Voltaire Exposes the Fallacy of Optimism in Candide

Voltaire is a French writer of novel Candide, also known as "optimism" (Durant and Durant 724). As a playwright and essayist, Voltaire's Candido is a public opinion that he tried to point out the optimistic theory of Gottfried William von Leipnitz. He uses ironic and exaggerated techniques to emphasize the evil and savage of war and the world when people accept faithfully their destiny. Leibnitz, a German philosopher and mathematician of the Volterre era, proposed the idea that the world in which they lived is "the best world in all possible worlds". Leibniz's system optimism is a philosophical system that is always believed.

Voltaire revealed an optimistic mistake in Candide, Voltaire drew a frustrating and sarcastic worldview. Voltaire painted a pessimistic portrait depicting a rustic youth trained to believe that this is the best in the world. Voltaire revealed over and over again that he thought it was not the best of all possible worlds. Characters in the story are facing a great adversity. In chapter 10, Cunegonde said her unhappiness was so great that she did not see the way the old lady 's tragic story transcended herself.

Voltaire has partially constructed Candide for entertainment purposes, mainly to satisfy the paradox of Leibniz's optimistic theory. Throughout his legendary process Voltaire juxtaposed the original, unexplored optimism of the character in the story with an exaggerated pessimistic and pessimistic real-world adventure. From terrible war to sickness, incitement, deception, Voltaire did not miss bad things in "the best world". Leibniz thinks our world is a symbol of perfection. And all the evil that happens is to improve and develop our ideal society. He believes that God is perfect as Earth is the concept of God, which must maintain this perfect flaw. But Voltaire further emphasized his sarcasm and chose to start writing with only these places, deliberately to ignore the inevitable evil of "the best world".