SOURCE: Reed, Gail S. “Playing on His Readers' Desires.” In Readings on Candide, edited by Thomas Walsh, pp. 121-27. San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press, 2001.

In this essay, originally published in 1983, Reed postulates that there is a pattern of cause and effect in Voltaire's exploration of evil in Candide, and that he uses the actions of his characters to mirror the desires of his readers.

Several of Voltaire's best known tales are similar in shape and plot, apparent variations on an inner theme. Zadig (1741), Candide (1759), and L'Ingénu (1767) all involve a naïve or idealistic protagonist wandering the world in search of a woman who had been denied him by fate and authority, grappling the while with the frustration imposed by arbitrary and powerful men and carried out through their often impersonal and cruel institutions. At the chronological center of the tales Candide has an emotional impact lacking in...