A Boy and His Tutor

In literature, especially that which is satire, an author will exaggerate behavior and use symbolic names and imagery to prove his point or simply heighten the level of humor. This is especially true in Candide by Voltaire. Two of the main characters, Candide and Dr. Pangloss, are not realistic and believable characters, but rather feed into the ridiculousness of the story through their perspective of life and their reactions in certain situations.

The book begins as a telling of Candide’s life story. Born in Westphalia, Germany, Candide was “a young lad blessed by nature with the most agreeable manners,” (pg 19) who, with his cousin Cunégonde, was tutored by the ever optimistic Dr. Pangloss who believed that this world was “the best of all possible worlds,” a theory he used to describe every good fortune and mishap that came along in life. Candide and Cunégonde are portrayed as very naive and innocent, even to the point where they can’t think for themselves without the assistance of Pangloss. There are many instances where Candide refers back to the optimism of his tutor: the generosity and the drowning of John the Anabaptist, the earthquake in Lisbon, and the findings and re-findings of Cunégonde, to name a few. Even if Candide starts to question that his beatings or the hanging of Pangloss cannot be the best of all possible outcomes in “this best of all possible worlds,” his questions are often ignored. As Candide traveled the world, he grew in maturity and started to question whether Pangloss’s optimism was logical and practical. He does not come to this conclusion on his own though. Candide had a group of friends and servants around him at all times, telling him what to do in every situation and advising him as to every decision. Candide’s final revelation, the revelation that makes him a protagonist and a dynamic character, and the revelation that is the moral of the story, comes not from his mouth, but rather from the old woman: “I should like to know which is worst, to be ravished … by negro pirates, … to run the gauntlet of a Bulgar regiment, … to be dissected, to row in the galleys … or to just stay here with nothing to do?” (pg 140) At the end of the book, all the characters have all they want. Candide and Cunégonde were married, all had riches to call their own and were safe and at peace, yet no one was fully happy. Meant as a projection of human life, the character of Candide can be related to by many readers, despite his all-encompassing naivety. While all people aspire to be with their “true love” and want to truly believe that this is “the best of all possible worlds,” with limitless possibilities, sometimes one has to settle for a simple life of gardening, resigning to the fact that maybe not everything has a purpose.