The incident with Sandy is one of many in “Monkey” in which appearances are completely deceiving. The group of travelers does not seem to learn this lesson readily, however. They continue to encounter situations that are similar to their experience with Sandy. In fact after realizing that Sandy was not the unkind monster that they feared
Monkey admits that the unfortunate encounter with Sandy was a fault of their own. He says; “don’t scold him. It is we who are to blame, for never having told him that we were going to get scripture (Norton p. 41)”. The group seems to momentarily understand that they misjudged Sandy by assuming that he should be fought with instead of spoken to. This valuable lesson does not stay with them long as they continue to judge things by outward appearances and first impressions as the story continues.
In the Candide the characters learn the same through their experiences valuable lessons as those in “Monkey”.
In the novella Candide, the story is written such that the main character and usually one or more companions have set out on a great journey filled with adventures. It is in this journey that Candide's outlook on life is challenged; he is forced to become less optimistic about this world being the best of all possible worlds. Similarly, in The Divine Comedy, Dante goes on a journey as well; through Hell,
Purgatory and Heaven with his guide Virgil. Through his travels he is
shown the error of other men's ways, serving to remind him of his own
sins and to put him back on the right path in life. Through the harsh realities of life he eventually comes out of his insanity and sees that his way of life in his modern world is outdated and obsolete. In placing their characters in these adventures the authors demonstrate that, through experience with real-world situations, these men trying to live by some outdated or far-fetched ideal soon learn the error in their reasoning and adapt themselves to the author's way of thinking.
Candide is easily Voltaire's wittiest novel. In its time it was a powerful tool for political attack on Europe's degenerate and immoral society. The work vividly and satirically portrays the horrors of eitheenth-century life: civil and religious wars, sexual diseases, despotic rulers, the arbitrary punishment of innocent victims - the same enduring problems we witness today.
Through the constant misfortunes of Candide, Voltaire poses meaningful questions about the nature of suffering. Pangloss' philosophy is eagerly and enthusiastically accepted by Candide in the beginning of the novel. But toward the end of his life he refutes this Utopian theory, concluding that diligence in labor is the only answers to a life constantly riddled with bad luck. Indeed, Voltaire teaches that man is incapable of understanding the evil in the world, and concludes that the fundamental aim in life is not happiness, but survival
From these examples it can be seen how Voltaire, a writer from
the Enlightenment period, uses methods from writers centuries before
him to effectively communicate his point to his contemporary readers.
The times and issues may be quite different, but the writing style
works just as well for him as it did all the way back to the twelfth
century.
To get his point across in Candide, Voltaire created the
character Dr. Pangloss, an unconditional follower of Leibniz's
philosophy. Voltaire shows this early in the novella by stating, "He
proved admirably that there is no effect without a cause and that, in
this best of all possible worlds....(16)" Pangloss goes on to say that
everything had its purpose and things were made for the best. For
example, the nose was created for the purpose of wearing spectacles
(Voltaire 16). Because of his "great knowledge," Candide, at this
point a very naive and impressionable youth, regards Pangloss as the
greatest philosopher in the world, a reverence that will soon be
contradicted by contact with reality (Frautschi 75). The name Pangloss
is translated as "all tongue" and "windbag." The colloquialism
"windbag" implies that a person is all talk, and he takes no action.
In this case, Leibniz's philosophy is Stoic acceptance of the evil of
the world. As the story progresses, though, Pangloss loses faith in
the Leibnizian philosophy. Although Pangloss suffered many hardships,
he still sticks to the philosophy to avoid contradicting himself
(Frautschi 69). Voltaire uses Pangloss and a contrasting character,
Martin, to point out the shortcomings in Leibniz's philosophy.
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In understanding and comparing these two passages, it is important to consider the context in which each work was written. Both were written in societies, which place a high value on religion. “Monkey” focuses on the Buddhist tradition. At the time of “Monkey’s” writing the supernatural was accepted as part of everyday life. The idea of disguised monsters and Bodhisattvas was something that those reading the story could relate to. The entire premise of “Monkey” is something that all reading it could accept since it was common at the time to go on pilgrimages searching for scriptures in India. In fact the story is based on the historical journey of Hsuan Tsang’s, a Buddhist monk, pilgrimage to India for scriptures (Norton p. 8). When these facts are considered in the reading of the story it becomes easy to see why it is hard for the audience to distinguish between the appearance and reality of the story. What seems unreal to the modern reader is part of everyday life in the context and time of the writing of the story. The reader therefore suspends his or her reality to accept the text but is still surprised when the final reality is uncovered.
Another example of how Voltaire ridicules Pangloss' optimistic
philosophy is the mention of the Lisbon earthquake and fire. Even
though the disastrous earthquake took over 30,000 lives, Pangloss
still upheld his philosophical optimism by stating, "For all this is
for the very best...For it is impossible that things should not be
where they are.(26)" The disaster in Lisbon affected Voltaire's life
so much that he wrote the Poem on the Lisbon Disaster, but Pangloss'
philosophy said that the Lisbon earthquake was necessary in the course
of nature, and there was definitely a rationale for the situation.
War is another evil which Voltaire satirizes in Candide.
Voltaire used the Bulgarians and their brutality as a basis for his
satire on war. Voltaire writes how Candide was captured by the
Bulgarians and is given a choice "to be beaten thirty-six times by the
whole regiment, or receive twelve lead bullets at once in his brain
(19)." Being the "hero" he is, Candide chooses to run the gauntlet.
Instead of the thirty-six times he was to run the gauntlet, our "hero"
made it only two until he pleaded to the Bulgarians to smash in his
head (19). Another satire of war included in Candide is the
Bulgarians' burning of the Abarian village "in accordance with the
rules of international law.(20)" Voltaire also shows his satire on war
in that the Bulgarian soldiers do not just kill other people, they
rape disembowel, and dismember innocent women and children. In fact,
Candide's training as a soldier involved being brutalized and beaten.
Voltaire uses this example to demonstrate the inhuman vulgarity of
many belligerent groups. He thought that this torture was cruel and
unjustified. If this were the "best of all possible worlds," innocent
people would not be harmed, and violent peoples such as the Bulgarians
would not exist.
Although the novella Candide was partially written for
entertainment purposes, it was written primarily to satirize the views
of Leibniz's philosophy. Voltaire looked at the world with the idea
that there could be something done about all of the evil in the world.
He achieved his goal of satirizing Leibniz by tearing apart Pangloss'
philosophy, using Martin as a contrast to Pangloss, showing the
destruction caused by natural disasters, and the brutality of war.
“Monkey” stands in contrast to this because even it is only with the help of a supernatural being, the Bodhisattva, that Monkey and his campaigns learn the truth. They also learn that all that happened to them on their journey was “very likely ordered by His Holiness (Norton 70)”. In other words their entire experience was predestined. It seems safe to assume, however, that in the chapters that follow they will continue to have experiences like the one mentioned in this paper. They will still be confused by the appearances of the people, places, and things in the world in which they live. A world that places a high value on things that appear material, but that may be supernatural.
To conclude, Albert Einstein once said, "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." Hence, in reality, reality is what you make of it, and the characters in Candide and Monkey experience this first hand. In the end, we can easily see, as the audience, the deceitful and devious demise that Tartuffe had intended for Orgon and his family. With the same manipulative ways that were used by Tartuffe to blind Orgon, Elmire is able to make him see the plain truth clearly. The reality that the audience sees in Monkey is layered. Though we understand and see things toward the end, the illusions that brought us there create a different reality in this supernatural story. The human mind tends to play serious tricks on us based on outside appearances. We may misinterpret and misunderstand the truth of certain events and characters based someone’s exterior. “Never judge a book by its cover.”
In many stories there is the theme of appearance versus reality. In the stories Monkey by Wu Ch`eng-en and Tartuffe by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Molière, the authors display examples of appearances that contrast with reality. Within these two stories, external images do not represent actuality.