75 pages • 2 hours read
Candide
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During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
CHAPTERS 1-5
Reading Check
1. What is the name of the Baron von Thunder-ten-tronckh’s daughter?
2. Why is Candide court-martialed?
3. Where do Candide and Pangloss wind up after they are shipwrecked?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What does Pangloss teach Candide?
2. How did Pangloss become a beggar in Holland?
Paired Resource
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s comprehensive introduction to the life and thought of Leibniz, the philosopher best known in connection with Pangloss’ idea that we live in “the best of all possible worlds”
- Connects to the theme of Optimism
- How is Leibniz’s philosophical optimism connected with the rest of his thought?
The Hierarchy of European Nobility
- A basic introduction to the nobility of Europe from nobilitytitles.net
- Connects to the theme of Happiness and Individual Suffering
- What makes one a noble in Candide’s world? Where does Candide fall within this hierarchy?
CHAPTERS 6-10
Reading Check
1. To whom does the Old Woman bring Candide?
2. What is Don Issacar’s arrangement with the Grand Inquisitor?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why do the religious leaders of Lisbon hold an auto-da-fé?
2. Why is Cunégonde shocked by what Candide does to Don Issacar and the Grand Inquisitor?
3. How does Candide secure passage for himself and his companions on a ship sailing for Paraguay?
Paired Resource
Ugly History: The Spanish Inquisition
- A short but informative video from TED-Ed on the history of the Spanish Inquisition
- Connects to the theme of Happiness and Individual Suffering
- What is the role of the inquisition in Voltaire’s Candide? How does the history of inquisition reflect the central themes of the text?
CHAPTERS 11-15
Reading Check
1. Whose daughter is the Old Woman?
2. Who is the commanding officer of the Jesuits who capture Candide and Cacambo?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does the Old Woman lose her buttock?
2. What does the Old Woman advise Cunégonde to do in Buenos Aires?
3. Why do Candide and Cunégonde’s brother fight?
CHAPTERS 16-20
Reading Check
1. What do the Oreillons plan to do with Candide and Cacambo?
2. Who is Candide’s companion of his journey to Bordeaux?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How did the people of Eldorado preserve their peace and happiness?
2. How does Candide hope to get Cunégonde back?
3. What does Candide see outside Surinam that causes him to abandon Pangloss’ philosophy of optimism?
Paired Resource
El Dorado: Real History Behind the Legend
- A readable article on the origins of the El Dorado legend from livescience.com
- Connects to the theme of Utopia
- Why is El Dorado so reminiscent of western utopian ideals?
CHAPTERS 21-25
Reading Check
1. Why are Candide and Martin arrested in Paris?
2. Why does Candide assume Cunégonde is dead?
3. Who is the girl Candide sees with the Theatine monk?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does Candide counter Martin’s ideas about the nature of human beings?
2. Why does Candide want to visit Senator Pococuranté? What is this man like?
CHAPTERS 26-30
Reading Check
1. What are the deposed rulers who dine with Candide doing in Venice?
2. With whom is Candide reunited en route to Constantinople?
3. What does Candide do with what is left of his fortune?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Pangloss continue to adhere to his philosophy of optimism after all he has suffered?
2. How does Candide punish the insolent Baron?
Recommended Next Reads
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
- A satirical novel recounting the fictional Gulliver’s adventures in fantastical lands
- Shared themes include Utopia and Happiness and Individual Suffering.
- Shared topics include satire, fantasy, travel, and adventure.
- Gulliver’s Travels on SuperSummary
- A philosophical novella that follows the experiences of a young Zoroastrian in ancient Babylon
- Shared themes include Optimism and Happiness and Individual Suffering.
- Shared topics include satire, fantasy, adventure, and philosophy.
- Zadig on SuperSummary
Reading Questions Answer Key
CHAPTERS 1-5
Reading Check
1. Cunégonde (Chapter 1, Various Chapters)
2. Because he went out for a walk while in the service of the king of the Bulgars (Chapter 2)
3. Lisbon (Chapter 5)
Short Answer
1. Pangloss, the Baron’s resident tutor, teaches Candide that there are no effects without cause and that we live in the best of all possible worlds. (Chapter 1, Various Chapters)
2. Pangloss relates to Candide the story of how he became a beggar in Holland, explaining that the Baron’s castle was sacked by the Bulgars, the Baron and Baroness were killed, and Cunégonde and her brother were raped and disemboweled. Meanwhile, Pangloss was forced into banishment and contracted syphilis from his lover Paquette. (Chapter 4)
CHAPTERS 6-10
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. The religious leaders conclude that burning heretics will prevent further earthquakes, so they decide to hold an auto-da-fé. (Chapter 6)
2. When Candide kills Don Issacar and the Grand Inquisitor, Cunégonde is shocked by the man he has become, since he was always so gentle. (Chapter 9)
3. Candide demonstrates his skill as a soldier and is made a captain in the war against the Jesuits in Paraguay, earning himself and his companions a seat on a ship sailing to the Americas. (Chapter 10)
CHAPTERS 11-15
Reading Check
1. Pope Urban X and the Princess of Palestrina (Chapter 11)
2. Cunégonde’s brother (Chapter 14)
Short Answer
1. While serving the aga of the Turkish janissaries in Constantinople, the Old Woman is brought on campaign. While the aga’s fort is besieged by the Russians, the starving janissaries resort to cannibalism, and to avoid killing the women they cut off their buttocks for food. (Chapter 12)
2. The Old Woman advises Cunégonde to accept the proposal of the governor of Buenos Aires, who becomes romantically interested in her. (Chapter 13)
3. Candide and Cunégonde’s brother fight after Candide declares his intention to marry Cunégonde and Cunégonde’s brother becomes enraged because Candide is not noble enough to marry his sister. (Chapter 15)
CHAPTERS 16-20
Reading Check
1. Eat them (Chapter 16)
2. Martin, a publisher from Amsterdam (Chapter 19)
Short Answer
1. When the rest of the Inca went to fight the Spanish, the people of El Dorado preserved their peace and happiness by remaining isolated. (Chapter 18)
2. Candide hopes to buy Cunégonde from the governor of Buenos Aires with some of the wealth he acquires in Eldorado. (Chapter 18)
3. Outside of Surinam, Candide encounters a slave so brutally treated that he is moved to abandon Pangloss’ philosophy of optimism. (Chapter 19)
CHAPTERS 21-25
Reading Check
1. Because they are suspicious foreigners (Chapter 22)
2. Because she and Cacambo do not meet him when he reaches Venice (Chapter 24)
3. Paquette (Chapter 24)
Short Answer
1. Martin argues that humans are wicked by nature, but Candide counters this by arguing that humans all have free will. (Chapter 21)
2. Candide wants to visit Senator Pococuranté because he hears he is a man of taste who has never experienced suffering. The senator turns out to be very snobby. (Chapter 25)
CHAPTERS 26-30
Reading Check
1. They are there for Carnival (Chapter 26)
2. The Baron and Pangloss (Chapter 27)
3. He buys a farm (Chapter 30)
Short Answer
1. As Pangloss tells Candide, he adheres to his philosophy of optimism despite everything because as a philosopher he ought not to recant his position. (Chapter 28)
2. When the Baron continues to refuse to let Candide marry his sister, Candide punishes his insolence by putting him back in the galleys and sending him back to the Superior General in Rome. (Chapter 30)
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