Darza, Sabrina Woolbright LIT 126.

2 Candide Ch 20-30

Morbid Martin

It was interesting to see the character of Martin be chosen to be Candide’s traveling

companion, especially when it was such a stark contrast to Candide’s beloved Pangloss who

constantly found reasons to continue saying that this world was the best of all possible worlds

in spite of all he went through. Martin’s nature from the onset of the journey was pessimistic

and cynical, even refusing to admit that there could be some good in the world when affairs

worked out for them. Given the fact that his life was a summation of hellish life experiences

and events, it is easy to see why he has that particular outlook towards life. He was willing to

bet on the unhappiness of others, hesitant for Candide to give monetary aid to struggling

people, and he never tired of showing Candide that there was little virtue and practically no

happiness on earth, except in a place called Eldorado that no one could go to.

His idea of moral and physical evil, which lies in his belief that God has abandoned

the world thus allowing it to be consumed by evil and suffering, is seen when he disagrees

with Candide who states that the world is a beautiful picture with evil as the shadows. Martin

gives a sense of “reality” in Candide’s constant quest for some meaning in this world, as he

has a penchant for trying to find reasons for all that happens, and possibly find an explanation

for all the suffering they went through. While he genuinely wishes Candide happiness, he

doubts that he will ever find it. He has resigned himself to the belief that things are just as bad

wherever you are, and so he is the most able out of them all to endure. At the end of the

novel, while the characters have still failed to come up with an adequate explanation as to

why life is the way it is, he says “Let’s work without speculating, it’s the only way to make

life bearable.” Perhaps then he advocates occupying the mind and body with activity,

focusing on small improvements, instead of philosophizing since “man is bound to live either

in convulsions of misery or in the lethargy of boredom.