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Misfortunes In Voltaire's Candide

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A couple is breaking up, a marriage is divorcing, or a child is living with only one parent because the other one shirked responsibility. These botched relationships from reality are described through books, such as Candide. Voltaire, the author of Candide, wrote about the multiple misfortunes and unfulfilled responsibilities of several intricate characters (Pattern 11). The protagonist, Candide, begins as an innocent and naïve character but transforms into a pessimist and failure. His tragic life drastically changes from love to greed, innocence to experience, and from hope to despair through the corruptions of money, love, and beliefs. Candide had a responsibility to honor, protect, and love Cunegonde unconditionally and he inquired, “What has become of Mademoiselle Cunegonde, the pearl of young ladies, the masterpiece of nature?” When Candide found Cunegonde, after the Bulgarians ravaged the castle, he felt the happiest he had ever been. He loved her so much he decided to marry her as soon as possible. Deserting his beloved lady, Candide traveled to find money for the marriage. He went on many adventures and eventually forgot about Cunegonde. Candide realized he no longer loved Cunegonde when he found her again; she was ugly, ravaged, and scarred for life. She was no longer the pearl of …show more content…

Candide lost his naïveté when he slaughtered people without hesitation. The spontaneous act of murder was completed, not out of fear, but rather out of blind love for a lady, the Mademoiselle Cunegonde. This action caused another malfunction in moral obligations, the failure to respect human life, and the failure to give everyone a chance to make amends. Consequently, every failure leads Candide to lose faith in

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The result of Candide’s journey through life is unsatisfactory and unfulfilling while Douglass achieves self-actualization and continues to help others by fighting to right injustices. In his quest to become a free man Douglass is self-reliant, resourceful and focused while Candide in his quest to marry his love Cunegonde is naïve, greedy, and selfish. The

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Candide is the main protagonist in the story Candide, by Voltaire. Candide chooses his actions for the potential prospect of marrying his love, Cunégonde. Candide says, " 'That 's what I 'm longing for, because I was expecting to marry her; and indeed, I still hope to, '" (Candide, 66). He proclaims that marrying Cunégonde is the only pleasure that will make him complete as a person, "It 's essential for me to go and find Lady Cunégonde" (106).

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Candide is sentenced to be wiped and shot and Pangloss to be hanged. Pangloss execution was successful; however, Candide is saved by an old lady who heals his wounds. Astonishingly enough, the old woman that healed Candide takes him to see Cunégonde, the young woman he kissed and was lead to believe was murdered. Cunégonde begins talking to Candide by going into detail as to how she is alive. Her whole family was killed but she was only raped and then captured and sold as a sex salve owned by Don Isaachar and the Grand Inquisitor of Lisbon.

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Throughout the novel, Candide and his companions are faced with turmoil and surrounded by tragic events, but at no point do they find a solution for what is happening to them. Pangloss stated only that, “[t]hings cannot be otherwise than as they are; for all being created for an end, all is necessarily

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Candide's carelessness can also come from his love for Cunegonde, his lover. The reader may assume that Candide’s love for Cunegonde blinds his judgement and results irresponsible and inattentive behavior. “When a man is in love, is jealous, and has been flogged by the Inquisition, he becomes lost to all reflection” (Voltaire pg 22). What Voltaire was trying to say was that a man is not himself when he is in love or is jealous. All Candide wants is to return to his lover so he would do anything to see her again.

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