Candide!

Simmons, Rachel: Entry #4

Oh my Sydney!

            When it comes to philosophies I think that neither Martin nor Candide have a realistic grasp on life and its meaning. Martin gives far too much credit to the works o evil and the devil, while I think that man is just inherently corrupt. Candide I do not agree with because not everything is for the best and being too optimistic blinds people. The philosophy of optimism leads Candide to be taken advantage of because he cannot see other’s selfishness and greed. So if I must pick one, I will chose Martin for it is better to be doubtful and suspicious of everyone then to be naïve and treated horribly. The happy medium between optimism and pessimism is realism. My idea of realism is seeing what evils people are capable, but not letting that keep you away from society. A realist takes precautions and waits for someone to prove that they are trustworthy. Realism to me is the idea that it’s only true if someone proves it to you. You have the option to prove to me that you are mostly good or bad.

            Finding Cunegonde made me quite happy. The entire time I was waiting for doppy Candide to find his woman. Cunegonde became a servant that washed dishes and had become “horribly ugly” (103). This was the perfect test to see if Candide would stay true to his lady and let love overcome outward appearances. Candide even declared that it is his “duty to love her forever” (103) despite her newfound ugliness. However, upon seeing her, he recoils in disgust. Later, he marries her merely to spite her brother, the Barron, and because she kept pestering him to do so. Do you think he still has love for her or did he just want to complete his lifelong goal? Personally, I think Candide has been shallow from the beginning and was just being a man of his word. However, I am not keen on love and love stories so perhaps I see it all in a negative light because I am biased.

            The ending to Candide was quite convenient. Pangloss and the Barron show up out of nowhere. None of the main characters are actually dead, and they end up going straight back to their old philosophy. It basically undoes all of Candide’s experiences and discredits them. On the final page Pangloss says “all events are interconnected in this best of all possible worlds, for if you hadn’t been driven from a beautiful castle with hard kicks in the behind because of you love for Lady Cunegonde, if you hadn’t wandered over America on foot, if you hadn’t thrust your sword through the baron, and if you hadn’t lost all your sheep form the land of El Dorado, you wouldn’t be here eating candied citrons and pistachio nuts” (113). After all of Voltaire’s work creating horrible situations and disproving the philosophy he has Candide fall right back into it, only with more of a sense of fate. The quote puts so much faith into cause and affect that it feels like one of those Direct TV commercials (“when your cable company keeps you on hold, you get angry; when you get angry, you go blow off steam…you wake up in a roadside ditch”). Candide just accepts that everything happened for the best because the universe or fate wanted them to be together. Were you satisfied with the ending? I thought it was ironic and frustrating, but necessary since Pangloss came back. After all they had been through tending a garden until death seems rather anti-climatic.