Men of Love

Is It Love or Obsession? In Voltaire’s Candide, the main character Candide is madly in love with Cunegonde, the beautiful and intelligent daughter of a Baron. In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby has spent his whole life obsessing over Daisy. Although they are two very different novels, they are similar in that their leading men, Candide and Gatsby are obsessed with finding love. They both go on physical or mental journeys for …

…that they take long journeys and give up their lives. And when they finally find love, they end up losing it. The novels show that even throughout time and history people have stayed the same. They are still motivated by the thought of love. Many of these thoughts are not even love; they are shallow thoughts that lead to obsession. Some people even go further and let love rule their lives, like Candide and Gatsby.