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.
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