Compare and Contrast the Characters of Tarfutte, Candide, and Faust
Different characters play different roles to give a particular meaning or to represent a specific theme to the audience. In a play, there are usually main characters who define the direction of the play and deriver the central theme of the play or the novel. The characters are a representation of how people behave in the real world, and they tend to deliver some lessons to the audience and teach them how they should or should not act in society. This paper will compare and contrast the characters of Faust, Candide, and Tarfutte.
Tarfutte is an imposter who uses dishonest means to get what he wants from those who trust him. People believe that he is a genuine religious person, and he uses this trait to his advantage to exploit innocent people such as Mademe and Orgon that he is a humble and devoted man. Still, he is not and only wanted to use them for his advantage. He is also a religious imposter. He uses religion to cheat people, and the people innocently get duped by his acts of being humble. He is a schemer, and he can analyze the characters of other people, and identify their weaknesses which he uses them for his advantage. Tarfutte is a superior liar and has the ability to recognize the flaws of his victims and use that for his benefit to bring success to himself. He is also a manipulator; he could use lies to convince his victims that what he is saying is the truth without them knowing. He manipulates Pernelle and Orgon of he believes in religion, and they don’t realize that he is lying to them, and they blindly trust him. He is lustful- he is greedy and never satisfied with the little he has. Moliere describes that Tarfutte was brought down by his lustful nature. Although he thought that he was intelligent, his sensual life made him unrevealed his hypocritical mask, and exposed himself to all people who he had deceived earlier such as Orgon. It made him to get mistrusted by those who had previously believed in him.
Candide is the protagonist of the novel. He is innocent at the initial stages of the novel, which began his worship with his eyes wide open and never knew anything to do with the worldly desires. At first, he firmly believes what his tutor Pangoloss taught him about being optimistic, which he firmly thought that all should be well, and this is evident when he started to acquire wealth and riches. He is naïve, he foolishly believes what others say, and he does not have an opinion of his own. Initially, he thought what Pangoloss told him about religion without questioning. Later he abandoned the teachings of Pangoloss and adopted the instructions of the old farmer without getting clarity of what he was being told. He is also sympathetic to the world readers, but he later realized that the events in which they operated were unrealistic and exaggerated. He is good-hearted and honest. He shared his wealth with strangers such as the poor king and brother Giroflee, although he never knew them, he accepted to share his wealth with them since he was kind-hearted.his kept his promise of marrying Cunegonde although his love for her had already faded. He never wanted to break her heart, and although he never loved her anymore, he went ahead to marry her to fulfill his promise since he is not a liar. He is unrealistic since he does not have opinions of himself and keeps on being swayed by what others say. He got highly influenced by the strong characters around him, such as his tutor and the old farmer.
Faust is also a protagonist character who is dissatisfied with his life. He chooses to acquire the worldly pressure in exchange for his soul. Faust, although very successful and wealthy, decided to gain earthly power in exchange for his wealth. This character shows how he never valued his eternal life, and all he wanted to achieve control over other people in the world. He was also an ambitious person. He was ready to lose everything in exchange for power even if it was just for a short period. His ambitions would make him lose his soul to the devil in transfer for power that only lasted for a short while.
The three characters have been used in a satire manner. They represent irony, ridicule, exaggerations, and humor in the play. The characters represent instances where they have used other people, or they were used, such as Candide, who was swayed by the opinions of those near him, Faust was driven by his ambitions for power, and Tarfutte was driven by his hypocrisy in religion and his lustful nature. Therefore all three characters have a driving force that makes them act in the manner that they do to achieve what they want, mostly for their selfish gains.