In the last chapters of Candide, many characters that had vanished from the story, reappeared. These people didn’t only bring changes into the plot of the novel, but they led Candide to make more philosophical inferences about life. The characters that are constantly with Candide throughout the novel begin to change their minds about their personal philosophical views as they encounter terrible circunstances.
As I read these chapters, the character that caught my attention most of the time was Martin. He was always going against the ideas of Candide, especially those that were influence of Pangloss. He was considered a “pessimist” by Candide, but he was actually a realist due to the fact that he was correct on most of the things he predicted would happen. Martin has a lot of interesting quotes in which he makes certain analogies that makes it easier for Candide to understand. “ ‘Do you think’, said Candide, ‘that men have always massacred each other, as they do today, that they have always been false, cozening, faithless, ungrateful, thieving, weak, inconstant, mean spirited, envious, greedy, drunker, miserly, ambitious, bloody, slanderous, debauched, fanatic, hypocritical, and stupid? –‘Do you think’, said Martin, ‘that hawks have always been accustomed to eat pigeons when they came in their way?’ ‘Doubtless,’ said Candide. ‘Well then," replied Martin, "if hawks have always had the same nature, why should you pretend that mankind change theirs?’ ‘Oh,’ said Candide, ‘there is a great deal of difference; for free will...’ (96) In that passage, it is clear that Martin has a broader view of humanity than Candide, and he is definitely more experienced than him. Candide is very biased by all of the theories given to him by Pangloss, and he always tries to excuse people from their wrongdoings based on those ideas. Martin has thoughts that reflect Voltaire’s perspective on the world, and on men. He shows to be completely against the positivism that Pangloss tries to impose. “ ‘I hope, ’said Martin, ‘that one day she will make you happy, but I very much doubt it.’ ‘What a pessimist you are!’ exclaimed Candide. ‘That is because I know what life is,’ said Martin.”
In another citation, Candide accepts that Martin is right about the fact that some of the disasters that have occurred to them are simply tragedies, and not for the best, as Candide is convinced. “How right you are, my dear Martin! There is nothing here but illusion and one calamity after another.”(112) As the novel gets closer to its end, Martin gains more credibility and trust, not only from Candide, but from the rest of the characters. Martin seems to be the most knowledgeable of the people that are near to Candide and he’s probably the strongest amongst them.
At the end of the novel, all of the characters change their minds about life and the idea of happiness. The only person that remains the same and keeps his ideology is Martin. He never lets anybody else convince him otherwise, as Candide does all time with Pangloss. “As for Martin he was firmly persuaded that a man is badly off wherever he is, so he suffered in patience.”(139) In the citation, above we can see how Martin stands firm with his beliefs. He learns to live knowing that he will always see reality instead of the less possible positive outcome of a situation. When I analyzed this, I realized that what Martin doesn’t have is faith, in general. By not having faith of any kind and hating Jesuits as much as Candide does, Martin is actually a person that is against the Church and what it represents. As we already know, Candide is a satirical piece by Voltaire which attacks the Church, the state and the ignorance of the lower classes. This novel is also a criticism against the ‘positivism’ philosophies that were being proposed by Leibnitz, and that Pangloss is such a great fan of. “I would not be proper for me to recant, especially as Leibnitz can not be wrong.”(136) After thinking about it, I deduced that Martin is probably Voltaire’s voice within the novel. He is representing the author as an insider and he shares all of the ideas that Voltaire himself proposed in his lifetime. Many authors tend to include themselves within their novels, and this could be the case.
