this sense, the utopian state of Eldorado described in Candide is indicative. In the story, this country of universal prosperity and justice is opposed not only to the Paraguayan dungeons of the Jesuits, but also to many European states. But the happiness of the citizens of this blissful country is doubtful, because it is built on conscious isolationism: in ancient times, a law was passed here according to which “not a single resident had the right to leave the borders of his small country.” Cut off from the world, knowing nothing about it and not even being interested in it, the inhabitants of Eldorado lead a comfortable, happy, but, in general, primitive existence.

Such a life is alien to the hero of the story. Candide is a random and short-lived guest everywhere. He tirelessly searches for Cunegonde, but he is looking not only for her.

The meaning of his search is to determine his place in life.

The writer contrasts the two extreme positions - the irresponsible and conciliatory optimism of Pangloss and the passive pessimism of Martin - with the compromise conclusion of Candide, who saw a lot of evil in life, but also saw good in it and who found relaxation in modest creative work.

What did Voltaire want to say with the phrase he put into Candide’s mouth: “You must cultivate your garden”?

This phrase is like the summation of life central character. Candide understands that all his life he lived with illusions imposed from the outside: about the beauty of Cunegonde, about the nobility of her family, about the wisdom of the incomparable philosopher Pangloss; understands how dangerous it is to serve false gods.

“We must cultivate our garden” is a thought about the need for fruitful work, about intervening in life in order to transform it, about the need to solve important practical problems of our time.

Conclusion

Having studied Voltaire’s story, the works of literary scholars on the topic “Candide” by Voltaire as a philosophical novel” and following the tasks put forward in the introduction, we came to the conclusions set out below.

Voltaire is one of the most important figures in understanding the entire French Enlightenment. Voltaire as a philosopher was interested in fundamental questions of ontology and epistemology.

In his works, Voltaire showed the failure of religion as a system. Voltaire, in Candide, criticizes Leibniz's theory of pre-established harmony, believing that people must intervene in life to change it and establish more just orders. Radically rejects the “theory of optimism” in the Letzbnitz version. Enters into polemics with the philosophical and religious anthropology of Pascal.

In ethics, Voltaire opposed both the innateness of moral norms and their conventionality. Voltaire conceived the idea of creating a philosophy of history and wrote a number of works (“Philosophy of History”, “Pyrrhonism in History”, “Reflections on History”), which presented a program for studying cultural achievements in all areas of civilization. Voltaire opposed the views of Rousseau, who called for a return to primitive nature. Voltaire understood freedom as free will. Here Voltaire had great hopes for enlightened monarchs who had mastered philosophical conclusions about the laws of social development, the tasks of state power and had freed themselves from prejudices.

The culture of the French Enlightenment is characterized by the phenomenon of unity of philosophy and literature. A whole system of genres was created, which differed in their setting philosophical problems. In this regard, a corresponding poetics appears. Characteristics new poetics were: convention, fantastic images and situations, reasoning characters carrying certain philosophical ideas, paradoxes.

The fundamental difference between large (novel) and small (story) philosophical genres The 18th century is not in this regard. The space of the philosophical novel is not oriented toward life-likeness, which is what distinguishes it from other forms of the 18th-century novel. At the same time, the philosophical novel, especially Voltaire’s, fundamentally gravitates towards anachronisms, emphasizing the conventionality art world. With all its genre differences philosophical novels The 18th century is united by the parable form of storytelling. At the center of the novel is a story told to illustrate and confirm or, on the contrary, expose a certain philosophical idea, and the figurative system is subordinated to a didactic setting.

Voltaire gave the genre of philosophical stories a classical form. Main sign genre - the primacy of the idea. In a philosophical story, it is not people who live, interact, and struggle, but ideas; the characters are only their mouthpieces; they are similar to each other both in their actions and in their language. Hence the exotic and often fantastic nature of the plots, the almost complete absence of psychologism and historicism, the ease with which the heroes change the way of their lives, endure the blows of fate, accept the death of loved ones, and die. Time flies at incredible speed, the scene changes so quickly and arbitrarily that the conventions of place and time become obvious to the reader. The plots are emphatically reminiscent of well-known literary models, and therefore are also conventional in nature. The author's speech is given much more attention than dialogue.

In Voltaire’s deepest and most significant story, “Candide,” the philosophical turning point that took place in the writer’s mind clearly appears.

One of the external impetuses for Voltaire to revise his philosophical views and - indirectly - the writing of “Candide” was influenced by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, which claimed several tens of thousands of lives and wiped out the once picturesque city from the face of the earth. Leibniz’s optimistic idea of the “pre-established harmony of good and evil”, of the cause-and-effect relationship reigning in this “best of possible worlds", is consistently refuted by the events of the life of the main character - the modest and virtuous young man Candide. There are many heroes in the story, and from the pages of “Candide” one hears a diversity of opinions and assessments, while the author’s position emerges gradually, emerges gradually from the clash of opposing opinions, sometimes obviously controversial, sometimes ridiculous, almost always with undisguised irony woven into the whirlwind flow of events.

The last words of Voltaire’s book were: “But you must cultivate your garden,” for our world is crazy and cruel; This is the credo of both modern man and the wisdom of the builder - wisdom that is still imperfect, but already bearing fruit.

An appeal to real life, to its acute social spiritual conflicts, permeates all of Voltaire’s work and the story “Candide”, in particular.

Description

The focus of this work is François Marie Voltaire’s philosophical story “Candide”, its place among Voltaire’s philosophical works and in the context of philosophical fiction of the Enlightenment.
The purpose of the work is to obtain a more complete understanding of Voltaire’s “Candide” as a philosophical novel.

Voltaire's best philosophical work is Candide (1759). Criticism of feudal society reaches its greatest severity here. The moving intrigue (the characters constantly wander) allows Voltaire to give a wide scope of reality. True, he does not adhere to the principle of historically accurate depiction of certain phenomena. "Candide" is devoid of national and historical flavor. Without limiting himself to social and everyday details, he freely moves his heroes from one country to another.

As if in a fairy tale, as if by magic, they quickly cover vast distances. In the chaos and turmoil of life, they disperse, then meet to disperse again. The author leads them from one test to another. His thought sometimes seems too subjective. But for all the apparent arbitrariness, it has absorbed a great deal of life truth and therefore serves as a reliable guide to life. Voltaire, in general, deeply and truthfully reveals the essential aspects of reality.

The story is constructed according to the usual principle for Voltaire. A morally unspoiled person who treats people with trust faces scary world full of evil and deceit. Candide enters life knowing nothing about its inhuman laws. According to the author’s description, he was gifted “by nature with the most peaceful disposition. His physiognomy corresponded to the simplicity of his soul.” All of Candide's misfortunes are not predetermined by his character. He is a victim of circumstances and false education. Teacher Pangloss taught him to be optimistic about any blows of fate. Candide is by no means the darling of life. Unlike Zadig, he is only an illegitimate scion of a noble family. He doesn't have any wealth. At the slightest violation of the class hierarchy, caused by an awakened feeling for Cunegonde, he is expelled from the castle without any means of subsistence. Candide wanders around the world, having no other protection from injustice other than excellent health and a philosophy of optimism.

Voltaire’s hero “cannot get used to the idea that a person has no power to control his own destiny.

Forcibly recruited into the Bulgarian (Prussian) army, Candide once allowed himself the luxury of taking a walk outside the barracks. As a punishment for such self-will, he had to, Voltaire venomously notes, “make a choice in the name of God’s gift called Freedom” or walk under sticks thirty-six times or get bullets in the forehead at once.

"Candide", like other works of Voltaire, is imbued with a feeling of ardent protest against violence against the individual. The story ridicules the “enlightened” monarchical regime of the Prussian king Frederick II, where a person can freely either die or be tortured. He has no other way. In depicting Candide's ordeal among the Bulgarians, Voltaire did not invent facts. He copied a lot simply from life, in particular, the execution of Candide. In his memoirs, Voltaire talks about the unfortunate fate of a German nobleman, who, like Candide, was forcibly captured by royal recruiters because of his height and assigned to become a soldier. “The poor fellow, in company with several companions, soon afterwards escaped; he was caught and brought to the late king, to whom he declared sincerely that he repented of only one thing: that he had not killed such a tyrant like him. In response to this, they cut off his nose and ears, drove him through the gauntlet with sticks thirty-six times, and then sent him to push a wheelbarrow to Spandau.”

Voltaire strongly condemns wars waged in the interests of the ruling circles and completely alien and incomprehensible to the people. Candide unwittingly finds himself a witness and participant in the bloody massacre. Voltaire is especially outraged by the atrocities against civilians. This is how he describes an Avar village burned “by virtue of international law”: “Mutilated old men lay here, and before their eyes their slaughtered wives were dying, with their babies flattened at their bloody breasts; girls with their bellies torn open... lay on their last legs; others, half-burnt, screamed, asking to be killed. There were brains and severed arms and legs lying on the ground.” Drawing a terrible picture of the world, Voltaire destroys the philosophy of optimism. Its guide, Pangloss, believes that “the more misfortunes, the higher the general prosperity.” The consequence of any evil, in his opinion, is good and therefore one must look to the future with hope. Pangloss's own life eloquently refutes his optimistic beliefs. When meeting him in Holland, Candide sees in front of him a tramp covered with boils, with a corroded nose, crooked and nasal, spitting out when he coughs after every effort on the tooth.

Voltaire wittily ridicules the church, which seeks the reasons for the imperfection of the world in the sinfulness of people. She even explained the occurrence of the Lisbon earthquake, which Pangloss and Candide witnessed, by the widespread spread of heresy.

Cunegonde's life is a terrible indictment of the dominant social system. The theme of man's absolute insecurity, his lack of rights under feudal statehood runs like a red thread throughout the story. What kind of tests does Kunigun not pass! She is raped and forced to become the captain's mistress, who sells her to the Jew Issachar. Then she is the object of the inquisitor’s sexual desires, etc. Cunegonde is truly a toy in the hands of fate, which, however, has a very real content - these are feudal-serf relations, where the sword and the whip triumph, where everything human, based on the laws of reason, is trampled under foot. and nature. The life story of the old woman, a former beauty, the daughter of the Pope and the Princess of Palestrine, is also tragic. She confirms Voltaire’s idea that Cunegonde’s life is not an exception, but a completely typical phenomenon. In all corners of the globe, people are suffering; they are not protected from lawlessness.

The writer strives to reveal the full depth of the madness of contemporary life, in which the most incredible, fantastic cases are possible. It is here that convention, which occupies a large place in Candide and other philosophical stories, has its roots. Conventional forms of artistic representation in Voltaire's work arose on the basis of real life. They do not contain that unhealthy, religious fantasy that was common in the literature of the 17th-18th centuries. Voltaire's conditional is a form of sharpening unusual, but quite possible life situations. The adventures of Cunegonde and the old woman seem incredible, but they are typical in a feudal society, when arbitrariness is everything, and Man, his free will, is nothing. Voltaire, unlike Rabelais and Swift, does not resort to deformation of reality. He essentially has no giants, no Lilliputians, or talking, intelligent horses. In his stories, ordinary people act. In Voltaire, convention is associated primarily with the exaggeration of unreasonable sides public relations. In order to emphasize the unreasonableness of life as sharply and clearly as possible, he makes his heroes experience fabulous adventures. Moreover, the blows of fate in Voltaire’s stories are experienced equally by representatives of all social strata - both crown-bearers and commoners, such as Pangloss or the poor scientist Martin.

Voltaire views life not so much from the perspective of an enslaved, disadvantaged people, but from a universal human point of view. In the 26th chapter of Candide, Voltaire gathered six former or “failed” European monarchs under the roof of a hotel in Venice. The situation, initially perceived as a carnival masquerade, gradually reveals its real outlines. For all its fabulousness, it is quite vital. The kings depicted by Voltaire really existed and, for a number of reasons, were forced to leave the throne. The convention allowed by the writer was only that he brought all the unlucky rulers into one place in order to emphasize in close-up, with the utmost concentration of thought, his thesis about the insecurity of an individual even of a high social rank in modern world.

True, Voltaire, through the mouth of Martin, declares that “there are millions of people in the world much more worthy of regret than King Charles Edward, Emperor Ivan and Sultan Akhmet.”

Candide searches for Cunegonde with extraordinary tenacity. His persistence seems to be rewarded. In Turkey, he meets Cunegonde, who from a magnificent beauty has turned into a wrinkled old woman with red, watery eyes. Candide marries her only out of a desire to annoy her brother the Baron, who stubbornly opposes this marriage. Pangloss in the finale of the story is also only a certain semblance of a person. He “admitted that he always suffered terribly” and only out of stubbornness did not part with the theory of the best of all worlds.

Criticizing the social order of Europe and America, Voltaire in Candide depicts the utopian country of Eldorado. Everything here is fantastically beautiful: an abundance of gold and precious stones, fountains of rose water, absence of prisons, etc. Even the pavement stones here smell of cloves and cinnamon. Voltaire treats Eldorado with slight irony. He himself does not believe in the possibility of the existence of such an ideal region. It is not for nothing that Candide and Cacambo ended up in it completely by accident. No one knows the path to it and, therefore, it is completely impossible to achieve it. Thus, the general pessimistic view of the world remains. Martin successfully proves that “there is very little virtue and very little happiness on earth, with the possible exception of El Dorado, where no one can go.”

The countless riches taken by the hero of the story from America are also fragile. They are literally “melting” every day. The gullible Candide is deceived at every step, his illusions are destroyed. Instead of the object of his youthful love, he receives a grumpy old woman as a result of all his wanderings and suffering; instead of the treasures of Eldorado, he only has a small farm. What to do? Logically speaking, from gloomy picture, drawn by Voltaire, a possible conclusion is: if the world is so bad, then it is necessary to change it. But the writer does not make such a radical conclusion: Obviously, the reason is the obscurity of his social ideal. Sarcastically ridiculing his contemporary society, Voltaire cannot oppose anything to it except utopia. He does not offer any real ways to transform reality.

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Voltaire’s “Candide” is a philosophical satirical story that was created in the mid-eighteenth century, but was banned for some time due to a considerable number of obscene scenes. The work talks about optimism and pessimism, human vices and faith in best qualities person.

History of writing

Voltaire - French writer He created a number of philosophical works of art, not without sharp accusatory satire. Voltaire extremely disliked the power of the church, which he expressed more than once. He was an ardent fighter against idealism and religion and relied exclusively on scientific achievements in his philosophical treatises.

As for such an abstract concept as “happiness”, then in order to state my position regarding this difficult question, Voltaire wrote an adventure story about the optimist Candide, who, despite all the blows of fate, did not lose faith in goodness, sincerity and honesty. This work is based on real event- earthquake in Lisbon. It is this terrible natural phenomenon that occupies a central place in one of the most famous stories that Voltaire wrote.

“Candide, or Optimism” is a work that the author refused several times, claiming that it allegedly did not belong to his pen. Nevertheless, the story contains satire characteristic of Voltaire. "Candide" is one of the best works French educator. What did Voltaire tell the readers about in this story? “Candide,” the analysis of which will be presented below, is a story that may seem at first glance nothing more than fun and entertaining. And only upon closer examination can one discover the deep philosophical thought that Voltaire sought to convey to his contemporaries.

"Candide": summary

The main character of this story is a pure and unspoiled young man. He owes his optimistic outlook on life to his teacher, who from childhood convinced him of the inevitability of happiness. Pangloss, which was the name of this spiritual philosopher, was sure that he lived in the best of worlds. There is no reason to grieve.

But one day Candide was expelled from his native castle. The reason for this was the beautiful Cunegonde, the baron’s daughter, to whom he was by no means indifferent. And the hero began to wander around the world, dreaming of only one thing - to reunite with his beloved and know true happiness. That it still exists, Candide did not doubt for a minute, despite all the misfortunes and hardships.

Voltaire gave the hero's adventures a certain fabulousness. Candide, saving Cunegonde, killed someone every now and then. He did this quite naturally. As if murder is the most typical activity for an optimist. But Candida's victims magically came to life.

Candide learned a lot. He experienced a lot of grief. He managed to reunite with Cunegonde, however, only after the girl had lost all her former attractiveness. Candide found a home and friends. But he still did not know what happiness was. Until one day an unknown sage revealed the truth to him. “Happiness is daily work,” said the wandering philosopher. Candide had no choice but to believe and begin cultivating his small garden.

Composition

As already mentioned, Voltaire was inspired to write this story after the famous Lisbon earthquake. “Candide, or Optimism” is a work in which historical event serves as a starting point. It occupies a central place in the composition. It is when depicting an earthquake that the events in the story reach their climax.

After expulsion from the castle and before natural disaster Candide wanders around the world aimlessly. An earthquake activates his powers. Voltaire's Candide becomes a noble hero, ready to do anything to rescue the lady of his heart. Meanwhile, Cunegonde, possessing an unearthly feminine beauty, evokes far from the best thoughts in men. A Bulgarian Jew kidnaps her and makes her his concubine. The Grand Inquisitor also does not stand aside. But suddenly Candide appears and destroys both the first and the second. Subsequently, the hero gets rid of his beloved’s brother. The pompous baron is allegedly not satisfied with the origins of the liberator of the beautiful Cunegonde.

Voltaire's Candide resembles the knight Cervantes in his nobility and purity of thoughts. But the philosophical idea of the work has little in common with the position of the great Spaniard.

El Dorado

The book “Candide” is also not without political background. Voltaire sends his wanderer to wander around the world. He witnesses Candide visiting European cities, South America, and the countries of the Middle East. He observes the military actions of the Spaniards against the Jesuits, cruel morals Voltaire's contemporaries. And he gradually begins to realize that the optimistic teacher did not teach him a single worthwhile lesson. All his ranting about the beauty of this world is not worth a penny...

But still, Voltaire does not deprive his hero of his last hope. Candide now and then hears stories about a beautiful land in which people do not know grief and sadness, have everything they need, do not get angry, do not envy, and certainly do not kill.

Voltaire's Candide, by the way, bears a symbolic name. It means "simple-minded." Candide finds himself in a mythical state in which all the inhabitants are happy. They do not ask the Almighty for material wealth. They only thank him for what they already have. Voltaire contrasts this fabulous land in his philosophical story real world. The people Candide meets throughout the story, regardless of their social status, do not know what happiness is. Life is not easy and ordinary people, and noble persons.

Finding himself in a mythical country, Candide decides to return to his joyless world. After all, he must once again save Cunegonde.

Pessimism

Candide's optimism is contrasted with the pessimism of his companion. Martin only believes that people are mired in vices, and nothing can change them in better side. On what philosophical idea is it based on a work that Voltaire wrote? "Candide", the content of which is outlined above only briefly, is capable of convincing that this world is actually ugly. Belief in goodness can only destroy a person. Candide, being a sincere person, trusts scammers and crooks, as a result of which his situation becomes sadder every day. The merchant deceives him. Noble deeds are not valued in society, and Candide faces prison.

Venice

What was Voltaire trying to say in his philosophical story? “Candide,” a summary of which is presented in this article, is a story that can happen in modern society. Voltaire's hero goes to Venice in the hope of finding his beloved there. But even in an independent republic, he witnesses human cruelty. Here he meets a maid from the castle where he spent his childhood. The woman was forced by necessity to take the extreme step: she earns her living by prostitution.

Cheerful Venetian

Candide helped the woman. But the money he gave her did not bring happiness. The hero still does not give up hope of finding happiness or at least meeting a person who has known him. And therefore fate brings him together with a Venetian aristocrat, who, according to rumors, is always in a cheerful mood and knows no sadness. But even here Candida faces disappointment. The Venetian rejects beauty and finds happiness only in dissatisfaction with those around him.

Life on the Farm

It is worth saying that Candide gradually becomes disillusioned with the philosophy of absolute optimism, but does not become a pessimist. The story presents two opposing points of view. One belongs to Master Pangloss. The other is for Marten.

Candide managed to buy Cunegonde out of slavery, and with the remaining money he bought a small farm. Here they settled at the end of their misadventures, but did not immediately achieve spiritual harmony. Idle talk and philosophical rantings became a constant occupation of the inhabitants of the farm. Until one day Candida was visited by a happy old man.

"We need to cultivate a garden"

Leibniz gave birth to the philosophical idea of universal harmony. To a French writer impressed by the worldview of the German thinker. However, after the earthquake, Voltaire published a poem in which he completely rejected the doctrine of the balance of good and evil. The enlightener managed to finally debunk Leibniz's theory in the story about the adventures of Candide.

“We need to cultivate a garden” - this is precisely the idea that, with the help of one of the characters, is expressed in last chapter Voltaire. “Candide, or Optimism,” a brief summary of which gives only a general idea of the author’s philosophical idea, is a work that should be read, if not in the original, then at least in its entirety, from cover to cover. After all, the mental torment of Voltaire’s hero is known and to modern man. Happiness is steady and constant work. Thinking and reasoning about the meaning of life can only lead to despair. Contemplation must certainly be replaced by action.

“Candide” (1759) is Voltaire’s best philosophical story. It is built according to the usual principle for Voltaire. A morally unspoiled person who treats people with trust is faced with a terrible world full of evil and deceit. Candide enters life knowing nothing about its inhuman laws. All of Candide's misfortunes are not predetermined by his character - he is a victim of circumstances and false upbringing. Teacher Pangloss taught him to optimistically perceive any blows of fate. Candide is by no means the darling of life - unlike Zadiga, he is only an illegitimate scion of a noble family, he has no wealth. At the slightest violation of the class hierarchy, caused by a suddenly awakened feeling for Cunegonde, he is expelled from the castle without any means of subsistence. Candide wanders around the world, having no other protection from injustice other than excellent health and a philosophy of optimism.

Voltaire's hero cannot get used to the idea that a person has no power to control his own destiny. Forcibly recruited into the Bulgarian (Prussian) army, Candide once allowed himself the luxury of taking a walk outside the barracks. As a punishment for such self-will, he had to, Voltaire venomously notes, “make a choice in the name of God’s gift called freedom” to either walk thirty-six times under sticks or receive twelve bullets in the forehead at once.

Having experienced all the bitterness of humiliation, Candide gradually begins to see clearly. Doubt about the goodness of Providence creeps into him. “Well, if this is the best of all worlds, then what are the rest? ...Oh dear Pangloss, my greatest philosopher in the world! What it was like for me to see you hanged for unknown reasons! Oh, Cunegonde, pearl of maidens, was it really necessary for you to have your stomach ripped open!” Voltaire approaches the assessment of certain philosophical concepts from the point of view of life and the interests of the human person. In his opinion, a society where murder and war are legalized cannot be recognized as reasonable.

Cunegonde's life is a terrible indictment of the dominant social system. The theme of man's absolute insecurity, his lack of rights under feudal statehood runs like a red thread throughout the story. What kind of tests does Cunegonde not pass? She is raped and forced to become the captain's mistress, who sells her to the Jew Issachar. Then she is the object of the inquisitor’s sexual desires, etc. The life story of the old woman, a former beauty, the daughter of the Pope and the Princess of Palestrine, is also tragic. She confirms Voltaire’s thought that Cunegonde’s life is not an exception, but a completely typical phenomenon. In all corners of the globe, people are suffering; they are not protected from lawlessness.

The writer strives to reveal the full depth of the madness of contemporary life, in which the most incredible, fantastic cases are possible. It is here that convention, which occupies a large place in Candide and other philosophical stories, has its roots. Conventional forms of artistic representation in Voltaire's work arose on the basis of real life. They do not contain the unhealthy, religious fiction that was common in the literature of the 17th and 18th centuries. Voltaire's conditional is a form of sharpening unusual, but quite possible life situations. The adventures of Cunegonde and the old woman seem incredible, but at the same time they are typical. Voltaire, unlike Rabelais and Swift, does not resort to deformation of reality. He essentially has no giants, midgets, or talking, intelligent horses. His stories contain ordinary people. And Voltaire’s conventions are associated primarily with the exaggeration of the unreasonable aspects of social relations. In order to emphasize the unreasonableness of life as sharply and clearly as possible, he makes his heroes experience fabulous adventures. Moreover, the blows of fate in Voltaire’s stories are experienced equally by representatives of all social strata - both crown-bearers and common people, such as Pangloss or a poor scientist Martin.

Voltaire views life not so much from the perspective of an enslaved, disadvantaged people, but from a universal human point of view. In Chapter 26 of Candide, Voltaire gathered six former or failed European monarchs under the roof of a hotel in Venice. The situation, initially perceived as a carnival masquerade, gradually reveals its real outlines. For all its fabulousness, it is quite vital. The kings depicted by Voltaire actually existed and, due to a number of circumstances, were forced to leave the throne. The convention allowed by the writer was only that he brought all the unlucky rulers into one place in order to emphasize, in close-up, with the utmost concentration of thought, his thesis about the insecurity of individuals even of high social rank in the modern world. True, Voltaire, through the mouth of Martin, declares that “there are millions of people in the world much more worthy of regret than King Charles Edward, Emperor Ivan and Sultan Akhmet.”

The story's criticism receives its most complete expression in Martin's hopeless pessimism, although Voltaire does not fully share the beliefs of his hero. Martin really only sees the dark side. He is especially critical of people. Human society seems to him to be a crowd of individualists, full of hatred and enmity towards each other. “I have not seen a city that would not wish the destruction of a neighboring city, I have not seen a family that would not wish trouble for another family. Everywhere the weak hate the strong and at the same time grovel before them; The strong treat the weak like a herd from which three skins are torn off.”

Martin sees no way out: hawks will always torment pigeons - this is the law of nature. Candide objects to him, pointing out that man, unlike animals, is endowed with free will and, therefore, can arrange life according to his ideal. However, with his narrative logic, Voltaire refutes Candide’s naive optimism.

Candide searches for Cunegonde with extraordinary tenacity. His persistence seems to be rewarded. In Turkey, he meets Cunegonde, who from a magnificent beauty has turned into a wrinkled old woman with caric, watery eyes. Candide marries her only out of a desire to annoy her brother the Baron, who stubbornly opposes this marriage. Pangloss in the finale of the story is also only some semblance of a person. He “admitted that he always suffered terribly” and only out of stubbornness did not part with the theory of the best of all worlds.

Voltaire in Candide is not limited to depicting one European life. Fate brings the main character to America. The situation here is no better than in the Old World: the lawlessness of the colonialists, the menial work of missionaries who penetrated the jungles of Paraguay. Voltaire by no means idealizes the life of Indian tribes. On the contrary, he specifically leads Candide and his servant Cacambo to the Aurellon Indians to ridicule Rousseau, who poeticized existence primitive peoples. Orelions are cannibals. True, their cannibalistic passions played out primarily because they mistook Candide and his companions for Jesuits.

Criticizing the social order of Europe and America, Voltaire in Candide depicts the utopian country of Eldorado. Everything here is fantastically beautiful: an abundance of gold and precious stones, fountains of rose water, the absence of prisons, etc. Even the pavement stones here smell of cloves and cinnamon. Voltaire treats Eldorado with slight irony. He himself does not believe in the existence of such an ideal region. No wonder Candide and Cacambo ended up there completely by accident. No one knows the path to it and, therefore, it is completely impossible to achieve it. Thus the general pessimistic view of the world remains. Martin successfully proves that “there is very little virtue and very little happiness on earth, with the possible exception of El Dorado, where no one can go.”

The countless riches taken by the hero from America are also fragile. They are literally “melting” every day. The gullible Candide is deceived at every step, his illusions are destroyed. Instead of the object of his youthful love, as a result of all his wanderings, he receives a grumpy old woman, instead of the treasures of Eldorado, he only has a small farm. What to do? Logically speaking, from the gloomy picture painted by Voltaire, a conclusion is possible: if the world is so bad, then it is necessary to change it. But the writer does not make such a radical conclusion. Obviously, the reason is the vagueness of his social ideal. Sarcasticly ridiculing modern society, Voltaire cannot oppose anything to him, except for utopia. He does not offer any real ways to transform reality. In the story "The Princess of Babylon", written after "Candide", it is given new option Eldorado is the country of the Gangarids, where everyone is equal, rich, and peaceful. But again, there is no way here: the heroine arrives in this fairy-tale kingdom on vultures.

The contradictory nature of Voltaire's worldview undoubtedly makes itself felt in the finale of Candide. The writer gives two answers to the question “What to do?”, and both do not contain a clear call to change reality. The Turkish dervish, to whom Candide’s friends came for advice, believes that it is impossible to judge whether the world is bad or good based on the nature of life of such an insignificant grain of sand in the system of the universe as a person: “When the Sultan sends a ship to Egypt, he does not care about whether it will be good or bad for the ship rats.” Of course, Voltaire cannot accept such a philosophy. For him, the criterion for evaluating the existing was precisely human personality, her happiness. The old Turkish man believes that one should not rack one's brains over socio-political issues. It is better to live without thinking, working. This man's way of life becomes the life credo of the entire small community of losers. “Let us work without reasoning,” said Martin, “this is the only way to make life bearable. The whole small community accepted this good intention, and everyone began to do what they could.”

Summary:

Candide, a pure and sincere young man, is brought up in a poor castle of a poor but vain Westphalian baron along with his son and daughter. Their home teacher, Dr. Pangloss, a home-grown metaphysical philosopher, taught the children that they lived in the best of worlds, where everything had a cause and effect, and events tended to a happy ending.

Candide's misfortunes and incredible journey begin when he is expelled from the castle for his hobby. beautiful daughter Baron Cunegonde.

In order not to die of hunger, Candide is recruited into the Bulgarian army, where he is whipped half to death. He barely escapes death in a terrible battle and flees to Holland. There he meets his philosophy teacher, dying of syphilis. He is treated out of mercy and hands over to Candide terrible news about the extermination of the baron's family by the Bulgarians. For the first time, Candide questions the optimistic philosophy of his teacher, he is so shocked by his experience and the terrible news. Friends are sailing to Portugal, and as soon as they set foot on the shore, a terrible earthquake begins. Wounded, they fall into the hands of the Inquisition for preaching about the necessity of free will for man, and the philosopher must be burned at the stake so that this will help pacify the earthquake. Candida is whipped with rods and left to die in the street. An unfamiliar old woman picks him up, nurses him and invites him to a luxurious palace, where his beloved Cunegonde meets him. It turned out that she miraculously survived and was resold by the Bulgarians to a wealthy Portuguese Jew, who was forced to share her with the Grand Inquisitor himself. Suddenly a Jew, Cunegonde’s owner, appears at the door. Candide kills first him, and then the Grand Inquisitor. All three decide to flee, but on the way a monk steals jewelry from Cunegonde, given to her by the Grand Inquisitor. They barely get to the port and there they board a ship sailing to Buenos Aires. There, the first thing they do is look for the governor to get married, but the governor decides that such a beautiful girl should belong to him, and makes her an offer, which she is not averse to accepting. At the same moment, the old woman sees through the window how the monk who robbed them gets off the ship that has approached the harbor and tries to sell the jewelry to the jeweler, but he recognizes them as the property of the Grand Inquisitor. Already on the gallows, the thief admits to the theft and describes our heroes in detail. Candida's servant Cacambo persuades him to flee immediately, not without reason believing that the women will somehow get out. They are sent to the possessions of the Jesuits in Paraguay, who in Europe profess Christian kings, and here they conquer the land from them. In the so-called father colonel, Candide recognizes the baron, Cunegonde’s brother. He also miraculously survived the massacre in the castle and, by a whim of fate, ended up among the Jesuits. Having learned about Candide's desire to marry his sister, the baron tries to kill the low-born insolent, but he himself falls wounded. Candide and Cacambo flee and are captured by the wild Oreilons, who, thinking that their friends are servants of the Jesuits, are going to eat them. Candide proves that he just killed the colonel's father and again escapes death. So life once again confirmed the rightness of Cacambo, who believed that a crime in one world can be beneficial in another.

On the way from the oreilons, Candide and Cacambo, having lost their way, end up in the legendary land of Eldorado, about which wonderful fables circulated in Europe, that gold there is valued no more than sand. Eldorado was surrounded by inaccessible rocks, so no one could penetrate there, and the inhabitants themselves never left their country. Thus they retained their original moral purity and bliss. Everyone seemed to live in contentment and gaiety; people worked peacefully, there were no prisons or crimes in the country. In prayers, no one begged for benefits from the Almighty, but only thanked Him for what they already had. No one acted under compulsion: there was no tendency towards tyranny both in the state and in the characters of the people. When meeting the monarch of the country, guests usually kissed him on both cheeks. The king persuades Candide to stay in his country, since it is better to live where you like. But the friends really wanted to appear rich people in their homeland, and also to connect with Cunegonde. The king, at their request, gives his friends one hundred sheep loaded with gold and gems. An amazing machine takes them over the mountains, and they leave the blessed land, where in fact everything happens for the better, and which they will always regret.

As they move from the borders of El Dorado to the city of Suriname, all but two of the sheep die. In Suriname, they learn that in Buenos Aires they are still wanted for the murder of the Grand Inquisitor, and Cunegonde has become the favorite concubine of the governor. It is decided that Cacambo alone will go there to ransom the beauty, and Candide will go to the free republic of Venice and will wait for them there. Almost all of his treasures are stolen by a rogue merchant, and the judge also punishes him with a fine. After these incidents, the baseness of the human soul once again plunges Candide into horror. Therefore, the young man decides to choose the most unfortunate person, offended by fate, as his traveling companion. He considered Martin to be such, who after the troubles he experienced became a deep pessimist. They sail together to France, and on the way Martin convinces Candide that it is in the nature of man to lie, kill and betray his neighbor, and everywhere people are equally unhappy and suffer from injustices.

In Paris, Candide becomes acquainted with local morals and customs. Both of these disappoint him greatly, and Martin only becomes more entrenched in the philosophy of pessimism. Candide is immediately surrounded by scammers, who use flattery and deceit to extract money from him. Everyone takes advantage of the young man’s incredible gullibility, which he retained despite all the misfortunes. He tells one rogue about his love for the beautiful Cunegonde and his plan to meet her in Venice. In response to his sweet frankness, a trap is set for Candide, he faces prison, but, having bribed the guards, his friends escape on a ship sailing to England. On the English coast they observe the completely senseless execution of an innocent admiral. From England, Candide finally ends up in Venice, thinking only about meeting his beloved Cunegonde. But there he finds not her, but a new example of human sorrows - a maid from his native castle. Her life leads to prostitution, and Candide wants to help her with money, although the philosopher Martin predicts that nothing will come of it. As a result, they meet her in an even more distressed state. The realization that suffering is inevitable for everyone forces Candide to look for a person who is alien to sadness. One noble Venetian was considered such. But, having visited this man, Candide is convinced that happiness for him lies in criticism and dissatisfaction with others, as well as in the denial of any beauty. Finally he discovers his Cacambo in the most pitiful situation. He says that, having paid a huge ransom for Cunegonde, they were attacked by pirates, and they sold Cunegonde into service in Constantinople. To make matters worse, she lost all her beauty. Candide decides that, as a man of honor, he must still find his beloved, and goes to Constantinople. But on the ship, among the slaves, he recognizes Doctor Pangloss and the baron who was stabbed to death with his own hands. They miraculously escaped death, and fate brought them together as slaves on a ship in complex ways. Candide immediately redeems them and gives the remaining money for Cunegonde, the old woman and the small farm.

Although Cunegonde became very ugly, she insisted on marrying Candide. The small community had no choice but to live and work on the farm. Life was truly painful. Nobody wanted to work, the boredom was terrible, and all that was left was to philosophize endlessly. They debated which was preferable: to subject themselves to as many terrible trials and vicissitudes of fate as those they had experienced, or to condemn themselves to the terrible boredom of an inactive life. Nobody knew a decent answer. Pangloss lost faith in optimism, but Martin, on the contrary, became convinced that people everywhere were equally miserable, and endured difficulties with humility. But then they meet a man who lives a secluded life on his farm and is quite happy with his lot. He says that any ambition and pride are disastrous and sinful, and that only work, for which all people were created, can save from the greatest evil: boredom, vice and need. Working in his garden without idle talk is how Candide makes a saving decision. The community works hard and the land rewards them richly. “You need to cultivate your garden,” Candide never tires of reminding them.