Chapter XXX

Candide had no wish to marry Cunegonde, but the Baron's impertinence and Cunegonde's pressing demands compel him to go through with it.

Pangloss drafts a memorial proving that the Baron has no legal right to prevent his sister's marriage to Candide.

Martin proposes drowning the Baron, while Cacambo suggests sending him back to galley service and then to Rome; this plan is executed for money.

Although the group should be happy after marriage and wealth, Candide is impoverished by Jews, Cunegonde becomes ugly and peevish, and everyone is miserable in their own way.

Pangloss despairs at not having a prestigious position at a German university despite his philosophical talents.

Martin accepts his misery patiently, convinced he would be no better off anywhere else.

The group witnesses brutal scenes of exile and execution through passing Ottoman officials, which fuels their philosophical disputations.

The old woman poses a question comparing all the terrible sufferings they have endured with the current state of boredom and inactivity.

Candide recognizes the question as significant but does not resolve it.

Martin argues that man is born to live either in distracting anxiety or in lethargy and disgust.

Candide does not fully agree with Martin's pessimism but also does not assert an alternative position.

Pangloss maintains that everything goes wonderfully well even though he has always suffered horribly and no longer believes his own doctrine.

Paquette and Giroflee appear in misery, having squandered the money Candide gave them, confirming Martin's view that gifts only increase misery.

Martin tells Candide that his gifts were dissipated and only made their recipients more miserable, despite Candide having enormous wealth.

Pangloss ironically suggests that Providence brought Paquette to them again, while cataloguing the diseases she gave him.

The group seeks out a renowned Dervish philosopher to discuss the existence of evil and the nature of man.

Pangloss asks why man, a strange creature, was created at all.

The Dervish dismisses the question as none of their business, suggesting such concerns are irrelevant.

Candide shifts the discussion to the existence of horrible evil in the world as grounds for philosophical inquiry.

The Dervish uses the analogy of a ship's captain not caring about mice to suggest that divine indifference to evil is irrelevant.

Pangloss asks what they should do in light of these principles.

The Dervish responds with a blunt command to hold their tongue and stop talking.

Pangloss lists the subjects he hoped to discuss with the Dervish, including causality, the best possible world, and evil.

Frustrated by Pangloss's philosophical ambitions, the Dervish simply shuts the door in their faces.

The group learns that Ottoman officials have been strangled and impaled, causing brief commotion in the city.

The group meets a good old man peacefully enjoying life at his door under an orange bower.

The old man claims to know nothing of the Mufti's death and avoids troubling himself about Constantinople's affairs.

The old man states that those who meddle in public affairs deserve their miserable fates, but he concerns himself only with cultivating his garden.

The old man invites the strangers into his house and offers them various refreshments and pleasures.

Candide assumes the old man must have a vast estate to maintain such a pleasant life.

The old man reveals he owns only twenty acres, which he and his children cultivate themselves.

The old man states that their labor protects them from three great evils: weariness, vice, and want.

Candide deeply considers the old man's conversation as he leaves the garden.

Candide reflects that the honest Turk's situation is far preferable to that of the six deposed kings they had met.

Pangloss demonstrates that grandeur is dangerous by listing numerous kings and emperors who suffered assassination, exile, and other violent fates.

Candide cuts off Pangloss's historical recitation by asserting that they must cultivate their garden.

Pangloss supports Candide's statement by citing the biblical Garden of Eden, arguing that man was created to work and not be idle.

Martin agrees that working without philosophical debate is the only way to make life tolerable.

The entire community enters into the design to work according to their abilities, and their small plot becomes productive.

Each person finds useful work: Cunegonde becomes a pastry cook, Paquette does embroidery, the old woman manages linen, and Giroflee becomes a joiner.

Pangloss reflects that all the disasters in Candide's life were necessary links in a chain leading to their present happiness in the garden.

Candide responds to Pangloss's metaphysical reasoning by reiterating that they must simply cultivate their garden.