Systems in Candide
In the novel Candide by Voltaire, the literary term system is prevalent throughout the second half of the novel. A system is defined as an attempt often simplified to control our perception of a complex idea or situation to make it easier to understand. As Candide progresses through the novel the system of wealth becomes his idea to the key of happiness. However, the reader can infer from the text that wealth is just a temporary and never fully beneficial. The most obvious example of the perception of the corruption of wealth in the novel is in chapter 22 when Candide had just cheated on Cunegonde and is feeling regret “Abbe sympathized with grief; he had only a small share I the fifty thousand francs which Candide lost …show more content…
Ironically religious figures are deemed as sacred and honest which is the opposite of Abbe in this situation. Abbes devious and fraudulent ways show that in this French society wealth is what drives people. Next Voltaire controls our perception of misfortune and demonstrates the system of optimism in Chapter 22. From the beginning of the novel Candide is optimistic about his hardships and struggles on his journey that every misfortune would happen for a reason. “I have seen worse; but a wise man who has since had the misfortune to be hanged, taught me that everything was marvelously well arranged. Troubles are the shadows in a beautiful picture” (464). However, by the end of the novel Candide and Pangloss have endured more real life experiences and must alter their philosophy of optimism. The etymology of the word “optimism” comes from French “optimisim” meaning “the greatest good.” Candide and Pangloss experience earthquakes, executions, robberies, and unfaithfulness which weakens Panglosses philosophy. In the last chapter the old women speaks asks “I should like to know which is worse, being raped a hundred times by negro pirates, having a buttocks cut off, running the gauntlet in the Bulgar army, being flogged and hanged in an auto-da-fe, being dissected and rowing in the galleys-experiencing, in a word, all the miseries through which we have passed-or just else sitting here doing nothing?” Ironically the old woman makes
In the novel Candide by Voltaire, the literary term system is prevalent throughout the second half of the novel. A system is defined as an attempt often simplified to control our perception of a complex idea or situation to make it easier to understand. As Candide progresses through the novel the system of wealth becomes his idea to the key of happiness. However, the reader can infer from the text that wealth is just a temporary and never fully beneficial. The most obvious example of the perception of the corruption of wealth in the novel is in chapter 22 when Candide had just cheated on Cunegonde and is feeling regret “Abbe sympathized with grief; he had only a small share I the fifty thousand francs which Candide lost …show more content…
Ironically religious figures are deemed as sacred and honest which is the opposite of Abbe in this situation. Abbes devious and fraudulent ways show that in this French society wealth is what drives people. Next Voltaire controls our perception of misfortune and demonstrates the system of optimism in Chapter 22. From the beginning of the novel Candide is optimistic about his hardships and struggles on his journey that every misfortune would happen for a reason. “I have seen worse; but a wise man who has since had the misfortune to be hanged, taught me that everything was marvelously well arranged. Troubles are the shadows in a beautiful picture” (464). However, by the end of the novel Candide and Pangloss have endured more real life experiences and must alter their philosophy of optimism. The etymology of the word “optimism” comes from French “optimisim” meaning “the greatest good.” Candide and Pangloss experience earthquakes, executions, robberies, and unfaithfulness which weakens Panglosses philosophy. In the last chapter the old women speaks asks “I should like to know which is worse, being raped a hundred times by negro pirates, having a buttocks cut off, running the gauntlet in the Bulgar army, being flogged and hanged in an auto-da-fe, being dissected and rowing in the galleys-experiencing, in a word, all the miseries through which we have passed-or just else sitting here doing nothing?” Ironically the old woman makes