Comparing Candide And The Death Of Ivan Ilyich

Literature will always be relevant to the contemporary reader in that the human experience never ceases to exist. Despite being separated by time periods, cultures, genders, locations, and more: there will always be a bit of a fellow human’s experience in each work. This is made evident through Voltaire’s Candide and Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich and how despite their vastly different originations, both share a common message. This message or theme is a warning to everyone (as there is no specificity) and it can be phrased hundreds of different ways but it’s most easily understood as Candide so wisely puts it: “we must cultivate our garden” (page 413). Candide is an enlightenment satire that emphasizes the main characters naivety

But alas, the irony lies in that the castle was actually shabby and not the “best of all castles” as it was described by the dimwitted Pangloss. Pangloss introduces the idea that “this” is the best of all possible worlds to Candide- which is the leading statement of ignorant tutelage in this work. Despite the fact that he sees the horror of war, is beaten within an inch of his life and witnesses and experiences various other atrocities Candide relentlessly stretches to justify such a philosophy. This is all necessary of course, as Voltaire uses such massive and detrimental happenings to magnify how affected by Pangloss’ tutelage Candide is- and how wrong such philosophy and blind following is. This is obviously relevant to the modern day reader because even though it is calling out philosophies from the current time period, such sayings like “it’s all good” and “I’m sure it’s for

Ivan is described relentlessly as a well-liked man in the beginning of the work. It is shown that he lives for external approval in saying that even when he changes towns and jobs he is “just as comme il faut and decorous” as ever (page 748) - comme il faut being translated as “as one must” be. This is the beginning of evidencing that, like Candide- Ivan never lives for himself or even lives at all, they both are under the impression that either they or their circumstances are simply just as they must be. Seeing as the novella is realism at it’s finest, Ivans suffering is fine tuned and described in the smallest of details where even the furniture is miserable and seems to have life of its own. His life is held under a microscope where the reader can see how despite him seeming to be in the best of all circumstances, his marriage is horrible and he is infallible alone with the exception of Gerasim as his death draws near. This will never fail to be relevant as eventually, everyone will face death as Ivan did and the struggle to cope with it shown in this book is nothing but common to a human being. However, another thing is revealed in the progression of Ivan’s suffering- he struggles with dying because when he looks back- he begins to realize that he never truly lived. In a way, he is like Candide accepting Pangloss’ teachings in the way that he