I. What do you consider to be the most important passage in the novel and why?
Candide or Optimism, story by Voltaire, World Literature, the Eighteenth Century
Candide Questions
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I. What do you consider to be the most important passage in the novel and why?
"A hundred times I wanted to kill myself, but always I loved life more. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our worst instincts; is anything more stupid than choosing to carry a burden that really one wants to cast on the ground? to hold existence in horror, and yet to cling to it? to fondle the serpent which devours us till it has eaten out our heart? —In the countries through which I have been forced to wander, in the taverns where I have had to work, I have seen a vast number of people who hated their existence; but I never saw more than a dozen who deliberately put an end to their own misery."
This is my own favorite scene and shall we say "speech" in Candide. I love the hope of the old woman, and the way she rises above everything to state that no matter what; she loved life MORE. The old woman describes the rape, the slavery, and the acts of cannibalism she has experienced. She talks about suicide, and questions why more unfortunate people do not resort to death rather than to live in a world with no mercy. She see the world as "hell," and yet she really speaks of life, hope, and perseverance.
This is my own favorite scene and shall we say "speech" in Candide. I love the hope of the old woman, and the way she rises above everything to state that no matter what; she loved life MORE. The old woman describes the rape, the slavery, and the acts of cannibalism she has experienced. She talks about suicide, and questions why more unfortunate people do not resort to death rather than to live in a world with no mercy. She see the world as "hell," and yet she really speaks of life, hope, and perseverance.
Source(s): Candide/ Chapter 12
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