The Old Lady Speaks Again

I chose a quote from the same old maid who I previously quoted in my last blog about Candide.  I think she always has interesting insights and her story is so full of experience that I feel like she has the right to share the knowledge she has gained over her lifetime.

"I should like to know which is worse, being raped a hundred times by negro pirates, having a buttock cut off, running the gauntlet in the Bulgar army, being flogged and hanged in an auto-da-fé, being dissected and rowing in the galleys—experiencing, in a word, all the miseries through which we have passed—or else just sitting here and doing nothing? —It’s a hard question, said Candide. These words gave rise to new reflections, and Martin in particular concluded that man was bound to live either in convulsions of misery or in the lethargy of boredom." Candide, Voltaire Part 2

Although Candide and his companions have been through so much misery, when they finally have everything that they want and are settled down, they are so bored they don't know what to do with themselves.  The old maid points out that at least going through all those miseries was adventurous...whereas just working their garden and sitting around is unhappy and boring. This ultimately drives the theme of the entire story home- that life is not happy or fun and people who are always optimistic are fools.

Candide's long journey