Candide Quote Reflection

Candide – “In a dark time, the eye begins to see.”

When I read this quote, I think to myself of it’s meaning. What does it mean by “In a dark time,”? Believe that Theodore Roethke, the poet who has wrote this quote was trying to establish that “a dark time” is a time in a persons life when they’re in troubles or difficult experiences that are going on that are sometimes hard to deal with. “the eye begins to see.”, makes me think that through these hard times our eyes are opened to see ourselves and not the things that are going on. I agree with my experiences that this statement is true. The validity of this quote is shown in Candide. Two examples that demonstrate this quote are:

The “dark times” of the Old Woman. (see page 41-50) She was born as the daughter of Pope Urban X and the Princess of Palestrina. She lived a wonderful life when suddenly everything changed. She has experienced the death of her fiancé; she was raped by pirates; she saw her mother ripped apart; she was sold several times; they cut one buttock from her; a nobleman took her as his slave and beat her daily for two years. She came close to suicide many times in her life, but then her “eyes began to see”. She   wonders why human nature makes people want to live, even life itself is often a curse.

How Candide changed his mind after the second earthquake. (see page 29) Candide always believed in Pangloss’s thought about life. But when a second earthquake occurred (“dark time”), Candide started doubting about this thought. His “eyes began to see.” Amazed, terrified, confounded, astonished, all bloody and trembling from head to foot, he said to himself: “If this is the best of all possible worlds, what are the others like? If I had only been whipped, I could have put up with it, as I did among the Bulgarians; but oh my dear Pangloss! My beloved master! Thou greatest of philosophers! That ever I should live to see you   hanged, for no reason I can see!”

How Candide killed the Brother of his...