Candide

1305 Words3 Pages

Candide Essay

Compare/Contrast of 2 Characters

Throughout the story of Candide, the author Voltaire uses many of the characters to portray important things in life. The two characters that Voltaire used the most were Candide and Pangloss. Voltaire used these two characters to represent a particular idea or folly that he had about the world. In the story Candide, Voltaire is always portraying his own ideas by using the characters to illustrate his own ideas. Candide and Pangloss represent the main idea of the story, which is Voltaire’s folly of optimism. Even though they both represent the main idea of the story Candide and Pangloss have many similarities and differences.

Before getting into the comparison and contrasting here is a little background information on Candide. Candide is a very interesting character throughout the story and Voltaire uses him to represent his own ideas. In the beginning of the story Candide is a good-hearted boy but he is very naïve. Candide believes in the philosophy of his teacher Pangloss, that all is for the best in this "best of all possible worlds". (Voltaire, pg. 4) Candide bases his whole life off of this philosophy and even thought his life has been nothing but struggles, Candide never strays from this idea. Every time Candide is going through hard times and something good would happened he would refer back to this philosophy and believe it more and more every time something good happened. Candide is also very attracted to Cunegonde. Cunegonde is the Baron’s daughter and is very beautiful. Candide has always wanted to marry her but it has not happened because he is way below her rank. Candide eventually gets thrown out of his town for sneaking around with Cunegonde. This doesn’...

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...of the soul, and the pre-established harmony” (pg. 135). This quote explains how Pangloss is starting to question his philosophy and having a hard time believing it.

In conclusion, Candide and Pangloss have many similarities and many differences. The main similarity of the two is that they are both the object of Voltaire’s satire and they are representing his folly of optimism. The main difference is that Candide finally gives up Pangloss’s philosophy and adopts the farmer’s philosophy, while Pangloss who no longer believes in his own philosophy won’t admit it and says he still believes in it. Overall Candide and Pangloss are very comparable and contrastable in throughout the whole story. Even though they are two totally different characters they hold a lot of the same values.

Bibliography

1. Voltaire. Candide. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., June 2005.

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