Panlgoss is a tutor for the nobles that live in Westphalia in the castle of Thunder-ten-tronckh. Pangloss is specifically a philosopher who follows a philosophy which I find very strange and rather ironic in history. Since our religions have been professed, humans have though, although in a different way, about the world as a place of judgment before going to the true and only paradise where our God awaits. Never have humans preached of this life being paradise; however, Panlgoss the philosopher talks about a world where every event happens for the greater good. He speaks of a world where everything that event in life manifests itself in the best of all possible possibilities in which it could happen. “He [Pangloss] proved incontestably that there is no effect without a cause, and that in this best of all possible worlds…”(20). This philosophy seems absurd when compared with our beliefs and religions of a greater and eternal paradise. Maybe Voltaire, being a philosopher, was mocking the philosophers of that time (XVII century) who believed in this strange philosophy which, due to its beliefs, could be regarded as sheer optimism in the present. Optimism in the fact that every event develops always in the best of all possible outcomes in which the occurrence could have developed. I believe that this philosophy will continue to appear as I read the novel meaning that it is a target of satire which Voltaire already showed its readers.
Then something really characteristic of Voltaire’s character sprung up form the page. The Enlightenment movement of which Voltaire was taking part of came to influence Candide as a person. “Free Will” (24) was one of the most strong and fundamental arguments of which the Enlightenment was based on. “Free Will” where two very significant words that enclose the meaning of rights, in a sense. Voltaire was a noble who ironically enough fought for civil rights. His essays and declarations against the godly monarchs often made him pay the consequences in jail. I believe that this experience influenced enough to break through the pages of Candide. Candied was punished to death, although he was spared, for following his instinct, his right to walk wherever his legs could carry him: “ One fine spring morning he took it into his head to decamp and walked straight off, thinking it a privilege common to man and beast to use his legs when he wanted” (24). After walking not more than a few miles he was restrained by the army (possession of the king) and ripped off of his rights, his Free Will: “It was useless to declare his belief in Free Will and say he wanted neither; he had to make his choice” (24). Then, Voltaire to give his opinion about the suppression of the natural rights by the monarch some humor, he continued to make satirical jokes about how he was “free” to choose how to die: “So, exercising that divine gift called Liberty, he decided to run the gauntlet thirty-six times, and survived two floggings” (24). This attack on the king’s power, I think, will again present itself in Candide’s life.
Candide was fighting in the Bulgar army, and the fight ended after a great slaughter. Then Candide, famished, went to beg on the houses of a near village for food. While he was doing this, Voltaire introduces a heavy critique against the hypocrites and the church. Voltaire mentions that Candide, due to the fact that he didn’t answer correctly the minister’s question about the pope, he was shunned and bathed on a big pool of putrid substances; however, the real criticism to the church is that the minister was preaching minutes earlier about charity: “At last he approached a man who had just been addressing a big audience for a whole hour on the subject of charity”(26). Voltaire heavily attacks how the Church abuses of its power, given to her in those times, to brain wash people, well maybe the charity the preacher was talking of was meant to be given to the church. Also, since Voltaire lived during the Enlightenment Era, a period which followed the Renaissance, Voltaire may have been influenced by the new ideologies in which true knowledge was based on facts and reason making him react violently against the church which was corrupt. This was proven with facts. Since the 95 Theses of Martin Luther, people have begun to see the true word of God through the Bible and not through the politically biased interpretations of the church.
