Comparison Between Madame Bovary And Candide

Comparison Between Madame Bovary And Candide

As events happen in the world many people begin to disagree or possess different thoughts on current issues. Authors normally express these personal feelings and opinions through characters and plots in their work, and neither Brecht nor Voltaire is any different. In both the play “Mother Courage and her Children” by Brecht and the novella “Candide” by Voltaire, the authors use the plots to criticize certain aspects of society during that time period. The former criticizes war and the latter optimism, but both satire religion. As these stories progress and events are revealed the reader becomes aware of the author’s stand on a particular topic.
The beginning of “Candide” starts out with Candide getting kicked out of the castle in Westphalia for kissing the Baron’s sister, “…he drove Candide from the castle with vigorous kicks in the backside” (17). Even after this unfortunate event Candide was still hoping for the best, however, he did not find anything close to the best possible outcome. As he started his journey, he ran into another brutal situation where he was physically hurt. “He was taught to make right and left turns, raise and lower the ramrod, take aim, fire, and march double time, and he was beaten thirty times with a stick “ (19), tells of the punishment he suffered each day, but yet he still remained optimistic. Later in the story even the most optimistic person the whole story realizes that maybe it’s the world isn’t all good. “…which proves that man was not born to be idle” (113), this statement was made by Pangloss after Candide told him, “that we must cultivate our garden” (113) and realizing that as a human race you have to work at thing and breed the way of travel and not just hope that the best of all possible worlds would just happen. So as the plot ends the character recognizes that complete optimism is a joke, and not a valid philosophy.
Brecht criticizes war and its effects on human nature during such time periods. He demonstrates how...