Most of the people Candide meet throughout his journey are mean and cause him harm but Jacques is kind right from the beginning. In Chapter three Jacques carries Candide, someone who he had never met, into his home, washed him, gave him food and employs him in his rug factory. Jacque's kindness revives Candide's faith in Pangloss's theory that everything is for the best in this world. Candide was so moved by Jacques he threw himself to his feet and cried, "Now I am convinced that my master Pangloss told me truth when he said that everything was for the best in this world; for I am infinitely more touched by your extraordinary generosity... " (Ch. 3 Pg. 19). Jacques seems to be the only good-natured character in the whole book. His actions are kind and most admirable. Jacques finds a doctor to cure Pangloss, who loses an eye and an ear to syphilis. He even hires Pangloss as his bookkeeper and takes Candide and Pangloss on a business trip to Lisbon. Jacques disagrees with Pangloss's belief that this is the best of worlds and claims that "men have somehow
Cited: Voltaire. Candide. 1759. Ed. Henry Morley. New York, New York: Fine Creative Media, 2003.