50 pages • 1 hour read
Zadig
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Chapters 17-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 17 Summary: “The Tournament”
A faction of Babylonians kill the Prince of Hyrcania and take power. They rejoice at Astarte’s return and decide to stage a tournament to find the wisest, most valorous man to be her husband and king. To gauge valor each contestant will first fight four knights then the other contestants who defeated the knights. To gauge wisdom each contestant will answer riddles. To become king a man must win both contests.
The contestants are anonymized and separated from the queen to prevent favoritism. Zadig arrives in Babylon on the eve of the competition after Astarte wrote to him at Ogul’s castle. Through Cador, Astarte furnishes Zadig with a suit of armor; Cador gives Zadig an excellent horse. These gifts inspire new hope and strength in Zadig.
The first combatant in the test of valor is a wealthy nobleman called Itobad whose sycophantic servants are convinced should be king. A vain man, he fights in a gold suit of armor enameled with a green that matches other parts of his ensemble. The knights embarrass the clumsy nobleman and the crowd jeers at him as he walks off, lamenting, “What an unlucky accident for such a man as I” (181).
Of the other combatants, only Zadig (wearing white armor) and Prince Otames (wearing blue and gold armor with a matching plume) defeat the four knights. The two display such skill in fighting each other that all the spectators but Astarte wish both could be king. Eventually, Zadig cleverly disarms Otames, who proclaims him the man to rule Babylon (183). The queen is overjoyed.
That night, while Zadig sleeps in the apartments provided for the contestants, Itobad switches his green armor for Zadig’s white and presents himself at daybreak to the Archimage. While unexpected—people see Itobad as timid and stupid—the Archimage declares Itobad victorious to the queen’s despair.
When Zadig awakes, he enters the arena in the green armor, having nothing else. The crowd taunts him, and he feels so humiliated that he scatters the crowd with his sword. Zadig leaves and trades the fancy green armor for a basic hat and dress. He walks the Euphrates, wallowing in his misfortune and berating himself for oversleeping. He secretly curses Providence, almost succumbing to the idea that God persecutes good men like him and rewards bad men like Itobad.
Chapter 18 Summary: “The Hermit”
While walking, Zadig encounters an old hermit reading a book called the Book of Destinies, which he offers to Zadig. Though a polyglot, Zadig cannot decipher even a letter, which piques his curiosity. The hermit notices Zadig seems deeply disturbed and offers to accompany him, saying he has consoled unhappy people before. The hermit quickly impresses Zadig by speaking eloquently about topics such as destiny and morality. Zadig agrees to travel with the hermit for the next three days under the condition that he will not leave no matter what the hermit does.
The three days test Zadig’s commitment. The second night they stay at the house of a reclusive sage who is perfectly hospitable. Not knowing Zadig’s identity, the sage expresses his wish that the minister Zadig were king, which aggravates Zadig’s despair. At dinner, the hermit expresses several opinions that impress Zadig. He proclaims that people cannot understand Providence because of their very limited perspective. Counter to Zadig, the hermit argues that emotions are an essential motivating aspect of life. Finally, the hermit states that pleasure and pain are not innate but rather divine gifts. Both Zadig and the sage are grateful for the hermit’s wisdom.
In the morning the hermit thanks the sage by burning his house, declaring, “Thank God for that! [...] The house of my dear host is completely destroyed from top to bottom. He’s a lucky man!” (197). Zadig is flabbergasted and horrified but still feels inexplicably attached to the hermit. That night they lodge with a generous, virtuous widow whose only companion and hope is her virtuous 14-year-old nephew (198). In the morning she has her nephew guide Zadig and the hermit across a dangerous river crossing. As they cross, the hermit throws the boy into the river, drowning him, as thanks to the widow. Zadig screams he is a monster.
The hermit explains that the sage found a great treasure under the ruins of his house and that the boy would have murdered both his aunt and Zadig within the next two years. Zadig protests that even if those fates were written in the Book of Destinies, no one gave the hermit permission to execute justice. As he protests, Zadig notices the hermit is transforming into an angel. Zadig prostrates himself, exclaiming his understanding: “Angel of God! Now I see that you have descended from the Empyrean to teach a weak mortal to submit to the eternal edicts!” (200). The Angel Jesrad states that all men judge without understanding but that, of everyone, Zadig deserved enlightenment most (200). Zadig humbly asks whether it would have been better to correct the boy instead of killing him; the angel replies that path would have resulted in the boy and his future wife and child all being murdered.
Zadig asks whether evil is necessary and whether good people must experience misfortune. Jesrad reprimands Zadig for wishing for another world: “You are a weak mortal, and have no business to argue about what you must adore” (202).
Jesrad explains that evildoers are always unhappy and function as tests to the few virtuous men. In this way, evildoers motivate the virtuous to do good; all evil elicits good in reaction to it. God created countless heterogeneous worlds but the only one devoid of evil is the one in which he lives. Every atom on earth is fixed through time and space by God’s eternal laws. Nothing is accidental and everything is in God’s plan: “All is either trial or punishment, reward or foresight” (202). The angel flies off, telling the kneeling Zadig to head to Babylon.
Chapter 19 Summary: “The Riddles”
When Zadig arrives in Babylon, people rejoice and carry him to the palace where the knights are assembled to answer the riddles. Zadig explains to the judges that someone stole his armor and asks to participate in the riddle solving. The judges remember his good reputation and allow him to. The Archimage poses the first riddle:
Of all things in the world, what is it which is both the longest and the shortest, the quickest and the slowest, the most divisible and the most extensive, the most neglected and the most regretted, without which nothing can be done, which consumes all that is little, and gives life to all that is great? (206).
Answering first, Itobad says it should be enough that he won the fight; he does not know anything about riddles. Others answer various things but only Zadig correctly answers “time.”
Zadig correctly answers the rest of the riddles, beating everyone else. He reveals that Itobad stole his armor and challenges him to a duel. Itobad, confident in his armor against Zadig in a dress, accepts. Zadig quickly breaks Itobad’s sword and defeats him. Itobad wonders how a man like him is disgraced so often as Zadig strips his armor and dons it himself. Cador proves that the armor is Zadig’s, and the judges unanimously declare Zadig king.
Queen Astarte and King Zadig rule and worship Providence. Zadig does many magnanimous things, such as allowing Missouf to “travel abroad” and giving the brigand Argobad a high rank in his army on the condition he not rob. Zadig gives both Setoc and Cador high positions in his government. He gives the fisherman a new house and makes Orcan give him money and his wife. The fisherman, made wise by Zadig’s teaching, accepts only the money. Semira and Azora are distraught they forsook Zadig, who consoles them with presents. Green Eyes dies of anger and embarrassment. Zadig finally becomes happy, and under him the Babylonian Empire flourishes, “enjoy[ing] peace, glory, and abundance, for it was governed by justice and by love” (211). Everyone thanks Zadig for their happiness, and Zadig thanks God for his.
Chapters 17-19 Analysis
In the final chapters, Voltaire employs symbolism, satire, and role reversal to complete his picture of the various ways in which people try to influence and understand their fates from their limited perspectives.
The nobleman Itobad who competes in the tournament is a foil to Zadig. His gold suit of armor symbolizes his vanity in contrast to Zadig’s white armor, which symbolizes purity. Yet, just as Zadig and the fisherman lament their unluckiness, so too does the foolish Itobad. His ironic remark, “What an unlucky accident for such a man as I” (181) after he is humiliated by the knights, echoes Zadig’s frequent complaints of unluckiness. Just as it is ironic for Itobad to remain oblivious to his true nature after the knights expose it, it is ironic for Zadig to blame divine fate for the predictable consequences of his actions such as contradicting zealous scholars or flirting with the queen. This juxtaposition between Itobad and Zadig raises the question of why Zadig is sympathetic in his obliviousness while Itobad is foolish. Zadig enjoys the bias of the protagonist whereas the latter does not. This protagonist bias is an analog for the personal bias present throughout the story—particularly in the fisherman’s and Itobad’s lamentations of their unique misfortunes—by which one’s misfortune appears much greater than others’.
The role swap that occurs when Itobad switches his armor for Zadig’s repeats the comparison between the two. In losing his armor—his only identifying feature in the anonymized contest—Zadig suffers a symbolic death. He is forced to appear in public as another—the disgraced gold and green knight—resulting in a humiliation made unbearable by its unfairness. Zadig again sees his suffering as unprecedented: “He was surrounded and insulted to his face; never had a man to bear such gross humiliation” (170). Zadig’s indignation is a reaction to being forced by the crowd to confront the fact that the unfairness he interprets as a kind of cosmic vendetta against him is just the other side of people’s selfish behavior. That there are people such as Itobad who do not care if their actions hurt him is a more unbearable thought to Zadig than that he has warranted divine punishment in some way. There is a reason for punishment—something Zadig has done and could presumably correct. If there is no divine punishment, then by extension there is no divine reward. Living morally does not guarantee happiness. Zadig is reluctant to relinquish this expectation of cosmic reward, so he lashes out at this unwelcome thought, scapegoating the crowd: “[W]ith a few strokes of his sabre he scattered the crowd who had presumed to affront him” (170).
In Chapter 18, Voltaire satirizes Biblical incidents where God or his angels bestow enlightenment on humans. Zadig’s wish for clarification on divine reward and punishment comes true in the form of Jesrad, disguised as a hermit. The reversal of roles—Zadig becoming a student to the sage after playing the role of the sage for most of the story—signals that Zadig hopes the hermit will enlighten him on the questions of fate, justice, and ethics that plague him. However, the hermit’s theft, arson, and murder horrify Zadig. Honoring his instinct, Zadig questions the necessity of murdering the teenager to preempt the murders he would commit. He continues questioning until the angel abandons him, frustrating his enlightenment. In this scene, Zadig is uncharacteristically deferent: In kneeling to the angel, he signals his submission to an illogical system of justice that clashes with his rationality.
In the final chapter, the angel’s influence on Zadig is conspicuously absent. In presenting himself for the first time to the Babylonians since his exile (his armor concealed his identity in the tournament), Zadig reclaims his lost identity. He wins the contest of the riddles and defeats Itobad in a duel using the superior intelligence and tactical ability that distinguish him throughout the novel. Zadig’s reclamation of his stolen armor symbolizes both the recovery of his lost identity and his defeat of the string of people who through jealousy or greed tried to destroy him. In this denouement, Zadig acts no differently than he did before he met the angel. The difference is that his fate has turned.
To both him and the reader, it remains unclear whether there is a reason for this fortuitous change. Jesrad enlightens Zadig with the knowledge that God controls everything, and thus everything “is either trial or punishment, reward or foresight” (107). Yet, this knowledge is a sort of false enlightenment: The reason for fortune and misfortune remains accessible only to God. Zadig learns nothing of the reasons for his misfortune. In this way, the climax of the story, where the hermit reveals himself as Jesrad, is a sort of anticlimax. Contrary to the lessons of the inexplicably cruel angel, Zadig is forgiving and magnanimous as king. The hermit’s demonstration of true—i.e., divine—justice is useless to Zadig, who lacks the omniscience necessary to execute preemptive action as the hermit does. In the end, the questions of whether things happen for a reason or whether people have free will—contrary to the angel’s pronouncement of determinism—are moot. With Jesrad, so too depart divine justice and knowledge, leaving Zadig to decide how to live and rule in a world separate from the heavens.
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