| "Intellect Aroused: A Comparison of Knowledge, Ugliness, and Ignorance in the Enlightenment Era" |
| The two literary masterpieces, Gulliver�s Travels by Jonathan Swift and Candide by Voltaire, seem to have different purposes and reasoning behind them, but in actuality they are more similar then they appear. The words ugliness and ignorance had many different interpretations to their meanings in Gulliver�s Travels, and although ugliness was absent as a major theme in Candide, parallels can still be drawn between the two texts. The overall understanding in Swift�s work was that Gulliver and the Yahoos both contained traits in ugliness and ignorance. The very same can be said for Voltaire�s characters Pangloss and Candide. The creator and the created are both monstrous in their own right, and it is evident that humanity is viewed as a monstrous beast in these two works. It was a common understanding in Candide that his ignorance in life was one of the aspects that made him an ugly being. Just like him, Gulliver is blind to the reality of the world around him. Gulliver was his own teacher, but his teachings of the world as he knew it fell apart when he found new mysteries of the world. Like Gulliver, Pangloss taught only what he knew to Candide because he had no experience in the rest of the world. These actions left both the Gulliver and Candide in a poor state of mind for the journeys which they would embark upon. Another similarity is the process of learning that the two characters went through. Gulliver and Candide truly learn from their own experiences in the world, not through the help of others. In a way Gulliver is both the personalities of Pangloss and Candide. He can learn only what he knows, and he knows only what he has experienced. Pangloss, having only experienced life in the castle of Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh, could only speculate as to the state of the world outside of those walls. Naturally people believe that their home is the best of homes, which is why Pangloss believed that everything was for the best. His lack of knowledge was applied to Candide who accepted this teaching as truth, despite its obvious fallacies. Adventures and exploration into the rest of the world would prove enlightening for both Gulliver and Candide. Upon landing in the country of the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver discovers a world quite different from his own, a land where men are ruled by the rational and intelligent creature, the horse. The humans, known as Yahoos, are viewed as brutish creatures by the Houyhnhnms, and Gulliver (being quite human) is viewed as one such creature as well. Similarly, after Candide is kicked out of his home and he wonders the world in search of his love Cunegonde, he too realizes that his knowledge has not prepared him for the world around him. He learns that men are greedy and diabolical creatures, something which the good Dr. Pangloss had not taught him. Both Gulliver and Candide could not have imagined what a world existed outside the confines of their known world, and similarly could not have prepared for the enlightenment that they received. A lack of knowledge is viewed as an undesirable trait in the eyes of people (and Houyhnhnms) throughout the world. Despite his cleanlier appearance and ability for understanding and application of the intelligible language of the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver was still understood by those around him to be a lesser being. His physical and mental appearances are what branded him with the title of ugly in the new culture that he stumbled upon. It was his ignorance that made him a monstrous figure to the Houyhnhnms. Candide was looked upon as a man with little real world experiences, and therefore, little real knowledge of the world. This stupidity on Candide�s part was what gave way to several misfortunes for him. Advantage was taken of him at every opportunity, but somehow he managed to survive it all. But his �newborn� qualities are what made him a pitiful existence in the world and are why he was viewed as an ugly minded individual. These new experiences greatly influenced the actions and motivations of the two characters. At first both of our characters stuck to their beliefs that the world had been created a certain way and that no differences could exist in the world to pose a threat to that understanding. But as they looked around themselves they saw their perception of reality crumble and a new awareness build itself up from the ruined foundation of their past experiences. Gulliver experienced the traditions of a new culture whose world was perhaps the complete opposite of his own, but this led him to a further understanding of himself and of humanity. Candide traveled the globe and discovered places of riches and corruption, broadening his familiarity with the true state of the world. Gulliver found that humanity was just as savage as the next animal and that no special place was held for mankind to arrive at; there was no threshold to conquer or pedestal to reach, there was only existence in is most raw and primal form. Candide discovered that the best of all possible worlds was far off from the one in which he dwelled and he took a more pessimistic view on life and humanity. Gulliver, upon returning to civilization (human civilization that is), found that he could not stand the actions of people around him and applied a negative connotation to everyone; he now viewed others as the ugly ones. Candide reinvented himself and found that the true way to even come close to perfection was to work only for oneself and find pleasure within it, and to avoid the great evil of boredom at all costs; it was with this new philosophy on life that he learned to �cultivate his own garden.� Great evolutions were made in these two characters� minds that were once fraught with ignorance in the most literal sense of the word. It is an evident that similarities can be drawn between Swift and Voltaire�s literary works of the Enlightenment Era. The circumstances which Gulliver and Candide experience are obvious attempts to express the common ignorance that the character�s represent. But a broader scale can be used to measure the ignorance of mankind as a whole. A lack of knowledge is viewed as a negative, and therefore, ugly quality. The only solution to this continuing problem is a direct attempt at a new understanding of life. One must experience the world in order to understand it. This is the purpose of the Enlightenment Era and reasoning of the literature that arose within that time. Mankind is not a lost cause, as so many before have claimed, but an active effort must be made for the true enlightenment of humanity to occur. The lesson stands: We must become the masters of our own destiny. The time has come to take that next step towards eternity. Works Cited: Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver�s Travels. Part IV. Chapters I - XII. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1999. Voltaire. Candide. New York: Bantam, 1981. |