# How Candide Made His Escape from the Bulgarians, and What Afterwards Became of Him explained — Candide

> Chapter companion for Candide by Voltaire.

## What happens

Candide hides during a brutal battle between the Bulgarian and Abarian armies, witnessing horrific carnage. He escapes through devastated villages, eventually reaching Holland where he is rejected by a charitable orator and his wife but is taken in by a kind Anabaptist named James. While walking, he encounters a diseased beggar who turns out to be Pangloss.

## Themes in this chapter

### Suffering and Human Cruelty

The chapter graphically depicts the horrors of war, including massacres, rape, and mutilation, highlighting human cruelty.

### Critique of Religious Hypocrisy

The orator who preaches charity refuses to help Candide and his wife pours excrement on him, while the Anabaptist James shows true Christian kindness.

### Optimism vs. Pessimism

Candide clings to Pangloss's optimistic philosophy despite witnessing extreme suffering, setting up the central philosophical conflict.

## Character check-ins

### Candide

Hides during the battle, escapes through war-torn villages, and is rejected by a religious orator before being helped by James the Anabaptist.

### Cunégonde

Candide carries her in his heart as he flees the war.

### Pangloss

Candide recalls Pangloss's philosophy; Pangloss appears at the end as a diseased beggar.

### James the Anabaptist

A kind Anabaptist who takes Candide in, cleans him, gives him food and money, and offers to teach him a trade.

## Key lines

> There was never anything so gallant, so spruce, so brilliant, and so well disposed as the two armies. Trumpets, fifes, hautboys, drums, and cannon made music such as Hell itself had never heard.

The two armies were beautifully arrayed, and the sounds of instruments and cannons created a hellish symphony.

_Voltaire uses ironic praise to describe the absurdity and horror of war._

> Candide, who trembled like a philosopher, hid himself as well as he could during this heroic butchery.

Candide, shaking like a thinker, concealed himself during the heroic slaughter.

_Satirizes the disconnect between philosophical reasoning and the reality of violence._

> The orator, looking askew, said: 'What are you doing here? Are you for the good cause?'

The speaker, glancing sideways, asked Candide if he supported the right side.

_Highlights religious intolerance and the demand for ideological conformity._

> A man who had never been christened, a good Anabaptist, named James, beheld the cruel and ignominious treatment shown to one of his brethren... he took him home, cleaned him, gave him bread and beer...

James, an unbaptized Anabaptist, saw the cruel treatment of Candide and took him in, cleaning and feeding him.

_Contrasts true charity with the hypocrisy of the professed Christian orator._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/candide_se/chapters/iii-how-candide-made-his-escape-from-the-bulgarians-and-what-afterwards-became-of-him
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/candide_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/candide_se/chapters