Candide And Martin Analysis

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Kimm Pacheco HON 202 - 04705 March 26th, 2012 Professor Martino Wealth Wasted: Candide and Martin's Meeting with Royalty During the Age of the Enlightenment arose numerous philosophers who expressed their views on topics such as the importance of reason, human progression, and the critiques and skepticism of established institutions like religion. They had much to say and many were influential before, during, and after the Enlightenment however, François-Marie d'Arouet (or better known by his pen name as Voltaire) played a significant role in the movement (Shank 2010). His signature literary work Candide illustrates a series of episodic travels filled with satire and representations of stereotypical individuals through their reoccurring…show more content…
As Candide and Martin are strolling through the palace they pass a gallery of beautiful pictures by the Italian Renaissance painter Raphael himself. To most, these pieces of art are considered valuable, unattainable, and high brow however, Pococurante's dissatisfaction is shown as Voltaire explains how he “no longer [looks] at them” nor is he amused by them because he likes ”a picture only when [he] can see in it a touch of nature itself” (60). This proves Lord Pococurante to be a man who believes in solid reason (as he is a senator) and finds no enjoyment in the impractical practice of the arts commenting how he might find pleasure in the opera “if they had not found ways to make it revolting and monstrous” (Voltaire 60). While Candide is astonished at the demeanor of the senator, Martin very much agrees with Pococurante on his negatives views towards the writings of Homer, Cicero, Horace, and Milton whom he calls “a barbarian” (Voltaire 62). Lord Pococurante is an excellent representation of an individual of substantial wealth who does not appreciate what they have. He has many paintings by Raphael yet finds them too irrelevant to even look at them and the same goes for his abundance of classic works by influential philosophers. In fact, Pococurante means “small care” or “Carelittle” (Voltaire 59) in Spanish and before…show more content…
The scene opens with the pair of them about to eat dinner when they find an enslaved Cacambo (Candide's old friend). Candide exclaims that he would fly to China if needed (Voltaire 63) after Cacambo relays the information that Cunégonde is now in Constantinople. This shows his devotion and desire to find his lost love and to be reunited with her. Candide inquires upon his fellow diners their royalty status after realized that each of them have servants. One by one the strangers respond with similar tales of royalty that has been stolen by war, some form of imprisonment, and sometimes allowed to travel (hence they have all “come to pass the carnival season in Venice” (Voltaire 65)). Despite the great losses of the former kings, sultans, emperors, etc. they are all still in a better class of living than Candide who cannot prove his nobility with only seventy-one quarterings (Voltaire 1). After the various stories had been heard and Candide gave King Theodore “a diamond worth two thousand sequins” (Voltaire 65) whereas the first five nobles had given him only twenty sequins. Astonished at Candide's item of such valued wealth and willingness to give it away, the five kings ask “Who in the world...is this private citizen to give a hundred times as much as any of us, and who actually gives it?” (Voltaire 65). The humble, generous, and
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