Line #71 Literature/Candide


1	[[quoteright:290:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/candideVoltaire_4962.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:290:The Baron, seeing this cause and this effect, threw Candide out of the castle with many a kick to the rear.]]
3
4	->''O che sciagὺra d'essere senza coglioni! ("Oh, what a misfortune to be without testicles!")''
5
6	Perhaps the most famous work of Creator/{{Voltaire}}, ''Candide'' is a biting {{satire}} of the then-popular view that we live in the [[RousseauWasRight best of all possible worlds]]. [[WideEyedIdealist So you can guess]] what [[BreakTheCutie happens from that]].
7
8	Candide is the story of [[ProtagonistTitle Candide]], the (possible) bastard nephew of Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh, and his attempts to marry Cunégonde, the Baron's daughter. After attempting to "explore cause and effect" with her, the Baron kicks Candide out of his castle. What follows could only be explained by the fact that Voltaire had an interesting sense of humor and a rather strong philosophical disagreement with one Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz.
9
10	After being drafted into the [[UsefulNotes/{{Prussia}} Bulgar]] army based solely on his height, Candide meets his philosophy professor Dr. Pangloss, who has been stricken with syphilis that he got from a woman working for the Baron,[[note]]which she got from a cavalry captain who got it from a marquise, who got it from a page, who got it from a Jesuit, who got it from a man who had gotten it directly from [[RefugeInAudacity Christopher Columbus]][[/note]] is shipwrecked at Lisbon, kills two priests and a Jew, meets a woman who is missing [[VulgarHumor half a buttock due to cannibalism]], goes to [[{{Utopia}} the legendary city El Dorado]] where [[WorthlessYellowRocks gold is the same as dirt]], meets someone who assures Candide that the chief occupations of every city, in order of importance, are "love-making, malicious gossip and talking nonsense," goes to Constantinople, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking gardens]]. Along the way he meets many other figures from his previous life, including Cunégonde, who have all gotten into [[RefugeInAudacity increasingly ridiculous predicaments]] and escaped them anyway, to join forces with him later.
11
12	For those who don't speak Italian, the above quote means ''"Oh, what a misfortune to be without testicles!"'' And yes, it is in the book, though the last word may or may not be censored into a single 'C' and ellipsis.
13	----
14	!!This novel provides examples of:
15	* AllMusicalsAreAdaptations: A LighterAndSofter operetta by Music/LeonardBernstein, which many examples on this page are derived from.
16	* AnsweringEcho: In the Bernstein operetta, the Inquisition delivers its judgments this way.
17	-->'''Three Inquisitors''': Are our methods legal or illegal?\
18	'''Basses''': Legal!\
19	'''Three Inquisitors''': Are we judges of the law, or laymen?\
20	'''Basses''': Amen.\
21	'''Three Inquisitors''': Shall we hang them or forget them?\
22	'''Basses''': Get them!
23	* TheAntiNihilist: Candide becomes one at the end. He no longer believes the world is the best possible one, but that's no reason to give up on improving it.
24	* BlackComedy[=/=]KafkaKomedy: The whole story is the main characters suffering one cartoonishly horrible misfortune after another.
25	* BewareTheNiceOnes: Candide. He's a kind and sweet youth, [[spoiler: but he didn't hesitate to kill Don Issachar or the Grand Inquisitor. The narrator describes Candide's reasoning for the second killing too - he was as much motivated by revenge and jealousy as by a desire to protect Cunégonde.]]
26	* BreakTheCutie: Candide is chased from the castle where he had lived his entire life, sees several people die, and observes the misery in the world, all of which wear away more and more at his sense of optimism.
27	* CagedBirdMetaphor: Invoked by Cunégonde in the opera adaptation (though she goes on to admit that she does appreciate some aspects of her sheltered life):
28	-->Harsh necessity\
29	Brought be to this {{gilded cage}}.\
30	Born to higher things,\
31	Here I droop my wings,\
32	Singing of a sorrow nothing can assuage.
33	* CallToAgriculture: In the end, Candide and his friends retire to subsistence living; the moral of the book is basically Candide's last line, "we must cultivate our garden." The operetta ends with the gorgeous choral number "Make Our Garden Grow".
34	* CastingCouch: Heavily implied as having helped Cunégonde's brother to progress in the Jesuit order.
35	* ChurchPolice: Candide and Pangloss fall into the hands of the Inquisition of Portugal, due to Pangloss' optimistic philosophy getting them branded as heretics. They are put to the torture and Pangloss is hanged, but an earthquake allows Candide to escape. Afterward, he learns that his LoveInterest, Lady Cunégonde, is still alive, but has fallen into the hands of a corrupt Jewish merchant and the even more corrupt Grand Inquisitor, who have both treated her horribly. Candide kills both her captors, but has to flee when an ''alcalde'' (Spanish fortress commander) comes after him for killing the Grand Inquisitor.
36	* CityOfGold: El Dorado.
37	* ContrivedCoincidence: {{Parodied}}; characters frequently run into people they've met before in other parts of the world.
38	* CrapsackWorld: Though the story's point is "It's not the best of all possible worlds, but at least it's not the ''worst''."
39	* DarkAndTroubledPast: The Old Woman was MadeASlave and [[RapeAsBackStory raped]] by pirates, lost her mother, [[SexSlave landed]] in several [[RoyalHarem harems]], contracted [[ThePlague the plague]], had her left buttock eaten by starved janissaries, was captured by the Russians and, finally, ended up working for Don Issachar. It doesn't help that she's the daughter of [[UsefulNotes/ThePope Pope Urban X]] by an Italian princess.
40	* DastardlyWhiplash: [[OverlyLongName Don Fernando de Ibaraa, y Figueora, y Mascarenes, y Lampurdos, y Suza]], who is described as carrying his nose so high, raising his voice mercilessly, and so on, that everyone who greeted him was tempted to hit him. In the next paragraph, he is also described as stroking his mustache and smiling malevolently.
41	* DeathByAdaptation: Martin. In the book he lives until the end and retires on the farm with Candide, but in the Bernstein operetta he drowns at sea.
42	* DirtyOldMonk: Brother Giroflée goes to the RedLightDistrict.
43	* DishonoredDead: After the holy brotherhood discovered the crime scene left behind by [[spoiler: Candide]], they threw Don Issachar's body upon a dunghill. This treatment is contrasted with [[DueToTheDead how they treat the Grand Inquisitor's body]].
44	* DistractedByTheLuxury: Cunégonde in Paris.
45	* TheDitz: Candide himself.
46	* DueToTheDead: After he's killed by [[spoiler: Candide]], the Grand Inquisitor's body is interred within a handsome church. This is contrasted with how Don Issachar's body [[DishonoredDead is treated]].
47	* DumbIsGood: Candide is a generally good person, if a bit naive.
48	* EveryoneCallsHerBarkeep: The Old Woman is only ever identified as such.
49	* EunuchsAreEvil: The eunuch in The Old Woman's backstory. He knew her when she was a baby, offered to take her back to Italy, but then lied and instead sold her to an Algerian Bey. [[LaserGuidedKarma He and the Bey soon after died of an outbreak of the plague]].
50	* GallowsHumor: Pangloss gets syphilis. It's PlayedForLaughs. In Bernstein's operetta he gets a whole song about it.
51	* GoodSamaritan: Jacques the Anabaptist. He takes Candide in after seeing him begging, and at Candide's request readily takes in Pangloss too and pays for a "cure" for his syphilis. [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished He later dies trying to save a drowning sailor]].
52	* HandsOffMyFluffy: The heroes rescue some women running from apes and it turns out the apes were their husbands.
53	* HaveAGayOldTime: "Glitter and be Gay" from the musical version.
54	* HiddenElfVillage: El Dorado.
55	* HopeSpringsEternal: The Old Woman lists this as the reason she didn't kill herself during her TraumaCongaLine.
56	* InnocentMeansNaive: Averted in the end. The titular protagonist is well-aware that the world he lives in is [[CrapsackWorld nowhere near perfect]], and while the road toward lasting happiness isn't clear, his commitment to gradual improvement and a dry-eyed view of life is summed up in the story's final line:
57	-->[[EarnYourHappyEnding "We must cultivate our garden."]]
58	* IWasQuiteALooker: The Old Woman, who states that she used the most beautiful woman in Italy. Age and slavery under a series of cruel masters ended that.
59	* KissingCousins: Being her father's nephew, Candide is Cunégonde's cousin, and wants to marry her.
60	* LaserGuidedKarma: The soldier who raped Cunégonde is caught in the act by his Captain and killed on the spot for it.
61	* LikeBrotherAndSister: The Bernstein operetta gives Candide and Paquette this kind of relationship. She tries to save Candide from being flogged in the Auto-da-fé, and she greets him by running up to hug him when he arrives in the Jesuit monastery where she and and the Baron's son are staying.
62	* LiteralAsskicking: The way Candide is kicked out of the castle.
63	* LivingMacGuffin: Cunégonde.
64	* MadeASlave: Happens with the Old Woman, [[spoiler:Cunégonde, and and her brother]].
65	* TheManTheyCouldntHang: Pangloss survives hanging because, he surmises, the Inquisitor lacked experience as a hangman.[[note]]The Inquisitor's standard procedure was to burn heretics, but he tried to hang Pangloss instead because the weather was inclement.[[/note]]
66	* MeaningfulName: Several. Candide is one letter away from "candid", Pangloss means "all tongue" in Greek, and Pococurante is Italian for "caring little."
67	* MoodWhiplash: One chapter ends with a tearful reunion between Candide and the baron's son, thought to be dead. The headline for the very next chapter then reads: "How Candide killed the baron's son."
68	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Jacques paid for a physician to "cure" Pangloss' syphilis. Since syphilis would not be effectively treated for another century and a half the treatment Pangloss received assuredly failed, but worse than that it involved the removal of him his eye and his nose.
69	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Pangloss is a rather biting parody of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz]], who had claimed this is the best of all possible worlds.
70	* NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction: The old lady questions whether being stuck on a farm with nothing to do is actually worse than the various comically over the top ordeals they've gone through.
71	* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Jacques tries to save a sailor from drowning, only to fall overboard himself and drown. The sailor walks off without so much as a "thank you."
72	* NoPartyLikeADonnerParty: The janissaries besieged by the Russians in Azow eat their servants and the Old Woman's left buttock to keep their promise to [[LastStand hold to the last]].
73	* OneWordTitle: ProtagonistTitle, NoFullNameGiven.
74	* OpposedMentors: A classic example in which the title character falls under the influence of Pangloss and Martin, who are at opposite ends of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism.
75	* OverlyLongName: Don Fernando d'Ibaraa y Figueora y Mascarenes y Lampourdos y Souza, who "carried himself with a haughtiness suitable to a person who bore so many names."
76	* ThePhilosopher: Pangloss and Martin.
77	* PinballProtagonist: Candide.
78	* ThePollyanna: Candide is perhaps the early prototype. In spite of constant tragedy, he does his best to maintain Pangloss's philosophy of "all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds". He does find himself wavering to maintain this over time, and in the end abandons it completely. "Pangloss" is actually a synonym for "Pollyanna" in most thesauruses. Pangloss himself says by the end of the book that he (unsurprisingly) no longer believes this, but it would be improper for a philosopher to [[AesopAmnesia change his opinion]].
79	* RapeAsBackstory: Cunégonde and the Old Woman have this.
80	* RapePillageAndBurn: The castle where Candide lived is sacked in the course of war. Cunégonde is raped during this event, and is believed for a time to have been killed.
81	* RefugeInAudacity: To put it simply, Voltaire probably wrote one of the most epic {{Crack Fic}}s even before the name was coined!
82	* RefugeInVulgarity: With the amount of gore, sexual impropriety, and scatological comedy in the work, one gets the impression that Voltaire was intentionally trying to scandalize his audience. Which he most likely was.
83	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Some real-life events that happened around the time the novel was written find their way to it:
84	** Near the beginning of Act 3, Candide arrives in England and witnesses a admiral being executed, with Martin explaining that Britain finds it necessary to shoot an admiral from time to time "to encourage the others". Said admiral is based upon [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Byng John Byng]], court-martialled and shot in 1757 for "failing to do his utmost" to prevent Minorca from falling to the French.
85	** The earthquake that Candide and Pangloss witness upon reaching Lisbon is clearly [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1755_Lisbon_earthquake the one that hit Lisbon in 1755]].
86	* RousseauWasRight: {{Inverted}} with extreme prejudice.
87	* SuccessionCrisis: The Old Woman described one happening in Morocco when she was taken there as a slave. According to her tale the Moroccan Emperor died with fifty sons, each of whom tried to take the throne for himself, and so the country was "drowning in blood". Despite the atrocities they committed the Moroccans still [[ChurchGoingVillain prayed five times a day as commanded by the Prophet]].
88	* SkewedPriorities: When Candide asks if syphilis originated with the Devil, Pangloss disagrees and says that despite causing pain and sterility syphilis is a necessary evil because the voyage that brought it to Europe also brought chocolate.
89	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Despite what Pangloss says, this story abides in cynicism. Martin happily occupies the cynicism end. The Musical, slightly less so.
90	* StrawCritic: The politician who is so well-read that he is incapable of enjoying anything.
91	* StrawmanPolitical: Pangloss, duh.
92	* TakeThat:
93	** [[ThePhilosopher Pangloss]] is an obvious parody of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (yes, ''[[ViewersAreGeniuses that]]'' Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz). The phrase "the best of all possible worlds" is lifted directly from his public work and is routinely mocked throughout the book.
94	** By chronological proximity it is also aimed at Leibniz's student Christian Wolff, who was massively popular in Europe for a long time for writing books on TheThemeParkVersion of Leibniz's rather abstract philosophy.
95	** The whole work is a massive Take That to [[RousseauWasRight Rousseau]] himself, with whom Voltaire was on bad terms at the time.
96	** There are several petty shots at Voltaire's personal enemies throughout the book.
97	* TraumaCongaLine: All the main characters go through this.
98	* UnexplainedRecovery: Occurs frequently to major characters, PlayedForLaughs.
99	* UngratefulBastard: Cunégonde's brother still refuses to let Candide marry his sister even after Candide frees him from slavery.
100	* VillainSong: "Boy Voyage" in all the Operettas. A man sings about how he's talking advantage of Candide's trusting nature by selling him a leaky boat at an extortionate price.
101	--> "What a dumb goat, what a dumb goat,
102	--> Handing me a fortune [[TheAllegedCar for a perfect wreck of a boat]].
103	--> Never did float, never did float.
104	--> This is going to make a most amusing anecdote.
105	--> Never did float, wreck of a boat. What a dumb goat!"
106	* WarIsHell: The narrator describes [[SarcasmMode sarcastically]] a battle between the Bulgarians and the Abarians and deconstructs WarIsGlorious, noting how both [[NotSoDifferentRemark commit atrocities]], while only speaking about those of the other side.
107	* WhamLine: Chapter 7 revealing that Cunégonde is still alive.
108	* WideEyedIdealist: The central theme, which is brutally demolished over the course of the book.
109	* TheWomenAreSafeWithUs: Subverted with the Bulgarian Captain [[spoiler: who takes Cunégonde as his slave. When he saw one of his soldiers raping her he was so enraged that he killed the man on the spot, yet when he needed money he sold her into sexual slavery to Don Issachar]].

Context Literature / Candide