Aristocrats, Prenuptial Agreements, and Turkish Gardeners

From what I remember of learning about Voltaire in one of my freshman year philosophy classes was that he was a writer of Satirical work designed to poke fun at the aristocratic classes and all the idiocies of his time. The whole of Candide is strewn with satirical representations of Voltaire’s era, with several very insightful pieces of philosophical reasoning thrown in.  Although this was the second time I read Candide, I definitely appreciated Voltaires humor much more in this second reading than the first when I was a foolish freshman and didn’t understand what Voltaire was getting at. One of my favorite lines from the book comes after Candide and Martin have had spent the evening with the Pococurante in Venice. Candide has admired all the pleasant things the Pococurante has in his home, from pretty women, to beautiful music, to an extremely vast collection of literature. All of which the Pococurante has dismissed as vile, boring, or in general not worthy of attention. As Candide and Martin are leaving the Pococurante’s home Candide Remarks:

“Oh what a surprising man! Said Candide, still to himself; What a prodigious genius is this Pococurante! Nothing can please him.”

I think that with this line Voltaire is poking fun at the aristocracy of his time. Living in the mid 18^th century, much of the landed nobility did absolutely nothing with their time and money other than spend it satisfying their desires and living in ‘high society’. They were able to read so much philosophy, listen to so much music, and have so many dalliances with beautiful women that things that were indeed interesting and joyful no longer gave them pleasure. The Pococurante is the epitome of the aristocrat who has indulged in so many pleasurable things that they are no longer pleasurable to him. He is so well read, and has encountered so much great philosophy and literature that he is now simply above it all. I can practically see the plump noblemen chortling with admiration at the vain aristocrat among them who is so wise that he holds everything in distain. A prodigious genius indeed!  

This is a problem as much in our time as it was in Voltaire’s. I think that there absolutely is such a thing as too much of a good thing, as constantly experiencing a certain pleasure eventually takes the fun out of it. Think of the stories you hear of incredibly rich people having all the money, boats, cars and things they could ever want and still being incredibly unhappy. It is important to live a life of moderation, indulging in pleasurable things every so often, perhaps even frequently, but not so frequently that they loose all significance or enjoyment.

Another line from the book that I liked which has to do with the topic of being wealthy was from when Candide fell ill upon entering Paris:

“As he wore a diamond of an enormous size on his finger and had among the rest of his equipage a strong box that seemed very weighty, he soon found himself between two physicians whom he had not sent for, a number of intimate friends whom he had never seen, and who would not quit his bedside, and two women devotees who were very careful in providing him hot broths.”

Here Voltaire is ridiculing the shallowness of humans, and how they will attach themselves to someone and pretend to care about them simply because they are rich. One of my friends told me that one of the reason celebrities so often marry other celebrities is because they don’t have to worry about another celebrity marrying them simply because of their fame or money. They often have to worry when meeting ordinary people that the person who expresses interest in them, isn’t actually interested in them for their personality, and for who they are on the inside, but for their fame and who they are on the outside. I think that Voltaire’s observation about the shallowness of many people is as applicable today as it was in his time, and is a fact of life that will likely continue on as long as there are rich and famous people in the world. Hell, worrying about someone marrying you for your money was such a big issue that lawyers invented prenuptial agreements.

One final line that I liked from Candide was the very last line of the book where Candide says “let us cultivate our garden.” I think that what Voltaire was trying to say with this, is that in the end of things you just have to live your life. All these horrible things happen to Candide, and Pangloss and all the other characters in the story, but at the end of things none of it matters much as they all end up in the same place. In a similar way, there is a great deal of philosophical discussion within the book, from Leibnitz’s optimism to the Manichaeism of Martin, and everyone seems to have an opinion about who has had the worst life, or how one should look at the world. But in the end, the most content and happy person in the book is the Turk Candide and company meet at the very end of the story who sits at home cultivating his garden with his family, and who cares not a fig about the world outside his own. I think that what Voltaire means by his line “let us cultivate our garden” is that despite all the horrible things that go on in life, despite all the great philosophical ideals and theories about how things work, at the end of the day, the only thing that a person can do is to go on living their life.