Reading Notes W4: Voltaire, Part A

Voltaire, "Candide", Pages 352-373

• Candide had perfected gentle manners and had an honest mind and great simplicity of heart (355)
• Castle of Baron of Thunder-Ten-Tronckh (355)
• Baron one of the mightiest lords (355)
• Baroness was 350 pounds (355)
• Daughter, Cunegonde, was a seventeen year old plump and desirable girl (355)
• Pangloss was the oracle of the household (355)
• Pangloss proved there cannot be an effect without a cause and that everything about the baron and his castle was the best of any to be compared to. (356)
• Candide's greatest sources of happiness in order are: being born Baron of Thunder-Ten-Tronckh, Miss Cunegonde, seeing her every day, listening to Master Pangloss (356)
• Cunegonde walked near the castle and saw Dr. Pangloss and decided to listen to him before returning to the house distracted, yearning for knowledge and dreaming that she might be the "sufficient reason" of Candide, "who might also be hers" (356)
• Candide and Cunegonde clearly like each other. They got caught in each other's eyes but then the baron kicked Candide out of the castle and Cunegonde fainted. When she recovered, the baroness slapped her on the face (356)
• Candide wandered around sad. He didn't eat. He ends up eating with two recruiting officers who invited him to dinner. They pay for his meal and speak with him. They tell him he is now "the bulwark, the support, the defender, the hero of the Bulgars" (357)
• He does intensive training regiments. Then they throw him into a dungeon and ask if he wants to be flogged 36 times or receive 12 bullets in the brain. He runs the gauntlet 36 times. He received 4000 strokes and he couldn't endure anymore. He begged them to smash his head. The King of the Bulgars understood that he was a young meta physician, extremely ignorant of the ways of the world, so he pardoned him. (358)
• Candide observes all of the bleeding bodies and severed limbs on the floor. He flees as fast as he can to another village . He reached Holland and was sure that the rich people there would treat him well. They all told him if he continued to beg he'd be placed in a house of correction and have to do manual labor. (358-9)
• He met a beggar the next day who was in terrible condition. (359)
• He gave the beggar his only two florins and the beggar revealed him self to be Pangloss. He's dying. (360).
• Pangloss says Cunegonde was disemboweled after being raped "to the absolute limit of human endurance." The Baron's head was smashed when he tried to defend her and then the baroness was cute into pieces. Everything was destroyed (360).
• Candide fainted. Upon coming back to his sense, he asked Pangloss what caused him to be this way. Pangloss said it was love. Candide questioned "How could this lovely cause produce in you such a disgusting effect?" Pangloss said he was infected with a disease from Paquette, the maidservant. (360).
• Candide's friend, Jacques, was able to cure Pangloss. Pangloss only lost one eye and an ear. Jacques made Pangloss his bookkeeper. (361)
• The ship got damaged. They set out for Libson after resting (362)
• They set foot in town and Candide was struck by falling stonework. He called to Pangloss, asking for win and oil. "I'm dying" (362)
• Candide fainted and Pangloss brought him water (363).
• Earthquake wiped out three quarters of Libson. After dinner, men cape with ropes to tie up Pangloss and Candide (363).
• They were put in costumes resembling devils and fire. Pangloss was hanged. Candide was scared and bleeding. He didn't care much that he was hurt. He felt worse about Pangloss. He was led away and an old woman told him to follow her (364)
• The woman cared for him and took him to a secret room. She brought Cunegonde with her (she turned out to be alive). The rest of her family was indeed, dead. Cunegonde said she will answer all of Candide's questions after he shares has happened to him. (365)
• She had witnessed Candide and Pangloss being beaten. She wanted to call out for them to let Candide go, but she felt it would have been useless. (366)
• An Israelite tried to attack Candide. Candide killed him. Cunegonde panicked that they'll be done for if the police find out. They wish Pangloss were still alive to give advice. An inquisitor appeared and saw them with the body. Candide had a quick and clear thought process. He realized he had already killed once, so one more would be fine if it meant the inquisitor couldn't call for help. He killed him as well. Cunegonde criticized him for being so gentle, yet being able to kill two people in two minutes. (367)
• Candide says he is no longer himself because of his love, jealousy, and the whippings. (368)
• The lovers and old woman travel to Cadiz (368)
• Cunegonde doesn't believe in the old woman's unhappiness. She believes she's been through far worse. (369)
• The old woman was the daughter of the Pope Urban the Tenth and the Princess of Palestrina (369).
• She was carried off into slavery with her mother in Morocco (370)
• She's had to crawl out from being underneath countless dead bodies. The visions seem to have had an effect on her. (371)
• Her mother was killed. (372).
• She was sold between several different countries. (372).