Candide Symbolism, Imagery & Allegory

Gardens and Gardening

Gardens appear in several important passages in Candide. First, Candide’s uncle banishes him from the family’s country home and garden after he finds Candide kissing Cunégonde. This expulsion from the garden connotes and parodies the Garden of Eden story. In El Dorado, Candide encounters an incredible natural landscape that surpasses the beauty of the Baron’s home. Unfortunately, this setting is fantastical and transitory. Finally, at the end of the novel, Candide purchases a farm and dedicates himself to working and cultivating a garden. In doing so, Candide swaps the complacency that resulted from his previous philosophizing for an active engagement in his surroundings. The shift from passivity and philosophizing to activity and work seems to provide some relief to Candide and his friends. However, the ultimate symbolism of Candide’s retreat to gardening is unclear. One possible interpretation is that it reflects a change of character and a new start for Candide. Finally, in rejecting Pangloss’s philosophy and the philosopher’s way of life, Candide thinks for himself and builds something of his own. An alternative, however, is that Candide’s retreat to gardening is not an act of starting anew, but simply a replacement of the farmer’s philosophy for Pangloss’s. Although it may reveal an inclination to greater engagement in the world, the cultivation of a garden may also be seen as an escape or refuge from engagement in the greater world of suffering. In the context of the Garden of Eden analogy, Candide’s cultivation of a garden might also be understood as a futile attempt to restore the innocence and faith that he lost through his misfortunes and suffering.

Dr. Pangloss

Dr. Pangloss, like the majority of the main characters in Candide, symbolizes an ideology and a way of life. Pangloss’s absolute Optimism is a mockery of the philosophy of an Enlightenment thinker named Leibniz. Despite all of his personal misfortunes and the immense suffering he observes around him, Pangloss irrationally insists that all evil in the world is necessary and ultimately for the best. The word "pangloss" in Greek literally means "all tongue," so he’s a guy that can’t stop talking. Dr. Pangloss endlessly philosophizes, offering rambling lectures or contrived defenses of his beliefs even at the most inappropriate moments of crisis. (For more information, see Dr. Pangloss in the Character Analysis section.)

El Dorado

The land of El Dorado is an embodiment of Voltaire’s vision of an ideal society. El Dorado is a place of relative equality and advanced science. It is free of greed, pretension, religious contention, and suffering. El Dorado is significant in its ability to highlight the unfortunate realities of the world beyond its borders. Nevertheless, the land is too good to be true, and therefore unreal to Candide and Cacambo. This may be the real reason why they do not remain.

Syphilis

Like it or not, syphilis does indeed function as a symbol in Candide. You might have noticed lots of references to original sin. Right? Well, syphilis was doing a little European tour at the time Voltaire was writing Candide, and so, according to some scholars, Voltaire seems to be making a little religious analogy here: Syphilis, like original sin, spreads through sex.

Don Isaachar

Cunégonde's Jewish owner, Don Isaachar, functions as a symbol for all the prejudice we see in Candide. Isaachar, in particular, is a target for anti-Semitism, portrayed stereotypically as wealthy, greedy, and morally depraved. Like other religious figures, such as the Inquisitor and the Abbé, Voltaire depicts Isaachar as self-serving and unkind. While Voltaire singles out and criticizes a number of religions, notably Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in Candide, his standpoint is more generally a rejection of religious factionalism and violence than of any one religion in particular. It’s also possible that, in portraying negative stereotypes of Jews, Christians, and Muslims, Voltaire satirizes prejudice itself.