Candide and Utilitarianism

Reading Karen Lebacqz’s take on John Stuart Mill and utilitarianism for Social Justice class, I was brought back to sophomore year of college, to one of my all-time favorite performance experiences (I mean, check out that bouffant!). The musical theatre and vocal performance departments collaborated on a main stage production of Leonard Bernstein’s operetta, based on Voltaire’s novel, Candide. Throughout the protagonist Candide’s journey, he desires knowledge of how to lead a good, happy life with Cunegonde, the woman he loves. Along the way, Candide and Cunegonde meet a variety of idiosyncratic characters who promote various philosophies – extreme optimism, extreme pessimism, extreme egoism, and everything in between – which represent the perspectives of several of Voltaire’s contemporaries.

Candide and Cunegonde both witness and even participate in some despicable behavior in order to reach their end goal of happiness. At the conclusion of the operetta, the couple discovers that on their quest, a utopian society simply cannot be a realistic goal. Rather, they must strive to do things such as cultivating a garden, chopping wood, building a house, and other useful actions that will increase their happiness. I am struck by the utilitarian character of the operetta’s finale, the famous "Make Our Garden Grow."

CANDIDE

You've been a fool

And so have I,

But come and be my wife.

And let us try,

Before we die,

To make some sense of life.

We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good

We'll do the best we know.

We'll build our house and chop our wood

And make our garden grow...

And make our garden grow.

CUNEGONDE

I thought the world

Was sugar cake

For so our master said.

But, now I'll teach

My hands to bake

Our loaf of daily bread.

CANDIDE AND CUNEGONDE

We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good

We'll do the best we know.

We'll build our house and chop our wood

And make our garden grow...

And make our garden grow.

CANDIDE, CUNEGONDE, MAXIMILLIAN, PAQUETTE, OLD LADY, DR. PANGLOSS

Let dreamers dream

What worlds they please

Those Edens can't be found.

The sweetest flowers,

The fairest trees

Are grown in solid ground.

ENSEMBLE

We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good

We'll do the best we know.

We'll build our house and chop our wood

And make our garden grow.

And make our garden grow!

© 2012 Katie Davis