Candide Character Analysis

The main character Candide went through many hardships throughout the literature. He always had the attitude of a very understanding and positive person. Candide loved to live. He thought he lived in the best of worlds, in the best of towns there was. This was not the fact. Candide went through many hardship he had to overcome. This would test his positive outlook on his life. Throughout the story Candide comes upon many different people who would lead him on different journeys. These things combined would try to change his love for life. The relationships that Candide developed through the literature have a great impact on what happened. One of his first acquaintances is Pangloss. This relationship is where Candide learned his view of life. He learned from Pangloss that they lived on the “best of all possible worlds”. Candide treats this view with great faith. I believe this is where Candide first demonstrated his great positive outlook on every situation. This developed his great optimism that he will continue to have throughout the rest of the story. His view that he lives in the best of all worlds is tested. After Candide becomes banished by the baron, he makes it to the next town. There two men find him, feed
him, and end up sending him to the army to suffer abuse. This is how he is tested. The men acted like they cared and wanted to help Candide, when all they wanted to do was use him for the military. It was all a plan. Candide was played. Candide’s next relationship he developed was Miss Cunegonde, I believe this relationship was made to test his faith.
Voltaire refers to her and the “lovely Cunegonde”. She is not lovely in any way. She thinks more for herself than anyone else, including Candide. She will take him through many hardships and even lead him into killing someone. Candide is madly in love with Cunegonde. She takes him through twists and turns. Candide will do anything to make Cunegonde happy. However, in the literature she ends up marrying Don Fernando. This would be like a stab in the back. Even though the old women said it would help with Candide and Cunegonde fortune. I believe that Cunegonde would just use Candide for his support and other things he had to offer.
When Later in his journey he finds a beggar who is actually Pangloss. The castle was attacked and the baron was killed. Pangloss got syphilis from Paquette. Ironically He still believed this was part of living the best of all worlds. The line of the infection led back to Columbus. Candide continues his adventures to Eldorado. This is a place of dreams and everything Candide wanted. Eldorado had the best of everything from education to calling gold blocks, pebbles. Candide loved it here at first. Poverty was non-existent there. This was really the “best of all possible worlds”. Here Candide learned that this was not the place for him. People are unable to get to it from the rest of the world. The riches there will only be of use to Candide in the normal world where nothing is perfect. He takes these riches in hope of recovering Cunegonde. Carrying these riches brought him more problems than solutions. I believe this would be a lesson to Candide. Even when you have riches and everything you think you want, life is not perfect. Sometimes a person is better off when you just have what you need rather than what you want. Candide then meets Martian. Martian is a scholar who believed God abandoned the world. I believe Martians view on the world is the exact opposite as Candide’s. He believes the world is filled with bad. I believe these are just some of the relationships that help Candides development throughout the literature. Candide changed throughout the literature due to the events he experienced and the people he met. Candide was a happy person who was born a bastard. When he meets Pangloss, he acquires views on life that he will live by. Pangloss and Candide view their life are great. They believe they live on the “best of all lands, in the best of all worlds”. This belief was tested many times throughout the literature. He was faced with challenges from being abused and stabbed, to having to most wanted girl be married off to someone else. Martian is the exact opposite of Pangloss. He believes the world is filled with misery and there can always be an equally worse situation than the one you are in. This is when Candide’s views begin to change. At the end of the literature, he had settled with someone who did not deserve him, Cunegonde. He ends up being well-off life on a simple farm. He finally realizes that there will always be misery in the world, he is just going to have to focus on the good things. Throughout the literature, I believe Candide matures. He realizes that the world is not perfect, nor is it all bad. Everyone will suffer hardships that will only make them stronger. One quote that really stood out to me is, “Those who say everything is well are uttering mere stupidities; they should say everything is for the best.” If they expect to have the best of everything and nothing ever go wrong, they are in the wrong way of thinking. Bad situations will happen, instead of thinking of them as misery, think of them as lessons. In the end, everything is for the best.