Due Sunday 1/29 by 11:59pm. 200-400 words. (For the stragglers who joined the class after the first pop quiz.)
1) After having read six Woody Allen pieces (5 humorous essays and a short story) and seen the bulk of his 1969 mockumentary "Take the Money and Run," you should be pretty familiar with Allen's trademark "schlemiel" character--the man who can't do anything right--as well as Allen's particular brand of wit. Compare and contrast the Allen "schlemiel" with Voltaire's protagonist, Candide. Is Candide a "schlemiel," or is something else at work here?
2) Compare and contrast how Allen and Voltaire (respectively) deal with death and tragedy. Candide, the novella you're reading, was famously penned after the great earthquake in Lisbon, and, more specifically, it was a reaction to the sentiment echoed by followers (specifically religious leaders) of Liebniz's "optimistic" philosophy of logical positivism. (You don't need to know those things to answer the question, but it might help to look into it...)
1) Woody Allen’s comedy style is much more different from Voltaire’s wit. In most of Allen’s stories, his characters are within a humorous dialect, but dealing with a less than humorous scenario. While Hitler’s barber contemplated leaving Hitler’s back hairs alone to grow, or a shallow man’s pride complex, both characters dealt with this internal struggle. Yet in Candide’s case, he is surrounded by the unfortunate. This young philosopher is berated by this “Free Will” he believes in so heavily. Yet he is tossed from one awful scenario, only to be rescued momentarily before witnessing the slaughtering of his friends, and hearing the news of the death of his beloved. This is different from typical Allen writing due to Allen cloaks his character’s with humor, yet nothing seems to amuse Candide. Specifically in Take the Money and Run is when Allen’s work is most similar to Voltaire’s. Woody portrayed a schlemiel that was never really good at his occupation. As the movie says it started as a child, and the running joke throughout the movie is that his glasses keep getting broken by people forcibly stepping on them. In Candide’s case, perhaps the running joke is that he will continuously get flogged and whipped throughout the rest of the book. Both Candide and Virgil are put into terrible situations. While some would argue that Virgil put himself into these unfortunate situations, the fortune they are granted is rather unfortunate. Candide believes it is not himself that is making these mistakes, but is simply his fate. Virgil, on the other hand, is not as philosophical. He tries again and again, continuing to fail along the way yet never giving up. This too is evident between both characters; both protagonists experience their share of brick-walls to face. Whether it is a physical wall in prison for Virgil or the inability to go on for all of his friends and loved ones were apparently dead in Candide’s scenario. Yet both “heroes” stride on, never giving up, and out both rewarded for their determination with their true-love in the end.
ReplyDelete1) In Woody Allen’s works, the main character is always a bit off, a “schlemiel.” He doesn’t quite do everything right, but seems to work things out in the end. This is matched with Allen’s wit in that the main character does things poorly - with a twist. He often does them so poorly that there’s humor in his actions, such as in “Take the Money and Run” where Virgil goes along with the prison break alone, and asks his fellow inmates to sneak out and let him back in. Or the series of bird calls he uses before realizing he’s alone in the plan. This type of humor and type of character differs greatly from Voltaire’s Candide. In the novella, Candide isn’t quite a “schlemiel” character, it seems more that he is either in the wrong place at the wrong time, or the right place at the wrong time. It is interesting to see how his story plays out almost perfectly, while being utterly imperfect and actually quite tragic. The timing with which instances befall him is befuddling. For example, the way in which he is reunited with Pangloss, only to lose him not long after. Candide seems all at once unlucky and quite fortunate. He is blessed with new and positive opportunities, only to be faced with utter setback not a moment later. Candide seems very persuadable, he seems to follow whatever should befall him, whether positive or negative. This is not quite a “schlemiel” character trait, but it has its own comparisons. It is in this way that Candide is seen as somewhat humorous, as the reader never knows what new occurrence will sweep him away next, or what the new journey will entail.
ReplyDeleteWoody Allen's comedic style is much different than that of Voltaire. In Woody Allen's works, the main character is a schlemiel, or a character who can't seem to do anything right. His main characters usually do things very poorly in various serious situations. For example, in "Take the Money and Run", Virgil attempts to rob a bank, but his attempt is foiled because he could not spell or write clearly in his threatening note to the bank teller. These serious situations usually have an unexpected twist as well. As in the bank robbing scene again, instead of the bank teller reporting Virgil right away for threatening him, he takes the note to quite a few other employees of the bank, and they have a rather long debate about what the note says before finally arresting Virgil. Another example of this is in the short story "Remembering Needleman" the main character is asked to bring marshmallows to Needleman's cremation at the sons request. However, in the novella Candide, the humor is very different. The humor in this story is that the main character is very lucky and unlucky at the same time. The reader can never predict if something good or bad will happen to Candide. Even though this character has an unbelievable amount of tragedies happen to him in a very short amount of time, he seems to keep pushing through them and onto his next endeavor. For example, Candide meets James, who him out when no one else would. But shortly after they meet, James is drowned at sea trying to save another sailor from doing the same. Another example of Candide being lucky and unlucky at the same time is when Candide was reunited with Cunegund very shortly after Poangloss was hung and he was whipped almost to the point of death. The main character would not be characterized as a schlemiel because this character does not do things in a silly or poor manner, but is just but in very tragic situations that somehow seem to lead him to positive outcomes or opportunities.
ReplyDeleteIn Woody Allen's comedy it is a bit different from Candide. Allen is the man where he combines humor and being unlucky into a situation by not doing anything right. He has such negative qualities that he gives his audience by the type of behavior he displays, In "Take the Money and Run" Virgil saw this lady sitting down and decides to take her purse while her back his turned. She turned around, and he pretends as though he is interested in what she was doing. It turns out that he had a change of heart and started to like her and eventually started a family. The humor in Voltaire's Candide is much different from "Take the Money and Run." Candide had alot of bad things that happened to him throughout his life. He was somewhat unlucky at times, but always found his way through any obstacle that he was faced with which can be funny to look back on. Throughout his journey he finds Pangloss who had a disease, got him cured and soon after not to long he died trying to save another sailor. In that situation he thought he had luck, but it left him wondering what could be next for him. In comparison they were both "Schlemiel" but they did deal with their situations diffrently. In Candide he always had a poistive outlook on things and well Allen he tried but could not achieve anything.
ReplyDelete1) The character Candide in my opinion falls under the category of having the best intentions, but failing at many things that he does. He is greatly swayed by a mentor into having a very optimistic outlook on life. No matter what tragedies come over him, he feels that in the end God has his back in a way and will lead him on the right path. I feel that this contrasts with Woody Allen’s schliemel character. For instance, Virgil is a kid with a less optimistic look on life. He is coaxed into doing terrible things just to fit in, but also I feel that he does them because he has no intention of doing good in the first place. He steals for the things that he wants and never really has remorse (except for the remorse of being caught). Both characters deal with troubles, it’s their intentions that differ.
ReplyDelete2) I feel that both Woody Allen and Voltaire have a hopeful look on death. This is because with most deaths in Candide, there is some kind of resurrection or hope. However, with every resurrection, there is usually some bad aspect that comes out in that person. Allen shows a more comical view on death. I feel like Allen takes death a little more lightly. He mocks funeral processes by saying that he “has brought the marshmallows” to the cremation and tells funny anecdotes of his friends view on death- that he won’t have to deal with his wife anymore.