For centuries, humans have dreamt of the ideal of glorious utopias of peace, tranquility, and fraternity, an escape from the realities of an imperfect world filled with hardships and misery. Cervantes' Don Quixote and Voltaire's Candide feature Don Quixote and Pangloss, two characters hopelessly lost in their wishful and unrealistic fantasies. Quixote campaigns as a knight-errand to rid Spain of its evils, while Pangloss' ignores the suffering in the world through his blind and unempathetic optimism. Adamant in their beliefs, both men embark on a literal and metaphorical journey throughout the story, where an unkind reality ultimately triumphs against their idealism, for better or worse.
Marked by the inability to come to terms with reality, Pangloss and Don Quixote are classically characterized by their ridiculousness and idealism, which are repeatedly poked fun at by both other characters, the authors, and perhaps the reader as well. Pangloss lived a life of relative luxury as a professor at the baron's castle, teaching the obscure subject of "metaphysico-theologico-cosmolo-nigology," which lacked much practical significance of any sort. There, he cultivated his belief that the world he resided in was the best of all possible worlds and that everything that happened, whether ostensibly positive or negative, was ultimately for the best. His beliefs reflect those of a real-life philosopher, Voltaire's contemporary, G. W. von Leibniz, who held fast to the idea of a wholly benevolent god who arranged the good and evil in the world to ensure "cosmic harmony." Enraptured with the belief that the world was the creation of a purely good and powerful god, Pangloss asserts that the nature of this world was subsequently purely good; all the so-called misfortunes and calamities were all a part of God's goodwill that man cannot possibly fathom. Believing that the current world is the "best of all possible worlds," Pangloss quickly disregards misfortunes as all a part of some greater plan. As the novel progresses, it becomes apparent through the holes in his philosophy that Pangloss's blind optimism ultimately harms not his own livelihood and existence. However, not only is he harmed, but the obsession of Pangloss and others with idle philosophical speculation is inherently useless and harmful to society. Likewise, Don Quixote falls into many of the same pitfalls as Pangloss. His build and stature are evident of a dreamer; he is a tall, lean emaciated beanpole of a man clad in armor riding a bony horse next to a stocky and plump squire on top of a donkey. Furthermore, the single desire that distinctively characterizes Don Quixote across all literature and history is his monomania in reviving chivalric tradition, changing the world to his standards of morality. Fully believing that the romantic world in the chivalric novels is indeed reality, Quixote takes on the responsibility of a knight-errand, worshiping women, protecting the innocent, and ensuring justice. However, the sheer disparity between his perceptions and reality creates comical misunderstandings, like when he runs his lance into a windmill in an attempt to vanquish a giant. Nonetheless, Quixote is genuinely honest and honorable, believing that his work is for the benefit of the entire human race and vowing to return the world to a period without class divisions, one full of equality, fraternity, and kindness. Despite losing touch with reality, he at least has an honorable, purposeful dream and attempts to bring it to fruition.
Both Pangloss and Don Quixote embark on tortuous journeys, where their naive and idealistic tenets come under serious challenges. Throughout the story, Pangloss is transported all over the globe, with hardships and obstacles at each stage. Nevertheless, despite suffering uncountable miseries, Pangloss adheres to the extreme of his philosophy. He maintains his optimism after contracting syphilis from Paquette, suffering for years without proper treatment and losing an eye and an ear in the process, yet still asserts that syphilis, a virulent and debilitating disease, is ultimately for the greater good of the world. Instead of preventing the unfortunate death of his benefactor, the Anapabtist, Pangloss reasons that God precisely molded the bay for the death of the Anabaptist. Pangloss survives both the disaster at sea and the Lisbon earthquake, where he again disregards the other's suffering of those around him to assert his philosophy. The misery of his peers and himself has not swayed Pangloss from his idealogy throughout his journey. In addition to suffering from syphilis, he was also hanged for heresy, surgically cut open, imprisoned, and enslaved, effectively experiencing and witnessing all the evils and sufferings life has to offer. Ultimately, despite his stubborn ignorance, his journey has left him no choice but to renounce his worldview. Similarly, Don Quixote's journey has also tested and destroyed his idealism. Initially, he was entirely devoted to the quest of chivalry, embarking on several sallies to fight for justice and to quell evil in a perceived black-and-white world. However, the sheer disparity between his perceptions and reality creates comical misunderstandings. In a classic scene, he runs his lance into a "giant" that is but a windmill. The way of knight-errant emphasizes good intentions over consequences; Quixote is always quick to act out of impulse without consideration of the truth of matters, such as when he attacks a procession of priests carrying a corpse. When his attempted chivalry leads to further violence and suffering, even someone as disillusioned as Quixote is bound to realize flaws in his ways. Hence, his second sally reflects changes in his personality and methods. He is evidently wiser and uses words instead of his lance to resolve conflicts, like how he eloquently persuaded Don Diego to allow his son to pursue poetry and prevented an all-out brawl with reason. However, as his adventures progress, the notions of Quixote's imagination begin to fall apart in the face of reality, leaving him unable to believe in his envisioned chivalric world anymore.
The journeys of Pangloss and Quixote ultimately result in the dissolution of their idealism and dreams, for better or worse. Towards the novel's end, Pangloss still utters absurdities about the best of all possible worlds, yet he no longer fully believes it after witnessing all sorts of human miseries, desires, and vices. He longs to resolve all the lengthy and fruitless philosophical debates by consulting the wise Dervish, who asserts that fretting about the meaning of life is fruitless; like how a captain cares not about the livelihood of the mice aboard his ship, the happiness of man is of no importance to God either. Later from a local farmer, he learns about the importance of hard work, a means to make life genuinely enjoyable instead of idle philosophical speculation. From his initial idealism, Pangloss transforms into valuing reason, hard work, and productivity to improve his life, concluding that "man is not born to be idle." Candide resolves on a positive note, where the pragmatic reason of the Enlightenment triumphs through the change of Pangloss and others for the better. Don Quixote's fate following his journey is less fortunate; recanting all of his chivalric conjectures, Quixote has returned to sanity, a state devoid of his hopeful dreams and aspirations for a chivalric utopia. His tragic death highlights the death of his honorable dreams, a change so drastic from the status quo that he is labeled an insane man. Losing sight of that dream, he loses himself, slipping back into an unsatisfying reality, back into sanity, death, and defeat.
Candide and Don Quixote present two idealistic dreamers who stubbornly refuse to revise their fatally flawed worldviews. Nevertheless, Pangloss' blind optimism is eventually vanquished by the sheer dichotomy between reality and his perceived "best of all worlds." Similarly, Don Quixote faces the dissolution of his worldview through the flaws and impracticability of chivalry in the real world, yet the destruction of his idealism effectively leads to the loss of his own life. Through other literary characters like Emma, Jean Valjean, and Greg, humans never cease to imagine to ideal; though such behavior may prove fatal in the extreme, it is nonetheless an unchanging facet of the human experience.
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