candide
In the cultivation of the Turkish garden by Candide, Cunegonde, Pangloss, and the others, we see the symbol of the Garden of Eden as the ideal world come full circle. To Voltaire, the idea that God having made everything for a specific purpose and that existence is presently the “best of all possible worlds” is simply ludicrous in his eyes. In the end, Voltaire places the characters in the garden as an escape from the outside world. His ending serves to contradict Leibniz’s idea by placing Candide and all in not the best possible world, but in the environment that causes the least amount of suffering, which is Voltaire’s apparent definition of the Garden of Eden.
Having been cast out of Westphalia by the Baron Thunder-Ten-Tronckh, Candide sets out and is accosted by the most harrowing set of circumstances possible. When all is said and done however, Candide finds himself in a world where circumstance is almost nonexistent because he both literally and figuratively reaps what he sows. Candide is the master of his own destiny in a way. Any productivity in crops is a result of hard work, careful planting, and good cultivation. Any productivity in life is only as effective as the effort put in. The lifestyle chosen by the characters leaves no real room for philosophical thought in regards to if the world they live in is the best of all possible worlds because hard work is placed in paramount. In their new society, life is better because one can immediately see both the tangible and intangible benefits of hard work. Candide’s journey from paradise in Westphalia to paradise in Turkey is dotted with tribulations and trials, but he comes out as a more experienced and wiser man. In the end, Candide uses his knowledge of the world gained through experience to choose the manner of lifestyle that best suits his views of the best possible world and the best way to live in it. At the end of Candide, the characters are all left in sort of a state of melancholy bliss. The withdrawl from the suffering of the rest of the natural world seems like a viable solution to end their own suffering, but upon further review, serves as just an escape from the real deep reaching problems of man and society. Voltaire’s ending is not as much of a cop-out as much as it is the only reasonable solution to the problems presented in the novel. While it is clearly not the best of all possible solutions resulting in the best possible world, it seems that it is the only solution that could be put into practice given the circumstances the characters have been put through. The ending serves as a summation and resolution to the possibility of life after most values and forces of human existence are struck down.
The way that Voltaire utilizes the concept of the “Garden of Eden” in the beginning and end of the novel is a theme that has undercurrents throughout the entire novel. From the third page where Candide is “driven from terrestrial paradise,” until the end when he is left to cultivate his garden in El Dorado, Candide is in constant search of this social ideal. Candide realizes that the best way to escape from the stimuli that cause him so much anguish is to remove himself from the situations that could set him up for such an event. Amidst all the mockery of the social norms that Leibniz advocated as perfect in the given world, Voltaire utilizes the recurring symbol of the Garden of Eden as the actual best possible world, a world that is based on reaping what one sows and making the world a better place for oneself rather than sitting idly and accepting circumstances as they arise.