HIST 4C/MARCUSE, WEEK 2: VOLTAIRE'S CANDIDE OR OPTIMISM

The following notes and questions are to guide you while reading this book. fFor the writing assignment, be sure to refer to the course syllabus, page 3.
Voltaire chose names because they had specific meanings and connotations, e.g.:

Candide: trusting, naive, guileless

Cunégonde: Kunigunde, a German queen who was sainted because she walked over glowing plowshares unscathed to prove her virginity

Pangloss: Greek "all+tongue," i.e. all talk (full of hot air)

Thunder-ten-tronckh: "thunder around the trunk," i.e. a lot of noise about the (family) tree, the lineage

Pococurante: "little caring," i.e. indifferent

"O che sciagura d'essere senza coglioni!" (p. 53): O what misfortune it is not to have testicles!

SOME QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

The story begins with Candide's forcible ejection from a kind of paradise, and ends with him saying "We must go and cultivate our garden." What are the parallels of Candide's story to the biblical story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden? How would you interpret that concluding statement?
What institutions of 18th century European society does Voltaire single out for criticism?

What is Voltaire's opinion of the Bulgar and Abar military "heroes" and the causes they fight for?
What does Voltaire think about institutionalized religion and its alternatives (e.g. Anabaptism or the religion of Eldorado)? (What is Anabaptism?)
Does Voltaire believe that women are treated appropriately in Europe, and what role does he think women should play in society?
Why does Voltaire have Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh twice forbid Candide from marrying Cunégonde, and what tradition is Voltaire poking fun at here?
What does Voltaire think of the European colonialism (e.g. Jesuits in Paraguay, Spaniards in Argentina, Dutch in Surinam)?
What is the political significance of the "six strangers" (124)?

Which of the characters is Voltaire's voice? In what situations? Candide, Martin, the "old man"? Why? Is Voltaire an optimist?
How is Eldorado different from Europe (especially France)?
What is Candide's/Voltaire's final conclusion about the worth of philosophy compared with that of other pursuits in life?

What is Dr. Pangloss' philosophy?
Does what happens to James, Candide and Pangloss in Portugal support Pangloss' conviction that we are living in the "best of all possible worlds"?
Why does the "old woman" call the human tendency to be "in love with life" a "ridiculous weakness?"
Do Candide's miraculous reunions with Pangloss, Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh Jr., Cunégonde, and the old woman convince him that Pangloss is right after all?

This book is a satire. It exposes perceived evils, vices and shortcomings by ridicule, exaggeration and irony. Why has Voltaire written such a book? What effect does he want it to have? Does he believe that the world will change for the better?