Our blog is about the characterization of the characters in Voltaire's novel, Candide. We will also explain the different types of characterization in the blog just in case anybody has some questions.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
My Tragedy
Description: A woman was having trouble with her marriage
and she went to court where she eventually lost custody of her young son. Since
she did not want to give him up she chose to commit suicide and kill her son
too. She chose to murder her son rather than give him up.
Description: The Baron is a very negative person. He always
thought of the worst things that would happen than the positive things in the
world. He never approved of anything regarding his sister and Candide.. He had
the worst attitude throughout the book and there was nothing that could change
his mind about how he viewed things and people.
Description: Pococurante is a very wealthy man who is not
pleased with anything around him. He is such a perfectionist that no one can
meet his standards, not even himself. In this book, Voltaire shows that
perfectionism leads to inactivity because of the impossibly high standards that
Pococurante has amongst himself. Not even the paintings in his house are up to
his standards. He is so negative and his perfectionism led him to be a
pessimist because not even he can meet his standards. He is just full of
disappointment.
In what ways does Voltaire’s
satire extend beyond his own time? What would Voltaire think of our own age,
for example? What aspects of our thought and behavior might he satirize most
fiercely? What kinds of political, philosophical, and religious hypocrisy are
most prevalent today?
Voltaire was very ahead of his time. Though Candide was written during the Age
of Enlightenment, something tells me that most people of his day just couldn't wrap
their little heads around a few ideas in the book. All throughout the book,
religion is a sick, twisted ball of lies and corruption. Every religious guy
sucked. Except James the Anabaptist. He was cool. Why? Because no one back then
liked Anabaptists. Whoa. What could
this mean? Could Voltaire be a devil worshiper? A vessel of evil? Nope. He was
simply showing that there is a definite disparity between religion’s professed
roles, and its real role. And that the people who followed these religions are definitely stupid.
And what about all the death and
suffering? Who in their right mind jokes about that? Someone who’s tired of
listening to everyone go on and on about how things just couldn't happen any other way. It's destiny! It's fate! It's a load of crap. There were lots of Panglosses in Voltaire’s time, all spouting the same shallow, overly
optimistic spiel of idiocy. “’Tis for the best” over here and “everything happens for a
reason” over there. Well, all of that would be fine if it were rooted in any
sort of logic or reality. But it’s not, so let the jokes flow.
Voltaire would have a field day
with American politics. Blatant social injustice to the left, a comical lack of
logic to the right, and basic intelligence in between; what more could a
satirist ask for? So what kind of hypocrisy and outright stupidity would be
included in Candide II? How about the argument about gay marriage? The Christians
say that legalizing gay marriage would destroy the sanctity and purity of marriage
as a whole (a.k.a. straight marriages)…yet, since May 2008, only nine civil
unions pledged between gay couples were terminated, equaling only 1.1 percent
of the 799 same-sex unions during that period, and at the same time, there were
8,711 traditional marriages and 6,965 divorces granted (The Canberra Times).
Use whatever reasoning (or lack thereof) you want to explain it, but the dumbness shall be satirized. How about the fact that in 99.6% of all professions, men are
still paid more than women. Or maybe how there was a “Meet and Greet” with
George Zimmerman that had hundreds of idiots standing in line waiting to meet
their hero. Oh, and the pay gap between professional athletes and the doctors
that treat them? That’ll definitely have its own chapter. Without doubt, Candide II
would be much thicker than its predecessor. There's a whole lot of dense people to make fun of.
Immediately upon leaving Eldorado,
Candide and Cacambo encounter a slave who has had a leg and a hand cut off. He
tells them, “It is the price we pay for the sugar you eat in Europe” (p. 52).
What relationship is Voltaire suggesting here between happiness and suffering,
between the best of all possible worlds and the worst of all possible worlds?
How might Voltaire make this point if he were writing today?
Happiness and suffering: two polar
opposites that appear to work hand in hand in the world of Candide. The best of
all possible worlds is relative; it has to be compared to some lesser world by
whomever declares it to be the best. For every “best” world there has to be a
“worst”. They coincide, and when Candide and Pangloss, men from the “best”
world, enter the “worst” world, they have a little trouble adjusting their
all-encompassing idea that all of the
world is the best of possible worlds. They were not exposed to suffering, they
were not exposed to wanting. They had to discover the fact that there is no
best world without the suffering of the worst world.
If Voltaire were to make this
parallel today, he could easily make it in the unbridgeable gap between the
well-to-do and the peasants in this “fine” country we live in. America can seem
like the best of all possible worlds to the few who can afford to live it up,
but to the other 99%, it’s the worst.
1. Candide is sustained throughout his many ordeals by the
hope of being reunited with Cunégonde. But when he does at last find her, she
has become ugly and ill-tempered. What is Voltaire suggesting about the
exaltation of romantic love?
Voltaire can
suggest many things about love through the relationship of Candide and Cunegonde.
Love is a very strong bond that can get people through pretty much anything
when it is true love or so I heard. However, maybe he was suggesting that love
grows old. Love got Candide through his travels, he can’t give up all of his
time and effort because she’s ugly now. If the love one had for each other was
real, then one can see past the ugly. People will change throughout their
lives, and sometimes love can push past any change that occurs. At the end of
the novel, Candide kept true to his word, and married Cunegonde.
2. At the end of the novel, Martin says, “Let us set to work
and stop proving things, for that is the only way to make life bearable” (p.
93), echoing the Turkish farmer who says, “our work keeps at bay the three
great evils: boredom, vice, and necessity” (p. 92). Do you think Voltaire is
endorsing this view? Why would doing physical work be preferable to the life of
a philosopher?
I
believe that Voltaire was telling us that the options one has in their life
will be up to them in the end. One can live life in endless pain, but can be
happy. Toward the end of the novel, Candide was surrounded around the people
that mean the most to him and taught him the most, but he wasn’t happy. To do
physical work for life is like a Buddhist view on life, which is different than
how Candide started in this book. For the life of a philosopher, this life can
be the way they choose. It’s a simple life that give them apple time to think
upon topic that drives their curiosity. So, I don’t believe he was endorsing
this view, but more of suggesting it.
Near the
end of the book, while Pangloss was “being hanged, and dissected, and
beaten, and made to row in a galley,” he still holds firm to his original
views that this is the best of all possible worlds. “I am a philosopher
after all. It would not do for me to recant” (p. 88). What are the dangers
in holding beliefs that are impermeable to reality, that do not alter
according to actual experience?
8. It is very dangerous to keep the same ignorant beliefs
after horrible experiences happen because usually those experiences contradict
the beliefs. If you keep the same beliefs you probably didn’t learn anything
from the experience so you will remain ignorant. Remaining ignorant is one of
the worst things that you could do.
In the books introduction, Michael Woods tells us that Voltaire wrote, " Satires don't correct anyone, irritate the foolish, and make them even more mean." I believe that this is true. Many satirical things can be funny, but once they go to a certain place it can make people upset because it is there beliefs that are being made fun of. Optimism is one thing that is greatly satirized throughout the book. If Pangloss or someone like him were to read this book, I think that he would think that the book is exaggerating the actual circumstance. I think he would still say all is for the best. Pangloss is the one who had to go through the trials and tribulations and he still thought that it was for the best.
Martin believes that man is equally miserable. He knows of the bad in the world, but he is also as blind to the world as Pangloss. He only sees the bad, but there is good in the world too. Martin only sees the other extreme. They don't see anywhere in the middle and the world lies in the middle. Nothing is all miserable and nothing is all good.
Throughout the book they went through a lot of public misery, but there were private griefs too. I think that these private grief's were crueler because they were things that went on in there homes and inside of their heads. The things that they went through affected their minds and made them question their beliefs. The public miseries weren't things that made them think differently, they were things that bruised them on the outside. I don't think that people realize that things that toy with emotions and thoughts are crueler than others.
6. The old
woman tells Candide: “Imagine my situation, the daughter of a pope, only
fifteen years old, who in the space of three months had been exposed to poverty
and slavery, had been raped almost daily, had seen her mother torn to pieces,
had endured war and famine, and was now dying of the plague in Algiers” (p.
29). What does this passage, and others like it, suggest about the reality of
women’s lives during the Age of Reason?
6. Many
women during the Age of Reason were seen as weak and less of a human being than
a man. Women also had little to no education whatsoever. The main role of a
woman during this time period was to please men. It was also not against the
law to physically abuse women, so a lot of men got away with treating women
like pieces of meat. Men saw women as being inferior to them. Women during this
period were basically slaves.
Paquette is not the deepest character, but she's probably the nastiest. She shows up a few times in the book, throwing a twist in the plot each time. The first time, when Pangloss is "educating" her, she gives him Syphilis. The second time, she is seen with a monk. She's a prostitute and helps support Martin's pessimistic views. The third and final time, Paquette shows up again with the monk in utter despair. She and the group go to a dervish, but they're too pathetic and unenlightened to be helped.
When Candide met Abbe, he was at lost of words he had been so depressed about Cunegonde for so long. After a game of cards, Abbe took advantage of Candide's new found wealth after a game of cards. After finding out about Cunegonde, he sees his opportunity and takes advantage of the depressed Candide. Candide was then suduced by a mysterious mistress who stole his diamond rings. Later, Candide finds a letter telling him to go to Cunagone, only to find out that he had fallen into a trick. Abbe had him arrested in the hotel Candide thought he was meeting Cunegonde at. Candide got his way out with money, and landed in England. However, lost his riches because of the crook, Abbe, and the mistress in which he had a relation with.
Candide was taken advantage of emotionally, and because of that he lost a great deal of wealth to this liar. He lied to get his money because he noticed he was richer than normal men. Candide should've been more careful with who he shows his money around to, but it was not a reason to take his momey in any way. People like Abbe make the world a worse place. It can also symbolize the unequailty that makes people steal and lie. Some people live off of stealing things, like food and money. However, this happening to Candide is just like when he lost his sheep. One would hope he learned the first time when he was being robbed of his riches.
A girl's mother died while giving birth to her, so all her life it was her and her father. They lived a decent life until her father lost his job. A world of hurt was about to come their way. They lost their house and their car. Even though her father tried to look for a new job, there was not luck. Now living off unempolyment money, they moved into a ragedy apartment. There was literally only enough money to pay bills. So, the girl got a part time job at a pizza place far away from their apartment, but it was a job and they needed the money.
They had so little money that she couldn't get new snow boots for the harsh winter ahead, and her snow boots were almost nonexsistant. Knowing that they had little money, missing a day of work would mean a day without food. So, when there was a huge blizzard that winter, she walked to work in her deteriating snow boots. When she reach the shop it was closed, no one had called her to tell her that the shop was closed. So, she trudged back home.
When she got back home she couldn't feel her feet. Her father helped her get her shoes off, realizing that her feet were purple, bruised, and frozen. Knowing they had little funds, she didn't go to the hospital. He tried everything he could to get her feet warm again. A day or so later, her feet were black now. Her father decided to take her to the ER. The doctor told her that she was going to have to lose her feet because the frostbite had gone too far. Now with no feet, she returned home and went to bed. The next morning an officer was knocking on the door. He told her that her father was dead. She raced to her father's room, only to find a suicide note addressed to her. The note was saying that he was no longer the father he should be for her. He blamed himself for everything his daughter went through. Luckily, their next door neighbor was kind enough to take her in. However, now, she has neither her feet nor her father.
A Texas couple were in a heated argument. She said that he grabbed her. She wanted for people to think that it was self-defense. She stabbed her boyfriend 25 times. When they found his body, he was lying face up with her shoe in his forehead.
People were really messed up in the 14th century. King Edward II wasn't the best king; he was irresponsible, politically incompetent, and a butt. But he didn't have to die like he did.
His wife and her lover dethroned him by shoving an animal horn up his anus and sticking a hot iron inside. His internal organs were burned from the inside, making it really easy to say he died of something other than murder.
Voltaire is a great author of Candide. However, did you ever question why he made the characters the way he did? Why he killed some and others strugled? Everyone has a story, or came from an evil, and everyone Candide encounters has exactly that. Is he paralleling real life dramas, and stating how blind we are of tis world infront of us?
As this book ventures on, we learn that Candide is learning. Maybe Voltaire is learning too. Learning that the world is the way it is, or maybe he's still just telling us that life is a journey? Is it possible that Voltaire is Candide in this book? Exemplifying a real life parallel to Voltaire's life and the evils he encountered. Things like earthquakes, plague, robbery, and so much more has such a dramatic effect on people's lives. In Candide, theres a new evil at each turn of the page and it can go by so fast that we might not catch it if it isn't pointed out to the reader. It's possible that the meaning behind Voltaire's satire in this book is that evils go on everyday and we don't even know it. Candide is set on this journey to find his love, and never thought he'd be taught about life in such a different light.
Candide continues changing, and understanding the world. Learning other views such as Martins and understanding that maybe what Pangloss taught wasn't so right. Could it be possible that these are the conflicts that Voltaire tries to understand. I believe Voltaire's message he wants us to know is that we just go about life and never stop to realize that people aren't as lucky as us. There is so much suffering and it happens daily. Voltaire could be saying that we can help change the world to a better future if we open our eyes to the harsh reality.
Candide's views on how life really is started to change as soon as he witnessed how men are naturally evil. He notices this when he was robbed of everything he owned by the sailors. Another example of this would be when Candide and Cacambo find the slave waiting for his master. Candide couldn't believe what he was seeing and he was devastated. Candide couldn't possibly imagine how one human being could do this to another. His ideas on how men truly are come out when he has his conversations with Martin. You can now begin to notice how Candide is starting to mature as a character after every obstacle he overcomes.
During Candide's journey he was robbed of his jewels and his sheep. This caused Candide to become sad and think about why men do the things they do. Later on he found one of the sheep that was stolen from him after two ships were fighting. The men that robbed him died when their ship sunk and the sheep was the only one that survived.Candide became very kind after he left the palace, when people saw how kind he was and how much he had they started taking advantage of him. They became greedy and their purpose of helping Candide was to take advantage of his kindness. Candide did not see that and he still paid them for their help. When he was reunited with one of his sheep he saw it as punishment for all the men's act of greed. This made Candide see that kindness can come with rewards and greed can result in punishment.
Why do you think that Voltaire allowed Candide to reunite with one of his sheep and what is the significance of this?
I believe Voltaire allowed Candide to reunite with one of his sheep because he wanted to show him how not everything in the world is bad and how things can get better. He made Candide extra kind, but he did not make him see how much greed everyone in the world has after they see the riches of others. The main point that Voltaire was trying to make was the kinder you are the better life is because you just might get rewarded. The result of greed is punishment because there's nothing good that comes out of greed.
He is Cunegonde's brother. He was thought to have died earlier in the book with their father. Candide finds him and asks for his blessing, but The Baron refuses to let Candide marry Cunegonde. Candide and the Baron get into a heated argument and the Baron gets murdered by Candide.
In the 1950s, Leonard Bernstein wrote an operetta, or musical, based on Voltaire's Candide. Glitter and Be Gay is sung by Cunegonde before she is reunited with Candide. The lyrics and tone serve to convey the hardships she'd suffered and the optimistic façade she'd maintained regardless.
In everything Candide does, Dr.Pangloss's teachings always show. Pangloss is a very optimistic person on how our world is. However, as Candide goes on his adventure enduring all of the evils of the world. He meets so many people who aren't exactly agreeing that this is the best the world can be. People like Martin and the Old Women believe that evils in this world are very over powering. That our so called God is being unfair to them, and if he is oh so powerful he should not be doing this to us. Therefore, everywhere Candide goes he always keeps Pangloss's teachings in his mind and that makes him questions all of these encounters. Candide is a very unsure character of the world. Pangloss's views are the only thing he knows so how else can he think. Encountering all these people are making his even more confused. Hopefully he can learn how to think his own thoughts by the end of this book.
In Chapter XX, we are introduced to a new character, Martin. His theodicy is different from Candide's; in fact, they are polar opposites. Martin identifies as a Manichaeist. Manichaeism is characterized by the belief that God has abandoned people, but the Devil has not, resulting in a world full of evil and little to no good. Before God's desertion of mankind, there was a balance of good and evil maintained by God and his opposition, the Devil.
The character Martin was added specifically by Voltaire to contrast Candide. Though his views are just as extreme, they are a little more plausible, rooted more in an observation of reality instead of an innovated fantasy.
Candide is such a funny character sometimes because he is so innocent to the world. He is blind to evils in the world, and when he is hit with them, he falls hard. One incident is when he was basically robbed. He was walking around with these riches, and thought of nothing when he could give people an equivalent of thousands of dollars. People in this world even now take advantage of people like Candide. Candide just gave money and his sheep covered in jewels before he was sure of this deal. He isn't the smartest character, but maybe this is what he gets for being so oblivious to these evils.
Cacambo is Candide's valet and he is also one of the most well-balanced characters in the book. Unlike others in the story, Cacambo stays level-headed during times of suffering. This characteristic allows him to think things through and find a solution despite the conditions of his surroundings. Cacambo's calm thinking comes in handy when he and Candide were about to get eaten by the Oreillon people. Cacambo was able to successfully talk the people out of eating them while Candide was stressing over the teachings of Pangloss and Cunegonde. Cacambo is a static character because he remains the same throughout the progression of the book. This is a good thing because he is unlike the other characters and there needs to be some sort of variety.
