Patrick's+page*

=The ROLES REDEFINED:=


 * **NEW CRITIC**: finding the quotes; the KEY passages; explains how they work in relation to our work/evidence
 * **CHARACTER ANALYST**: look at the AUTHOR's point of view. (How he creates them and WHY); changes (dynamic)/no changes (static) [when, why the characters change]
 * **PSYCHOLOGICAL CRITIC**: how the human mind works [male/female; old/young; eastern/western; rich/poor; THE AUTHOR: go beyond the story and ask Qs about the author]
 * **HISTORIAN**: how the book mirrors its time. [what was happening in the author's world while he was writing the story; find connections]
 * **ANTHROPOLOGIST**: CULTURE [taking off the mask and showing what is underneath]--unmasking...
 * **PHILOSOPHER KING**: big ideas/themes

EVERYTHING ELSE IS EXTRA-CREDIT!!!!!

=THE CANDIDE QUESTIONS AND ITS ANSWERS=

1. What are the three biggest targets of Voltaire's satire in these pages? Discuss, and give evidence by quoting exact passages.
//"...a combination of igno////rance and complacency, which asserts that all is well everywhere because I'm doing pretty well in the tiny corner of the world I happen to know."//

The above is a quote for the Penguin version's introduction, and through this quote we can see the main target of this book's overall satire: the philosophy of optimism. However, in these pages 76~83 were not an exception to Voltaire's unforgiving onslaught on optimism. These pages take continues through most of chapter 25 right through to the midpoint of chapter 27, with Candide's meeting with the Venetian Count, Count Pococurante, a well-educated and wealthy; he discusses art. However, the usual Count will enjoy the likes of Raphael's paintings or the epic poems of Homer and Milton, but Pococurante found such things tedious and tirsome.

//"...at one time I was deluded into believing I took pleasure in reading it; but that endless recital of battles which are all the same, those Gods who are always interfering but never do anything..."// The above quote directly referencing to Pococurante's views. So what is Voltaire trying to say here? The Count with all his wealth, education, literacy and the understanding of art at his command, it does not please him. If everything is all ought to be the best it possibly can, Pococuante is definitely not a optimist. But the important point is that Voltaire's criticism through this patricular bit of the story is Voltaire's distaste for the people who judges an artist or a writer not with their concrete work, but with their reputation and in many cases are bloated to a size beyond measure. Using the likes of Raphael and Homer with their name value as just examples of people mindlessly reading Homer's Illiad, because it is by Homer. Or people going to see Raphael's artwork just because it is by Raphael. Most not actually knowing the actual quality of the work itself.

Voltaire's brutality extened out onto the aristocracy in these pages as well. His mockery of the ones born into their throne, power, and wealth; constantly losing their powers through conflict and political upheaval. This is in relation to what was happening in his own society with the rise and growth of capitalism, as a result the european aristocracy was losing their power and influence. Through the whole of chapter 26 [the Oxford version: pg 84~87] Candide criticises such former monarchs and the aristocracy. The stupendous situation of 6 former monarchs dethroned from right across the world all at the carnval in Venice makes Voltaire's point all the more amusing.

==2. Does Swift, in //Gulliver's Travels,// attack any of the targets you identified in question 1? Find passages from Swift's book as evidence. Then write a paragraph for each one, and discuss the similarities and/or differences.==

I have discussed Voltaire's satire of people's attitude towards 'quality' art and his mockery of the aristocracy. Now in comparison with Swift's Gulliver's Travels, how is it similar and how is it different?

Firstly, in Gulliver's Travels, I cannot say that literature and art was a topic discussed. In Swift's masterpiece, he satirises more of the sciences and its academies at the time. However, the common root is that both authors attack knowledge and the enlightenment. (which is a broad connection nonetheless)

However the second satire discussed is the problems with the monarchy and the upper class. Swift definitely attacks the British monarch and the politicians of his time very consistently throughout the novel. From Lilliput to Brodingnag; Glubdubdrib to Houyhnhnm land, Swift constantly refers about the monarchy in his story. As already stated above in the first question, Voltaire mocks the aristocracy and the fellow royals for their persistence in fighting, when they already have all the power they need. Voltaire says this in relation to the the european aristocracy's crisis with the uprising capitalism. Swift uses his satires of monarchs and aristocracies as a direct mirror of his own. So the bottom line is that the defining similarity of both Voltaire and Swift's use of their satires was in a form of a MIRROR to their own society they live in.

The quotes that support my interpretation are these listed:

//"...Five or six of those candidates petition the emperor to entertain his Majesty and the court with a dance on the rope; and whoever jumps the highest without falling, succeds in the office..."// part 1 chapter 3, pg 2031 (the absurdity of how the employment system works in Britain for Parliament)

//"...he knew no Reason, why those who entertain Opinions prejudicial to the Publick, should be obliged to change, or should not be obliged to conceal them. And, as it was Tyranny in any Government to require the first, so it was Weakness not to enforce the second.//..." from the King of Brodingnag, part 2, chapter 6