Throughout Candide, we see how accepting situations and not trying to change or overcome obstacles can be damaging. His wealth is all gone and so is his love for the Baron’s daughter. He travels on, and years later he finds her again, but she is now fat and ugly. Candide is reunited with Cunegonde, and regains a life of prosperity, but soon all is taken away, including his beloved Cunegonde. On his journey, he faces a number of misfortunes, among them being tortured during army training, yet he continues to believe that there is a “cause and effect” for everything. Devastated by the separation from Cunegonde, his true love, Candide sets out to different places in the hope of finding her and achieving total happiness. Candide is abruptly exiled from the castle when found kissing the Baron’s daughter, Cunegonde. Pangloss), and that he must work in order to find even a small amount of pleasure in life.Ĭandide grows up in the Castle of Westphalia and is taught by the learned philosopher, Dr. In life, “man must find a medium between what Martin (scholar and companion to Candide) calls the “convulsions of anxiety” and the “lethargy of boredom” (Richter 137).Īfter a long and difficult struggle in which Candide is forced to overcome misfortune to find happiness, he concludes that all is not well (as he has previously been taught by his tutor, Dr.

All people experience the turmoil of life and must overcome obstacles, both natural and man-made, in order to eventually achieve happiness.

Voltaire’s Candide is the story of an innocent man’s experiences in a mad and evil world, his struggle to survive in that world, and his need to ultimately come to terms with it.

Voltaire book candide