Of the characters that were introduced in Candide, Martin was my favorite. Up to when Martin was introduced to the reader, there was little verbal opposition to the optimism Candide and Pangloss preached throughout the novel. Candide would preach so innocently that it was to the point where he was oblivious to the possibility that his teacher could have been incorrect about anything. I found it humorous once Martin began to gun down Candide's optimism very insensitively.
The tones picked up from Martin in context with the rest of the plot made him fit perfectly into the flow of the story. His persistent negativity combined with his insight created this character which was the exact opposite of Candide. Placing the two characters so close together amplified their extremeness on the spectrum of optimism and realism. Amongst Martin's "I tell it how I see it" dialogues, there were some gems. My favorite is found on page 74, the prior conversation has Candide keeping high hopes about reuniting with his Cunegonde. Martin responds by saying:"I hope, that one day she may make you happy, but I doubt it very much." "You are very hard," replies Candide. Martin simply says; "Because I know what life is," which I found to be a very deep and powerful line compared to the sarcastic undertone felt throughout the whole book.
On a different note, I was able to dig up an article I stumbled upon (literally, on stumble upon) which talked about optimism in more of a psychology context as opposed to literature. The name of the article is Your Brain Won't Allow You to Believe the Apocalypse Could Actually Happen, which appears to be a bit grim, but I found the article interesting. It talks about surveys that had people estimate the odds of their lives encountering different types of tragedies, and the statistics showed that not only were "normal" people typically too optimistic, but the most accurate guesses came from people that were "clinically depressed." This does indeed suggest that life is depressing, but I interpret it as saying a little bit of optimism is healthy. The article is so easily related to Candide, so I figured I would share it for those who are interested.
Here's the link to the article: http://io9.com/5848857/your-brain-wont-allow-you-to-believe-the-apocalypse-could-actually-happen
The tones picked up from Martin in context with the rest of the plot made him fit perfectly into the flow of the story. His persistent negativity combined with his insight created this character which was the exact opposite of Candide. Placing the two characters so close together amplified their extremeness on the spectrum of optimism and realism. Amongst Martin's "I tell it how I see it" dialogues, there were some gems. My favorite is found on page 74, the prior conversation has Candide keeping high hopes about reuniting with his Cunegonde. Martin responds by saying:"I hope, that one day she may make you happy, but I doubt it very much." "You are very hard," replies Candide. Martin simply says; "Because I know what life is," which I found to be a very deep and powerful line compared to the sarcastic undertone felt throughout the whole book.
On a different note, I was able to dig up an article I stumbled upon (literally, on stumble upon) which talked about optimism in more of a psychology context as opposed to literature. The name of the article is Your Brain Won't Allow You to Believe the Apocalypse Could Actually Happen, which appears to be a bit grim, but I found the article interesting. It talks about surveys that had people estimate the odds of their lives encountering different types of tragedies, and the statistics showed that not only were "normal" people typically too optimistic, but the most accurate guesses came from people that were "clinically depressed." This does indeed suggest that life is depressing, but I interpret it as saying a little bit of optimism is healthy. The article is so easily related to Candide, so I figured I would share it for those who are interested.
Here's the link to the article: http://io9.com/5848857/your-brain-wont-allow-you-to-believe-the-apocalypse-could-actually-happen
I agree, Martin is definitely a very interesting character! Aside from being the one to really enlighten Candide on what the world is truly like, He acts as a great character foil, personality-wise, to Pangloss as his beliefs about good and evil are the opposite of Pangloss's thoughts on optimism. It appears that Martin is the only character in the book that has come to a distinct understanding of what the world is like. Most of the characters, like Candide, experience hardship after hardship, but don't have any answers as to why these terrible things happen. Martin remains the only voice of enlightenment in the novel.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the article, it's really interesting that the most accurate guesses came from people who were clinically depressed. It's a little strange to think that a large majority of us are therefore wrong about the chances that something will happen, it's definitely an intriguing read!
I love the relationship that Martin and Candide have, and how they can sit and discuss philosophy for hours. I can just imagine an alternative ending to this novel where Martin and Candide travel the world together and debate on everything they could possibly debate about. Of course, I wouldn't replace the ending that Voltaire created. I especially love the title of chapter 21, "Candide and Martin approach the coast of France, philosophizing all the way". They really compliment each other perfectly, and are proof of the theory that opposites attract. Although Candide is physically attracted to Cunegonde (at least for the majority of the novel), I feel like his true soul mate would be exactly like Martin.
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