“We must go and work in the garden” those
are the final words of our hero Candide, and with that phrase Voltaire
concludes his satirical piece. I would say he finishes off taking practice of
the philosophy that finally granted happiness to his characters: not worrying too
much and focusing one’s life in one and only one activity and improving one’s
skills for it. In this case he did not give the reader an ultimate maxim to
live their life and defy society, but gave them an ambiguous one where the
characters are happy, or at least seem to be. However, the recovery of each
from the previous state of extreme boredom and lethargy to extreme work does
not take all the evil from the world away. I would say that Voltaire suggests that
one cannot live ignoring the calamities others experience, even if one is
already happy. Candide’s well being is a temporary situation that will soon
change when he decides to make the difference and actually make his world the
best of all possible words. Not through naïve endeavors, not through stupid
actions, not by hoping for the best, but actually making the best happen. I
would say Voltaire’s final message is not that we are eternally condemned to
suffer from our evil nature or that to avoid harm we shall work incessantly and
never question the ways things occur, but to confront our reality and do our
best to change it. For it is immensely ironic for a thinker such as Voltaire to
say work and think about nothing and you shall be happy, I’d say he meant the
exact opposite. Hence, after relentlessly attacking his current society there
is no way he would let them go that easily, I would say Voltaire invites his
reader to reflect and act upon the great problems of life instead of ignoring
them.
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