Optimism In Voltaire's Candide

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Are you optimistic? Indeed, optimism is represented in Voltaire’s Candide, as the main character, the young Candide, sees the world with a positive and hopeful perspective. Specifically, inspired by Dr. Pangloss, he believes that each cause has an effect, such as relating the construction of a bay with a death. Also, according to his view, Candide lives in a perfect world, and looks for an explanation for each atrocity in his life, even if there is no practical logic. Moreover, even though he suffered a lot, Candide is still optimistic, looking for the positive side on each tragedy. Certainly, Voltaire represented Candide’s optimism sarcastically by representing it with no logic, in order to make a satire about people who have an impressive …show more content…
However, Voltaire represents one tragedy after another tragedy, and extremely harsh situations for Candide, such as being exiled, and being tortured by the Bulgars. The reason is that the author wants to destroy and even make of fun of this concept in Candide. Furthermore, as Dr. Pangloss tells Candide that Cunegonde was dead, the guy says “I’ve had some experience of this love, this love that rules our hearts, which is the soul of our souls; all it got me was a kiss and twenty kicks in the ass. How could so beautiful a cause have produced in you such an abominable effect?” (Voltaire 8). Specifically, he finds a completely illogical explanation for the Bulgars to had raped her, as his departure from the castle would not have avoided such barbarity, for the mere fact that she would still have someone to love. Indeed, Voltaire uses the explanations in order to make fun of optimism, creating the idea that this philosophy is

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