Happiness In Voltaire's Candide

As I know from reading Candide, some of the members of Candide’s group and Candide, decide to go to a garden and make it their own. They decide it would be best for all of them if they worked on it every day to occupy their time because they were very bored with nothing to do all day long. appalling because Candide and the other members just went through very terrible things in their last adventures and have seen the pain and misery of the world but still choose to work in their garden. In this essay, three points that will be looked at will be Pangloss and his philosophy not lining up with his actions,Candide having a narrow mind, and Candide’s philosophy not lining up with his actions. The theme of happiness, which Voltaire shows by Candide …show more content…
From time to time, in their garden, Pangloss would say to Candide, “ There is a chain of events in this best of all possible worlds” (Voltaire 144). This quote proves that Pangloss did truly believe in his philosophy. Pangloss believing in this philosophy shows that he thinks retreating to their garden was the best outcome that could have happened instead of the members going somewhere, outside of their garden, to help others around them. Constantly, the members of the group complained about being bored, which is why Candide made them work. But, if they were all so miserable before they worked, that could not be the best of all possible situations and what happens when working in the garden gets old and everyone in the group doesn't want to work anymore? Working in the garden does not bring true happiness and is not “ the best of all possible …show more content…
Everyone knows that helping others makes you feel good. During the conversation between Candide, Pangloss, and the dervish “…news had spread that two cabinet members and a judge had been strangled at Constantinople…” (142). These three people were strangled before the members decided to go to the garden, but just like these three men needed saving maybe instead of retreating to the garden they could spend their time helping others resulting in a happier life, knowing that they did some good in the world. Each one of the characters, that has now ended up in the garden, has gone through a hardship and should know how it feels to be helpless in a bad situation, which is why they should not be in the garden but rather outside their own little world helping people, lifting their spirits in the