Candide Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis from LitCharts
In spite of his terrible experiences, he never loses his resolve to continue on and to do the right thing, even after making foolish decisions. She is living with two powerful men who try to share her affections, and she was responsible for saving Candide from the killings during the auto-da-fé. . Often, readers are led to believe that characters have died, but in fact, those characters survive and return by the end. Cunégonde is the baron's daughter and the object of Candide's affection. Jacques takes Pangloss in as well. Candide makes his way to Holland, because he has heard it is a rich country.
Martin is every bit as pessimistic and negative about life as Pangloss is positive. The rest of the novel details the multiple hardships and disasters that Candide and his various companions meet in their travels. Candide decides to split off from Cacambo, instructing him to take most of the gold, buy Cunegonde, and meet him in Venice. When he innocently wanders outside the camp to take a morning walk, he is accused of defection. In Paris, Candide and Martin mingle with the social elite. Pangloss also explains that his physical deterioration is due to a bout of syphilis, transmitted by Miss Cunégonde's maidservant. The Dutch ship turns out to have been the ship of the man who had swindled him in Suriname.
Candide Chapter 20 Summary & Analysis from LitCharts
The Old Woman tells them of being enslaved in Morocco. We never actually learn the name of The Old Woman. An Old Woman nurses Candide's wounds and later escorts him to see Miss Cunégonde, who has survived, contrary to Pangloss's story. A major reunion of surviving characters, major and minor, ensues. In despair over his newfound state of exile, Candide finds consolation in a tavern with two men, who invite him to dinner. In Buenos Aires, they meet the governor, Don Fernando, who takes an interest in Cunégonde and asks for her hand in marriage.
At the mention of their names, the two men rise up in shouts of glee. Candide and Pangloss survive, but are soon after arrested by the Inquisition, which is holding an auto-da-fé a public festival for the punishment of heretics in an attempt to prevent future earthquakes. In the chaotic world of the novel, philosophical speculation repeatedly proves to be useless and even destructive. Later liberated, she is healed by a French surgeon. GradeSaver, 7 July 2003 Web.
Candide Chapter 24 Summary & Analysis from LitCharts
Martin believes that Cacambo has run off with the money, and that Candide has been a fool. Although the city is full of riches, the people live in peace and harmony. There, a mishap results in their capture by the savage Oreillons, who take them for Jesuits and prepare to eat them. The French ship sinks the Dutch ship, and dozens of men drown. Those long presumed dead, such as Miss Cunégonde, Pangloss, and the Baron, will suddenly reappear after a prolonged absence from the storyline. He also uses satire, or sarcasm, along with a very dry humor, to great effect toward that goal. Finally, Candide gets word that his beloved Cunégonde is being kept in slavery once again, which is the impetus for a trip to the Middle East.
Analysis: With Candide's expulsion from the idyllic castle of Westphalia, the opening chapter is a thinly veiled re-enactment of Adam and Eve's exile from the Garden of Eden and the scene of original sin. The performance moves Candide to tears, while a critic excoriates Candide for being too sentimental. Though he no longer wants to marry Cunégonde, the stubbornness of the Young Baron's opposition causes Candide to do it anyway. After traveling for days, Candide and Cacambo find themselves in the land of Eldorado, where gold and jewels litter the streets. When they reach the territory of Surinam, Candide sends Cacambo to Buenos Aires with instructions to use part of the fortune to purchase Cunégonde from Don Fernando and then to meet him in Venice. Despite everything, Pangloss remains an optimist. To comfort Cunégonde during a time of sadness, the Old Woman tells the story of how one of her buttocks had been cut off and eaten by Russian army officers in Algiers.
In the tradition of the roman à clef, however, his critiques maintain a measure of anonymity and fictionalization enough to avoid too much backlash from his contemporaries. With that, he shuts the door in their faces. Because by now it seems the thing to do, he buys their freedom as well. Plot Overview Candide is the illegitimate nephew of a German baron. Horrified to learn that there is no legitimate reason for the execution, he asks the captain to carry him directly to Venice. Time and time again, it prevents characters from making realistic assessments of the world around them and from taking positive action to change adverse situations. He runs away, coming across war-torn villages in the process and witnessing the horrors of war firsthand.
Candide Chapter 20 Summary & Analysis from LitCharts
Candide and Cacambo enjoy their time in the city, but decide to take some of the riches with them to buy back Cunegonde. Nevertheless, Candide manages to arrange a journey to Bordeaux with Martin, an impoverished scholar and pessimist whom he chooses as his traveling companion. He recovers, but is tricked by an actress into giving away much of his fortune and is eventually arrested by the police, who are suspicious of all strangers. Religious leaders in the novel also carry out inhumane campaigns of religious oppression against those who disagree with them on even the smallest of theological matters. At last everyone is fulfilled and happy.
In Paris, Candide is tricked and robbed by the devious and superficial Abbé of Perigord and Marchioness of Parolignac, along with many other minor characters. In his view, there is about as much nobility in having descended from several thousands years of uninterrupted aristocracy as there is in having caught a venereal disease originally transmitted by the famous explorer of New World. This philosophical tale is often hailed as a paradigmatic text of the , but it is also an attack on the optimistic beliefs of the Enlightenment. After joining the Bulgarian army, Candide again runs, but meets Pangloss, who is disfigured and sickly. En route, they are shipwrecked, the Anabaptist dies, and Candide and Pangloss hardly reach shore before a massive earthquake strikes. Knowing that he will be arrested if he returns to Buenos Aires, Candide sends Cacambo to search for Cunégonde, promising to meet him in Venice. They discuss philosophy and are utterly miserable until they meet a happy Turk relaxing under a tree.
