At
last, a few days ago I could finish reading Voltaire’s “Candide”. Like many other classics in
my personal library, “Candide” had long been queuing up in my reading list, and
it remained there patiently for quite some time without much movement.
“Candide”
is a convoluted story of adventures of a young man, Candide, as his fate takes
him to distant lands. Candide comes from almost a royal family except that he
is an illegitimate child. He is taught by his tutor, Pangloss, who is a
philosopher shaped mainly by ideas of Leibniz. Leibniz believed that all that
has just happened is not merely result of some grand and divine design
but is also something that is the best under the given circumstances. Nothing
could have been wiser or better for human beings than the situation obtaining
here. “Candide” denounces and negates
this philosophy mercilessly and loudly! No wonder “Candide” is a classic that
ushers in new European thinking of enlightenment and of human triumph that
seeks to accord central place to man.
“Candide”
is a short work, of only about 150 pages, full of adventures and fantasy
stories we normally find in adventure books. But this story of adventure though
fascinating, is not entirely enjoyable. It’s funny as also dark. It is this contrast
between the hilarity and the crudity, light and the darkness, hope and despair
that is a source of troubled thought for the reader. The
contrast continues as more adventures continue to pour in, sometimes
to complicate the story and at other times to simplify it. The entire series of
adventure is designed to test Leibniz's idea that whatever happens, happens
for the best and that the situation that is obtained is the best possible one
in the world. The characters (except the hero, Candide) simply
go ahead with events as if they are acting according to a script written
for them. Everything is accepted uncritically,
everything is justified and rationalized. How can it be otherwise for this
world is the creation of the God himself? And how would God create something
that is not perfect? Pangloss and Candide keep on arguing tediously as the
train of adventure moves on. The trouble in
the mind of the reader is that he senses a medieval world that is at
loggerheads with the spirit of enlightenment!
Voltaire’s Candide is thus a biting satire and
a mordant travesty of Leibniz's philosophy that justifies everything that comes to the lot of man. Candide moves out of his protected environment
and tests the philosophy he has been nurtured in; and he finds something
shockingly different. He finds that the world outside is not merely cruel but
continues to be inhumane to the hapless players who experience
hierarchies of cruelty, violence, indignity and inequity of every kind. As one
reads and follows Candide’s and his colleagues’ adventures and their tryst with
their misfortunes one wonders what good is there in this world!
Violation of human beings and its acceptance without
a finger being raised against such acts of cruelty by the victims of religious,
social, political and economic realities forms
the core of Voltaire’s Candide. At
the end of the novel Candide gets thoroughly disillusioned by the philosophy that
seeks to justify this world and decides in the end that gardening perhaps is
the best activity for human beings. In this work, Voltaire excoriates contemporary philosophers, politicians,
statesmen and religious and social leaders for continuing to peddle the
philosophy that leaves little volition, freedom and dignity to human
beings.
Candide,
though a satire, presents a pessimistic view of the world and makes a gloomy
reading. It is full of violence against
human beings, with basest violation and worst indignities reserved for
women. At once dark and funny “Candide” is a great work of criticism against a
world order that thrives on the annihilation of the spirit of the weak.
In
the end Candide, thoroughly disillusioned with the philosophy of his mentor,
concludes that the best activity that human beings can do is to nurture and develop
“Garden”. Gardening here may signify a simple and positive activity that
supports life; it may also mean tending with love and affection all human
activities. It may also mean confronting the world and bringing about great
forces that are life enhancing and life perpetuating. It also means an attempt to demystify
philosophies in the face of robust life and live it in simple ways.
Though
“Candide” was written in 1750s it is still a modern work for it creates and
endorses a tradition of asking fundamental questions about existence of human
beings. I find
Voltaire’s “Gardening” a good solution to the troubled mind and to the troubled
world beset by the exasperation of choosing between complex options. For it supports
and enhances life. It is the simplest available philosophy that needs perhaps
no justification through first principles.
