What makes a good relationship? Many would answer love, true passionate love, is why you date someone. Candide and Northanger Abbey give a very different idea of what makes a good relationship. In both books, strong relationships are marked by two distinct traits, naivete and the decision to love someone, despite actual feelings towards them.
Candide’s whole journey was to find his “one true love” Cunégonde. He had fallen into love with her quickly and passionately when he had lived with the Baron. As Candide travels throughout the world, getting into one problem and another, he keeps pushing because of his love for Cunégonde. Yet once he finally finds Cunégonde in Turkey after his long and tumultuous journey, she has changed. “The first
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thing they saw was Cunégonde and the old woman hanging towels out on a line to dry. The Baron went pale at the sight. Candide, tender-hearted lover, on seeing his fair Cunégonde all brown, with her eyes bloodshot, her bosom shrivelled, her cheeks wrinkled, and her arms red and peeling, recoiled three paces in horror, and then stepped forward out of sheer good manners,” (Voltaire 84). Candide had been very naive in his whole journey.
He thinks love is all one needs to keep going and that love will always remain the same. Candide even admits to his naivete, though he certainly doesn’t see it as that. “My dear girl,” replied Candide, “when a man’s in love, jealous and flogged by the Inquisition, there’s no knowing what he may do,” (21). Candide think love, no matter what it may cause him to do or what he may face, is a completely worthy cause to continue on his journey. Even the utopia of El Dorado and the riches it hold aren’t comparable to Cunegonde for Candide. “Said Candide to Cacambo: ‘My friend, you see how perishable are the riches of this world. The only sure thing is virtue and the happiness of seeing Miss Cunegonde again’,” (47). Cunegonde, on the other hand, even though she still loves Candide, is able to recognize how leaving that love behind can help her. She doesn’t not maintain her “virtue” to him. She sleeps with other men, because for her as a woman, it keeps her safe. She knows Candide will always try to come for her, but she also knows if he is not successful, she must be …show more content…
prepared. Candide’s naivete nearly breaks his love for Cunegonde, but in the end, saves their relationship. Candide though Cunegonde would always remain the same and his love would never waver. Once he finds Cunégonde in Turkey after his long and tumultuous journey, she has changed. “The first thing they saw was Cunégonde and the old woman hanging towels out on a line to dry. The Baron went pale at the sight. Candide, tender-hearted lover, on seeing his fair Cunégonde all brown, with her eyes bloodshot, her bosom shrivelled, her cheeks wrinkled, and her arms red and peeling, recoiled three paces in horror, and then stepped forward out of sheer good manners,” (Voltaire 84). Candide’s love is no longer what he remembers. She has become ugly both in looks and in speech. “Candide, in his heart of hearts, had no desire to marry Cunegonde,” (84), yet he does. Candide puts aside his current feelings for her and still marries her because he has promised to marry her and his naive belief that virtue is the “only sure thing” is what drives this. He is choosing to stay with her and their marriage succeeds and benefits the two of them because Candide works for it to, not because of a real love between him and Cunégonde. Henry and Catherine’s love in Northanger Abbey is also marked by a similar dedication and naivete.
Catherine has an extremely naive, novel-like view of love. “[Henry’s] name was not in the Pump-room book, and curiosity could do no more. He must be gone from Bath.yet he had not mentioned that his stay would be so short! This sort of mysteriousness, which is always so becoming in a hero, threw a fresh grace in Catherine's imagination around his persona and manners, and increased her anxiety to know more of him,” (34-35). She is obsessed with Henry’s “mysteriousness”, not so dissimilar to the heroines in her novels, who were all in love with tall, dark and mysterious men. Although her naivete and imagination almost get her in trouble with Henry when she thinks his father has killed his mother, her naive obsession with him is the only reason their relationship ever
happened. Henry Tilney did not love Catherine at first, nor was he even attracted to her. Her obsession with him is what makes him be attracted to her. “She was assured of his affection; and that heart in return was solicited, which, perhaps, they pretty equally knew was already entirely his own; for though Henry was now sincerely attached to her, — though he felt and delighted in all the excellences of her character, and truly loved her society, — I must confess that his affection originated in nothing better than gratitude; or, in other words, that a persuasion of her partiality for him had been the only cause of giving her a serious thought,” (Austen 227). Tilney resolves to love Catherine because she loved him. He did eventually feel “sincerely attached to her”, but it was because he consciously look at who Catherine was and all her quirks and decided he could in fact find them endearing. Both Catherine and Candide’s naivete is one major key to their respective relationships. Catherine’s naive love kickstarts Henry and her relationship, while Candide’s naive love is what maintains Cunegonde and his relationship. Dedication is also a major key to both their relationships, though in a different way. Candide actively decides to continue to love Cunegonde back and be in a relationship with her. In Northanger Abbey, however, it is Henry, instead of Catherine, who is the one that decides to love the other. Usually people think that naivete and the decision, based not on actual attraction, to love someones, are keys to a bad relationship. Northanger Abbey and Candide show how these two things can actually create a stronger and happier relationship.
Candide’s life continues, however, to be full of misfortune. Candide believes that if he could once again find his true love, Cunegonde, he could be happy and fulfilled. When he does meet Cunegonde, life does not become any easier or richer. At this reunion, Candide begins to take his life’s matters into his own hands.
In Holland, a kindly Anabaptist named Jacques takes Candide in. Candide runs into a deformed beggar and discovers that it is Pangloss. Pangloss explains that he has contracted syphilis and that Cunégonde and her family have all been brutally murdered by the Bulgar army. Nonetheless, he maintains his optimistic outlook. Jacques takes Pangloss in as well. The three travel to Lisbon together, but before they arrive their ship runs into a storm and Jacques is drowned. Candide and Pangloss arrive in Lisbon to find it destroyed by an earthquake and under the control of the Inquisition. Pangloss is soon hanged as a heretic, and Candide is flogged for listening with approval to Pangloss’s philosophy. After his beating, an old woman dresses Candide’s wounds and then, to his astonishment, takes him to Cunégonde. Cunégonde explains that though the Bulgars killed the rest of her family, she was merely raped and then captured by a captain, who sold her to a Jew named Don Isaachar. At present, she is a sex slave jointly owned by Don Isaachar and the Grand Inquisitor of Lisbon. Each of Cunégonde’s two owners arrive in turn as she and Candide are talking, and Candide kills them both. Terrified, Candide, the old woman, and Cunégonde flee and board a ship bound for South America. During their journey, the old woman relates her own story. She was born the Pope’s daughter but has suffered a litany of misfortunes that include rape, enslavement, and cannibalism.
One of the main female characters of this story is Cunégonde, the love interest of Candide, whose life did a complete 180 turn around. When we first find Cunégonde we see that she lives a lavish life with her family. We see her life turn around when her house is burned down, and her family murdered. Cunégonde herself is raped and sold to a man known as Don Issachar. She is then forced to be shared with another man known as The Grand Inquisitor. Although Cunégonde is a victim in the beginning, she retains her strong character, and after Candide slays the two men, she quickly seizes the opportunity to leaves with Candide and the old woman. If she were a victim,she would quickly falter, unsure of how to act or move because of
...ue perspectives on the world. Candide revived a glimpse of the the best possible world, the world as it really is, and the worst possible world. In the end all the philosophies are rejected and they decide that the world is full of good and bad events, “ there is a concatenation of the events in the best of all possible worlds: for if you had not been kicked out of the magnificent castle for love of miss Cunegonde; if you had not been put into the inquisition; if you had not walked over america; if you ad not stabbed the baron; if you had not lost all your sheep from the fine country of el dorado; you would not be here eating preserved citrons and pistachio nuts... but let us cultivate our garden “ (Voltaire, 87). Candide choses to ignore the philosophies and just simply live he came to this deduction after vast travels and experiences he decides to tend his garden.
Towards the end of the book it seems as if Candide decided to follow his own way of life. When Candide said, “but let us cultivate our garden,” in response to Pangloss who said, “There is a concatenation of all events in the best of possible worlds; for in short, had you not been kicked out of a fine castle for the love Miss Cunegund; had you not been put into Inquisition; had you not traveled over America on foot…,” who basically still hasn’t gotten the memo to leave the idea of optimism behind. The ending of the novel shows how Candide grew and took from the experiences during the adventure to finding Cunegonde. Candide realizes that everybody is responsible for their own actions. The fact that throughout the novel whenever Candide had to endure a problematic issue he would often reiterate saying that Pangloss would say, but often end up in misfortune. Candide realizes that following Pangloss ideals may seem unrealistic and following Martin ideals is also unrealistic. The garden that Candide and the others help create was something they did themselves without having to follow someone direction just as Candide did throughout this novel. Candide finds that just working and not questioning anything that occurs has better outcomes than following either Pangloss or
Candide's optimism, stemming from his tutor Dr. Pangloss, keeps him totally determined to find his lost love, Lady Cunegonde, and an ideal world. However, Voltaire takes Candide around the world to discover that, contrary to the teachings of his distinguished tutor Dr. Pangloss, all is not always for the best.
Catherine is very pleased to meet Isabella after being disappointed in not seeing Mr Tilney again. The narrator informs the reader that Catherine is fortunate in finding a friend as ‘Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.’ (p.18 NA). Isabella being the elder of the two has much more knowledge of fashionable society than Catherine and is, therefore, able to teach her a great deal about the expectations of society at that time.
...s that life is not what he thought it was. He learns that money, status, nor materialistic things can make people truly happy. He learns that working, raising money, and cultivating his own garden could give him all the happiness he desires. He even says that we must cultivate our own garden. I think this statement means that we should not be so involved with the riches of the world but work on being happy with what we have and what we can control. He and his friends are satisfied with working hard in the garden. Candide learns that work is what makes people happy especially when we all work together. Also, searching for your lost love is better than being with anyone else filled with all the riches. The characters of Candide are ending their adventures in a garden, not beginning them and they must work day in and day out in order to gain anything from their garden.
Candide is a representation of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was an era of change, the way people think changed, scientific ideas changed along with many other beliefs. Voltaire was an Enlightenment philosopher that changed the meaning of the word optimism, wrote many books to spread new ideas throughout the area. Candide is about a man that lives during the Enlightenment, as he travels and lives through the Enlightenment he realizes that the world should be changing. when Jacques drowns Candide’s response is why was it you of all men, men that shouldn’t have drowned in the very harbor. Candide says this after Pangloss is hanged “If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are others?” Candide is thinking about the world he lives
...mise to only love their husbands or wives and now he had been unfaithful to her with the Marquise. This action by Candide demonstrates how Candide has adapted to the world and how people also adapt to the things that exist.
The first, most obvious trait of Catherine’s heroism is that she values human relationships above materialism. Nothing is more important to Catherine than her lover, Henry, and as the novel goes on, her baby. When Henry is injured and sent to Milan, she has no trouble transferring to the new hospital there. Catherine loves Henry and would drop anything to be with him. Nothing material holds her back from being with him. Even when they live in Switzerland, they don’t have many material possessions. They live very simple lives because all the couple really needs is each other. In chapter forty, Henry describes their time together with this quote, "When there was a good day we had a splendid time and we never had a bad time. We knew the baby was very close now and it gave us both a feeling as though something were hurrying us and we could not lose any time together." Catherine obviously values her time with Henry more than anyone else, but it isn’t the physical aspect of getting out and doing things that satisfies her. What satisfies Catherine is the extra time she gets to spend with the love of her life b...
He had learned from a Turk that by keeping to themselves and cultivating that it had kept them from three great evils, weariness, vice , and want; all of which Candide and his companions had experience during their travels. By refraining from public life would keep him from being exposed to the evils of the world as he has had in the past. Candide accepted things as they are because he was a believer of Pangloss and his teachings of methaphysico-theologico-cosmolo-nigology; no effect without a cause, that things cannot be otherwise than as they are; for all being created for an end and all is necessary for the best end. But at the end of the book, Candide, didn’t believe in Pangloss’ teachings and by retreating to his garden, he had in a since
Catherine’s revenge does not make things better for her. Her revenge on Heathcliff by blaming him for her upcoming death does not meliorate her mind. Just before she dies, she ascribes Heathcliff for her “murder.” “You have killed me, and thriven on it, I think” (Bronte 158). Catherine resembles what Oliver Goldsmith said, “When lovely woman stoops to folly, and finds too late that men betray, what charm can soothe her melancholy?
Catherine’s emotions are as vivid and wild as her beauty. The theme of external looks and internal character is explored through Catherine’s emotional tantrums and the other characters who witness her tantrums. Catherine is intelligent, but she is also impetuous. Because Edgar loves Catherine, he has not seen her for her faults. He sees Catherine through rose colored spectacles, and he thinks she is perfect. It is not until their love is challenged by Catherine’s love for Heathcliff, that Edgar sees Catherine’s more volatile nature. Nelly, however, is not alarmed by the emotional tides of Catherine. She is used to the way that Catherine behaves, and the drama does not affect her in the same way that it affects Edgar.
The state of affairs and the grim reality of the war lead Henry towards an ardent desire for a peaceful life, and as a result Henry repudiates his fellow soldiers at the warfront. Henry’s desertion of the war is also related to his passionate love for Catherine. Henry’s love for Catherine is progressive and ironic. This love develops gradually in “stages”: Henry’s attempt at pretending love for Catherine towards the beginning of the novel, his gradually developing love for her, and finally, Henry’s impas... ...