Candide Thesis and Outline

Pangloss, being an optimist, and all those who follow his philosophy provide better company than one who is a pessimist and enjoy a happier life because of their outlook on it.

• Pangloss's optimistic philosophy
• There is no effect without cause
• Everything has sufficient reason
• It is impossible for anything to be different because everything is right just the way it is
• Disaster leads to better things
• Candide was banished from the castle, but was not a victim of the siege that later befell it; if he had not been banished and the castle had not been ransacked, he may have never been reunited with Pangloss, Comgonde, Paquette, or Cunegonde's brother
• If Candide had not stabbed Cunegonde's brother, the Oreillions that later captured him would have roasted and eaten him and Cacambo
• If Candide and Cacambo had not gotten lost and just let the river carry them, they would have never found El Dorado, the City of Gold, and gotten the funds to fund their journey
• In the end, "If you had not been kicked out of a magnificent castle for the love of Miss Cunegonde: if you had not been put into the Inquisition: if you had not walked over America: if you had not stabbed the Baron: if you had not lost all your sheep from the fine country of El Dorado: you would not be here eating preserved citrons and pistachio nuts," (chapter XXX)
• General happiness
• Because he believed that everything was the best possible thing that could happen, Pangloss's own hanging, though he did not die, could not have been sad for him, because he knew it was for the best; even after being hanged, cut open, whipped, etc., he still professed that everything was for the best.
• Though the old woman that Cunegonde befriends had had a hard life of slavery and abuse, she was still glad to help reunite Candide and Cunegonde
• Despite all his setbacks, Candide never lost hope that he would be reunited with Cunegonde, and in the end he did end up marrying her