Life is a Misery

Sometimes being optimistic isn't enough to obtain what you want. Throughout the whole book, Voltaire criticizes optimism through Candide's life. When Candide fails to find Cundegonde and Cacambo after several months in Venice, he falls in despair. He begins to agree with Martin's idea that the world is a misery. At this moment, Candide says "How right you are, my dear Martin! There is nothing here but illusion and one calamity after another." (112) Then, Martin responds "You are surely simple fellow, to believe that a mongrel servant, with five or six million in his pocket, will go for your mistress to the ends of the earth and bring her here to Venice with you." (112-113) He begins to agree with Martin's claim that the world is a misery and that optimism is just useless when it comes to reality.

For those who like Maroon 5, you probably noticed that my title "Life is a Misery," is the chorus of the song Misery from that band. Several of the lyrics from this song relate to Candide's situation at this point and explain his lack of optimism and his state of misery. The song says "I am in misery, there ain't nobody who can comfort me." This is exactly the way Candide feels; despaired and lonely. When human beings have to face this reality, they feel like losers and that life isn't worth it anymore. In the other hand, Sartre, a French philosopher states that "men are completely despaired without God." He might be trying to say that atheists are in complete despair, which I don't agree because unless you have a plan on life and you have the unconditional support of your family and friends, there's no way you'll be in despair.

Another line says "Oh yeah why won't you answer me, the silence is slowly killing me. Oh yeah, girl you really got me bad, you really got me bad. Now I'm gonna get you back, I'm gonna get you back." This song fits so well the book, that I even pictured a whole musical of Candide with this song in my head. I know this isn't relevant, but I had to say it... Okay, going back to my topic, with this line of the song we can see how men are almost always the ones who have to sacrifice everything to be with the person they love. Candide has done almost everything to be with Condegonde and now he realizes that there is nothing else to be done and that life is just a misery.