Comparison of Characters in Faust and Candide and Analysis of Evil in Literature

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English Literature
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note
PART A
Question 1-
The selected characters are Faust from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust and
Candide from Voltaire’s Candide. This part of the paper will compare the two characters
from two separate works, establish whether these characters are the victims, tragic heroes,
villain-heroes, psychopaths, narcissists or anything else having discussed their similarities
and the differences. It will also describe how did they overcome the obstacles and to what
extent the concept of tragic flaw will play a major role in their demise.
The work Faust of Goethe is a classic world literature and also a philosophical and
poetic drama abundant in satire, humour, irony and tragedy. It is translated by Martin
Greenberg who re-creates the varied meter and rhyme of the text along with the diverse styles
and tones. The translation of Martin is faithful, elegantly written and readable. In the story of
Goethe, Faust is whirled into an adventure of deceit and sin. The Faust also follows the devil
as he nears his own demise taking down with him the Gretchen (Clason). Faust also
embodies the nature of a tragic hero as he has both the good and evil within him which
constantly battle against each other. The tragic flaw in him which has made him the tragic
hero is his extreme intelligence and the wish not to be out-witted. He is a man of privilege

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and at the same time desperate who yearns for more than he can gain. The tragic flaw or
Hamartia played an instrumental role in the tragic demise of Faust. The tragic flaw that was
his unquenchable thirst for knowledge and power which led him listen to the evil Mephisto
and his temptations ending up at nothing.
Another contrasting character is the character of Candide who is the main protagonist
of the novel. Candide is quite good hearted a person but also a hopelessly naive type of
person. Pangloss is his mentor who teaches him a lesson that “the world is the best of all
possible worlds” (Bottiglia). Candide travels the world and comes across different
misfortunes. The undiluted optimism of Pangloss is tested for several times in the entire
story. It is also seen that the character of candied is a less realistic character in relation to the
events around him. All the opinions and the actions are determined by the outer factors. The
character of Candide approaches the new senseless disaster as the blank canvas. He is
portrayed as an impressionable young man who is willing to take a chance having believed
the inherent goodness of the fellow man.
As painted by Voltaire, the character of Candide never finds happiness and the
ultimate message can be attributed as a slight pessimistic character. Hence, Candid can be
considered as a ‘hero’ having the capacity to view the atrocities with a compassionate and
open mind too. The difference with Faust is that Faust is driven by the quest for power and
Candide stays always perplexed by the misuse of power seen everywhere. Faust maligns his
indomitable spirit of knowledge and intelligence and goes against the innate good character,
whereas, Candide never allows the innate character become drawn into the cruel world and
its unfeeling perspectives. The common factors are such as the audience can learn both from
Faust and Candide. The audience can take lesson from Faust and learn from the tragic flaw
that became the reason of his tragic demise (Majksner, Ivana, and Tina). On the other hand,
Candide can also be the learning source as he has been a pure and simple character

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throughout. However, both the characters are masterpieces in their own way and helped in
making the works greatest of all ages.
Question 2
Borowski was born in the year 1922 belonged to the Polish parents in Ukraine. In the
‘This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentleman’ brings the entire Holocaust-related stories
from the early collections of the short stories. This story directly plunges into the horrors of
the Auschwitz with a first sentence that is unflinching. One statement from the work “ an
efficient killer of lice in clothing and of men in gas chambers” suggests right from the start
the point of cruelty. The narrator of Borowski had all the outside world modesty burned
away. The narrator now accepts the facts of Auschwitz instead of the grim and grotesqueness
being the facts of the life. These facts draw plainly and evenly into the world that is far more
effective than the scenario of rage or weeping (Reale).
Borowski has seen the worst a person can do to other person and describes it in an
upsetting mood. There have been many criticisms against Borowski’s use of simile and the
lengthy analyses of the moral position. Since the author had a non-Jewish background, the
views of him towards the fellow prisoners and the captors are quite different than the usual
camp survivors. Moreover, he perceives the entire situation to be evil and he does not make
distinctions between captors and the prisoners. The use of Holocaust leaves a darker and
bleaker effect than the general interpretation of it. It is highly conflicted in the story giving
evidence to a wide range of emotions as exhibited in the story.
On the other hand Charles Baudlaire’ “To the Reader”, the author has depicted a
world that is full of decay, hypocrisy, sin and highly dominated by Satan. He further claims
that Devil controls the human actions like the puppet strings and at the same time vaporize
the free will. Moreover, humans are just the instruments of death and “more ugly, evil and