Candide by Voltaire Index of Student notes

The following is a list of essay topics helpful to students studying Voltaire's Candide.

Cick on a title to access the notes on that topic

• Summary of the book with commentary
• The life and character of Voltaire
• Identifying the literary genre to which the book belongs. (Read this in order to approach the book in the right way )

The aim of the book was to attack Philosophical Optimism and there are four essays to cover this:

• Optimistic Philosophy in the eighteenth century
• Direct references to Philosophical Optimism in the book
• Voltaire's hostility to Philosophical Optimism
• Voltaire's evidence against Philosophical Optimism

(If Voltaire is attacking optimism does this make for a gloomy, pessimistic book?)

• Is "Candide" a totally pessimistic book?
• What is Candide's final philosophy of life?

(The style serves to dispel any gloomy tone)

• Voltaire's literary style

(The Characterisation)

• Are the characters merely puppets?
• The Character of Candide
• The character of Pangloss
• The character of Cunegonde
• The character of the German Jesuit Baron
• The character of the old woman
• The character of Cacambo
• The character of Martin