Candide · Chapter
Chapter XXI: Candide and Martin, Reasoning, Draw Near the Coast of France explained
As Candide and Martin approach the coast of France, they discuss the nature of humanity and society.
What happens
As Candide and Martin approach the coast of France, they discuss the nature of humanity and society. Martin describes his negative experiences in France, particularly in Paris, where he was robbed, imprisoned, and forced to work as a press corrector. Candide expresses his desire only to see Cunégonde and plans to go to Venice. Their conversation turns to philosophical questions about the world's purpose, the strangeness of love, and whether humans have always been cruel and deceitful. Martin argues that human nature is unchanging and inherently vicious, comparing men to hawks that always eat pigeons. They arrive in Bordeaux still debating.
Themes in this chapter
Optimism vs. Pessimism
Candide's lingering optimism (free will, hope for Cunégonde) clashes with Martin's deep pessimism about human nature and the world's purpose.
Suffering and Human Cruelty
Martin's catalog of human vices (liars, cheats, traitors, etc.) and his own suffering in Paris highlight the theme of pervasive cruelty.
Characters to notice
- Candide
Candide expresses no curiosity to see France, only to reunite with Cunégonde in Venice. He questions Martin about the nature of the world and humanity, still clinging to the idea of free will.
- Martin
Martin shares his cynical experiences in France, including being robbed and imprisoned. He argues that human nature is fixed and evil, comparing men to hawks that always eat pigeons.
Key passages
“In some one-half of the people are fools, in others they are too cunning; in some they are weak and simple, in others they affect to be witty; in all, the principal occupation is love, the next is slander, and the third is talking nonsense.”
Martin says that in every French province, people are either foolish, cunning, simple, or pretentious, and that everyone is mainly occupied with love, slander, and idle chatter.
Martin's cynical generalization about French society.
“It is a chaos—a confused multitude, where everybody seeks pleasure and scarcely anyone finds it, at least as it appeared to me.”
Martin describes Paris as a chaotic crowd where everyone chases pleasure but almost no one succeeds.
Martin's view of Paris as a place of futile pleasure-seeking.
“But for what end, then, has this world been formed? ... To plague us to death.”
Candide asks why the world was created, and Martin answers that it was made only to torment humanity.
Martin's pessimistic answer to the question of the world's purpose.
“Do you believe that men have always massacred each other as they do today, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools? ... Do you believe that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?”
Candide asks if humans have always been violent and deceitful; Martin retorts by asking if hawks have always eaten pigeons, implying that human nature is as fixed as animal instinct.
Martin uses the hawk-pigeon analogy to argue that human vice is natural and unchanging.