Candide and Frankenstein: A Study in Knowledge

In Voltaire’s Candide and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, there are two protagonists who seek knowledge and learn the limitation of that knowledge. Although Candide and Victor both seek similar knowledge of life, death, and happiness, they eventually come to very different conclusions. The characters pursue knowledge by the means of their time periods, using the resources at hand. The limitations of knowledge are shown by Candide and Victor through their different styles of perception and obsession and their different approaches; Candide’s being a philosophical approach and Victor’s a scientific approach.

There are many similarities between Candide and Victor. These characters started as initially optimistic. Candide eventually begins hating on optimism as a result of a variety of life’s misfortunes, while Victor stays optimistic until he realizes that the monster he has created has caused him to overstep his bounds. Although diminished, Candide never truly loses his faith in the teachings of his beloved tutor, and, eventually, regains his optimism. Victor, on the other hand, loses all hope and abandons any teachings of rationality and naturalism, and tragically dies without any redemption.

Both characters, also, learn from the past, in the sense that they both have tutors and role models. Candide has Pangloss, his philosophical tutor who teaches Candide from a young age that “things cannot be otherwise than they are; for as all things have been created for some end, they must necessarily be created for the best end… and those who assert that everything is right, do not express themselves correctly; they should say that everything is best.” Candide listens to his tutor and believes him without question. Even though his persecution, Candide never truly rejects Pangloss’ philosophy. Throughout his dealings with misfortune, such as being forced to go abroad and save himself and the woman he loves, he often quotes Pangloss in situations that look the direst.

Victor learns from the past as well, but from the “wild fancies” of “Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus” , alchemists who believe in the transmutation of matter into different matter; for Victor, this means the ability to “banish disease from the human frame” and “render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!” . Through scientific experimentation, Victor’s limitation within the knowledge of the physical is that there is no limit—he breaks the laws of God and nature by creating a new creature in his own image, without the help of the divine or through the natural laws of birth. He turns his obsession with death inward, selfishly ignoring his loved ones and the idea of natural limitation to please only his own morbid whims. Not only does his knowledge leave him obsessed and selfish, but in the end, they leave him completely alone. “It was the most beautiful season…but my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature…and the same feelings which made me neglect the scenes around me caused me also to forget those friends…whom I had not seen for so long a time.”

The limits of knowledge for Candide, however, are those of his own pain and suffering. Continually, Candide takes one step forward and then two steps backward. He is persecuted in almost every way imaginable. He looks to save himself continuously from this persecution, but not without trying to help others as well. His lady love, Cunegonde, is always the first thought in his mind, even though he continually loses her throughout the book. This marked difference between Candide and Victor’s obsessions proves to be the biggest difference for their own fates—Victor’s inward obsession with death destroys his entire life, while Candide’s obsession for love helps to create a peaceful life.

Victor represents an entirely different set of circumstances than Candide. One of the main differences between protagonists is their intelligence. Candide “had a solid judgment joined to the most unaffected simplicity,” , and he tries to fight fate as best he can with the equipment he has at his disposal. Victor, however, uses his intellectuality as a tool to learn the knowledge that becomes his obsession, and his fate cannot be fought, but only paid for by his loved ones. Regardless of their intellectually different upbringings, Candide not only lives at the end but realizes what it means to be happy. Victor, perhaps too intellectual for his own good, dies in despair, his obsession unquenched.

The difference in the level of knowledge between Candide and Victor is the acquisition and pursuit of it. Candide’s knowledge is gained from the first-hand experience. This way is more philosophically based; events happen to Candide, he does not actively seek them out, he simply reacts to them. Victor’s knowledge is gained not just from first-hand experience, but from his more active engagement in his own fate—he seeks out knowledge aggressively, with a determination not seen in Candide. These two ways of gaining knowledge show the difference between an almost sixty-year span between the publication of Candide and Frankenstein.

Another difference between these characters is the learning of the knowledge of misfortune. Candide is not the master of his own misfortune. As he was becoming romantically involved with Cunegonde, the baron’s daughter, “the baron chanced to come by… and without hesitation saluted Candide with some notable kicks on the rear, and drove him out of the castle.” This one-act was the start of Candide’s style of acquiring knowledge—events happened to him that he does not actively seek to remedy or be angry about. Even when he is handcuffed by Bulgarian soldiers and driven out onto the battlefield against his will, Candide still clings to Pangloss’ philosophies. Victor, however, is his own undoing. His obsession with the macabre knowledge held by the ancient alchemists leads him to lose everything and everyone he ever loved, including his own ration mind.

There is a common theme of physical and geographical exploration in both Frankenstein and Candide. During the Enlightenment Period, the movement to expand the European’s knowledge of the unknown world is meant to mirror the protagonists’ knowledge-seeking: in Frankenstein, Captain Robert Walton’s obsession is meant to mirror that of Victor’s. Walton is looking for a new passage to the Pacific Ocean from Russia, via the Arctic Ocean. Walton’s cheery and optimistic outlook on this grim and difficult voyage introduces us to the tale of terror that lay ahead: “I try in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation; it ever presents itself to my imagination as the region of beauty and delight.” Candide and his companions travel the globe as well, but not looking for adventure, fame or glory. Candide and company are looking to escape from persecution. In the new world, as in the old world, they find greed, distrust, murder, hatred, and prejudice.

Although their upbringings, intellectual capacities, perceptions, and eventual endings are different, Candide and Victor represent cautionary tales for the reader. Passively accept knowledge handed out by an elder without doing some research and studying actively will get one in trouble. On the other hand, doing too much research and studying to the point of destructive obsession will lead one down a tragic path as well.

Bibliography

Voltaire, Francois. Candide. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2003. http://books.google.com

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus. Boston: The Cornhill Publishing Company, 1922. http://books.google.com