Many people argue whether violence is a part of the human brain or just a result from our society. Violence could be wired into our system, evolving with us since our savage past, but one does not know for sure. In the article Human Behavior: Killer Instincts, Dan Jones argues that killing is not so much an instinct as it is a by-product of an event. Say someone has wronged another, by stealing or messing up a romantic relationship. Often the solution that makes the most sense is violence. Believing that they have been wronged, people often seek revenge as their solution. According to that scenario, one can believe that it is human nature to react violently. In Candide, Candide has accumulated a record of killing. He claims that he kills for love. Upon meeting …show more content…
He lets his passion for his beloved to blind his morals. Similarly, Dan Jones finds that, “murderous actions are usually the by-product of urges towards some other goal” (Human Behavior: Killer Instincts). In both cases, violent actions are not instinct, but rather just an unfortunate result of something else. For Candide, that something else is his undying love for Cunégonde. His devotion to her blinds his moral consciousness and leads his down a path of violence. Dan Jones also says that, “humans have repeatedly encountered a wide range of situations in which the benefits of killing another person outweighed the costs” (Human Behavior: Killer Instincts). Inline with that thought process of the “human adaption theory”, Candide found that killing the men that own Cunégonde leads to greater benefits than what he will have to endure due to his violent behavior. For example, he is willing to be constantly on the run and is willing to never step into certain countries all for his hope to someday marry Cunégonde. He was willing to kill Cunégonde’s brother, her last piece of family and his only hope for a blessing to their
Do you believe violence is rooted into human nature?
However, there is very little lessening in our time, of the human scourges of war, famine, rape, avarice, persecution, bigotry, superstition, intolerance, and hypocrisy that make up this element of human corruption that is addressed in Candide. Candide still serves as an effectual whip with which to lash once again the perpetuators of this suffering. (Weitz 12) The theme of human misery is Voltaire's primary achievement in integrating philosophy and literature in Candide. (Weitz 12) "Do you think," asks Candide of Martin as they approached the coast of France,"that men have always massacred each other, as they do today that they have always been false, faithless, ungrateful, thieving, weak, inconstant, mean spirited, envious, greedy, drunken, miserly, ambitious, bloody, slanderous, debauched, fanatic, hypocritical, and stupid?". Martin replies with further question." do you think that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they could find them?" "of course I do" Candide answers. Martin responds,"well, if hawks have always had the same character, why should you suppose men have changed theirs?".
The first evidence of this is when he arrives at the house where Cunegonde is staying. Shortly after his arrival, he learns that Cunegonde is shared among two men (a jew and the Grand Inquisitor) that acquire her time and affection. When the Jewish man comes in for his time with Cunegonde, he sees Candide and immediately comes at him with a sword. Candide then pulls out his sword and “laid the Israelite stiff and cold on the floor” (113). The grand Inquisitor then comes in and Candide, worried about the man saying anything, “ran him through [with the sword], and laid him beside the jew” (113). This shows how the world outside of Westphalia has changed him. In Westphalia, Candide never would've thought of killing a man, let alone two. Cunegonde points this out ; “How is it that you, who were born so gentle, could kill in two minutes a jew and a prelate?”(113). Candide has changed so drastically that even Cunegonde takes note of it. This demonstrates that Candide has lost his innocence and is getting accustomed to the way of the world. It could also be implied that Candide has changed because of his lust for Cunegonde and that this desire has driven him to kill the very men getting in his way of being with her. Although, he may have killed the men to become closer to Cunegonde, this backfires as he must immediately leave Cunegonde without
Another character we encounter is the object of Candide's affections, Cunegonda. She suffers greatly after her kingdom is destroyed and lives in self-pity telling everyone her stories of being bought and sold as a mere sex object. She seems to care deeply for Candide, however she marries the Don, leaving Candide to flee and fend for himself. She has little regard for the man who loves her has an air headed quality about her. At the end of the story she has grown terribly ugly and accepts Candide's marriage proposal to the disgust of her brother. Her physical transformation seems to do nothing to change her character, thus further proving that negative characteristics live on.
Although Eldorado is perceived as this stunning land of riches, Candide couldn’t stay because he still want his love Cundegonde. In chapter 19 they leave Eldorado taking riches and sheep with them, but after one hundred days they ended up losing most of the riches and the sheep. However, Candide still had the little shred of Pangloss’s philosophical idea of optimism, that is until he was robbed by a captain where, Candide decided that he couldn’t dwell on the thought of being positive and thinking that everything is the “best of possible worlds” which lead Candide to meeting Martin. Martin was a poor scholar, whose wife robbed him, who was beaten by his son and his daughter abounding him. Candide still had this hope of seeing Cundegonde and Martin surely had no hope in anything. Martin was clearly Pangloss’s counterpart, whereas Pangloss was positive and believed that everything happened because pf the good of the world, Martin at times would be pessimistic or rather more realistic than Pangloss. In chapter 20 the same captain that robbed Candide of his riches was killed where Candide said, “You see,’ said Candide to Martin, “that vice is sometimes punished. This villain, the Dutch skipper, has met with the fate he deserved,” (Voltaire, What Befell Candide and Martin on Their Passage), Candide basically said here how the captain’s death proves that everything happens for
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.
Both stories shine a harsh light on the concept of love, using it as a means for the main characters’ central conflicts, and the authoritative powers in both stories look at sex as an act of rebellion, something that could disrupt the people’s social layout and the power of those in charge. Candide’s love of Cunegonde and the resulting outcome of said love (the meeting behind the door) is the reason he is banished from his comfortable life in the house. The sexual experience he and Cunegonde shared was frowned upon and he was thrown out. Throughout the rest of the book Candide is bent on getting back to Cunegonde despite all the hardships they both have endured because he holds on to the feelings he had for her when he was younger. In the end they wind up married, but neither of them are happy. The love they once held for each other is twisted and warped, and Candide’s downfall in the end is his naive approach to love. In the same way, Winston’s downfall is his connection to Julia. They begin a flawed sexual relationship with each other as an act of rebellion and defiance. Sex is frowned upon by the party, and coincidentally, they are arrested by the Thought Police while in the midst of being together. They betray each other when they are tortured, further highlighting their naivety. They were blinded by their passion for each other which was
Freud writes "the way of life which makes love the centre of everything [...] comes naturally to all of us," (Freud, p. 29). Candide's love for Cunegonde is the driving force of his life from the moment they are parted at the beginning of the novel until they are bonded in marriage at the end. Throughout his experiences, Candide continues to think about Cunegonde. Even after narrowly surviving the Bulgar-Abar war, Candide's thoughts are still about Cunegonde (Voltaire, p. 26).
Almost the entire narrative of Candide focuses on Candide’s journey to reunite with his love, the fair Miss Cunegonde. This desire to see her drives him to, quite literally, the ends of his known earth to be with her. It isn’t a feeling Candide questions, but he often reflects on the nature of his decisions. A prime example of this is when Candide slays both the
The philosopher, Pangloss has a certain belief that all things happen for the very best. “It is clear, said he, that things cannot be otherwise than they are, for since everything is made to serve an end, everything necessarily serves the best end.” (Voltaire, 1.425). This takes after the philosopher Leibniz, whose philosophical look on the world was optimism. In the story, the princess Cunegonde saw Pangloss having a sexual encounter in the garden (little woods) outside the castle. “...she saw clearly the doctor’s sufficient reason, observed both cause and effect,...” (Voltaire, 1. 425). After she saw this Cunegonde wanted to do the same actions with Candide. This can be compared to the snake in the Garden of Eden, and how it tempted Adam and Eve to eat the fruit. Candide and Cunegonde then kiss, which is forbidden and Candide gets banned by the baron. Just as Adam and Eve are caught after eating the forbidden fruit and are then banned from the Eden. In both stories the couples commit lustrous acts and then have a hard life from then
Voltaire deliberately created the female characters in Candide of minor importance to the actions of the story. The narrator holds the nineteenth century - male perspective that Women exist only for the pleasure of men and are properties owned by men. So that he does not Obligate the women of any remarkable or redeeming qualities. Women are valued only for their beauty and can only succeed if they have pretty face. They could either marry or mistress or both of a well, rich and powerful man. for instance, Cunegonde “rosy-checked” becomes the mistress of the, a Bulgar captain, Grand Inquisitor “a Jew, named Don Issachar”, and the governor of Buenos Aires. As being their mistress she was guaranteed a comfortable life, but do make no mistake about, it is a life of sexual exploitation. When
Throughout the novel Candide experiences an array of good and bad. During the bad, Candide tends to grow as a character when he acknowledges his own predicament and recognizes his needs, without philosophizing as Pangloss does. After escaping the Bulgars, Candide, penniless and hungry, encounters an orator who inquires as to whether Candide believes the pope is anti-Christ. Candide replies, “’I’ve not heard it said before now,’ replied Candide, ‘but whether
In the novel Candide written by Voltaire there are several symbols throughout the story. One of those symbolic figures that seems to stand out in the story is the character Candide, a gullible and innocent boy who experiences many hardships after being vanished from the castle of the baron von Thunder-ten-tronckh. Candide seems to be a representation of people's innocence and how they tend to lose it throughout their lifetime as they witness and experience new things in the world and grow wary of the consequences that every different situation may hold. For example, Voltaire mentions in the beginning of the story that “nature had bestowed upon [Candide] the gentlest of dispositions. His countenance expressed his soul” which shows to the reader that Candide is kind and innocent at the beginning and that he has not the slightest intentions of interfering with another persons life in a negative manner (3). However, later on in the story after Candide has killed Don Issachar and the Grand Inquisitor, Candide justifies his murderous behavior to Cunegonde by saying that “when you are in love, and jealous, and have been flogged by the inquisition, there is no knowing what you may do” which demonstrates that the gentle and kind Candide has turned into a murderer as a result of his previous life experiences which in turn provides an excellent example of how people lose their innocence and turn to violence overtime (22).
And even though Candide is the main character, Voltaire uses more than him to show the faults of human beings by using Lady Cunegonde and other people to visualize the chaos of lust. Throughout the entire story, lust raises its disgusting head again and again, driven by man’s desire for woman. Lady Cunegonde is a symbol of beauty within this book who by the end, becomes ruined and twisted by man’s flaws. A “six-foot Bulgar” (Voltaire 34) rapes her, she is sought after by “the Inquisitor, who loves [her] dearly” (Voltaire 35) and “Don Issachar” (Voltaire 34). These men all see her as an object to appease their lust. Voltaire use of these scenes, especially Lady Cunegonde’s, show the lust of man and how it damages the people that come into contact with it. Unfortunately, lust brought about another trouble to the world, syphilis. Voltaire mentions this downfall to expand upon the point that lust is a terrible flaw of Humanity that causes suffering where ever it is. This suffering is shown in Pangloss, who gets the disease from the maid and “[loses] only an eye and an ear” (Voltaire 27). If Pangloss had not lusted after a woman, he would not have ended up another victim to syphilis, one of lust’s many hard consequences. Even Lady Cunegonde’s old maid is treated like an item and ruined by the lust of man. She was the “daughter of Pope Urban X and the Princess of Palestrina” (Voltaire 42), the most beautiful
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