Voltaire s Candide A Satirical Work Wrought With Black...

Voltaire’s Candide is a lively satirical work wrought with black humor and caricature-like characters. Apart from being a humorous and entertaining masterpiece, Candide explores the metaphysical conflict humanity faces in attempting to make sense of the world and its struggles. In his work, Voltaire uses his characters to serve as caricatures or parodies of various contrasting philosophies which each in their own way attempt to confront and remedy this existential conflict. He frames these characters’ worldviews in such a way as to create a philosophical spectrum with optimism and pessimism being at opposite extremes amongst other worldviews, such as meliorism and quietism, within the spectrum. The brand of philosophical optimism depicted and mocked in Candide was popularized by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, a German mathematician and philosopher(CITE). Leibniz s version of optimism basically states that all is for the best because out of all of the possible worlds, the one we live in is the best one. Dr. Pangloss is a parody of Leibniz’s version of optimism in Candide. No matter how horrendous the circumstance, Dr. Pangloss never fails to parrot the mantra that â€Å"all is for the best† (Voltaire 3) thus creating a caricature of Leibniz and his philosophy. Apart from Dr. Pangloss’s delusional assertion that â€Å"everything is right† (21) despite everything indicating that the opposite is true, his use of the non sequitur logical fallacy is yet another example of Voltaire depicting