Comparing Deceit In The Ramayana, And A Doll's House

Deceit is an act in which someone deliberately tells something other than the truth or does something to gain some sort of advantage over another person. Not only is deceit present in different cultures it has been present for many years. This can be confirmed through reading World Literature. One specific value of reading World Literature from Antiquity is to understand the power of deceit in that it can be used to influence even the most powerful of people. This value is seen in the stories of The Ramayana, Candide, and A Doll’s House, all three stories are from different time periods but express the same aspect of deceit. The power of deceit is first seen in Valmiki’s The Ramayana towards the beginning of the story when Manthara is …show more content…
In the first chapter Pangloss teaches Candide the concept of optimism, which ultimately ends up deceiving Candide. Pangloss would tell Candide that, “Things cannot be other than as they are. For, everything having been made for a purpose, everything is necessarily for the best purpose (1913).” Through his teachings, Pangloss teaches Candide that everything happens for a reason and that there is no other reason behind things other than that of which is seen. This philosophy would later be what tricked candied into thinking that is was acceptable to kill the Inquisitor after killing Issacar. Just before killing the Inquisitor Candide said, “I’ve already started killing. There’s nothing else for it (1924).” When Candide says this he is implying that since he has already killed one person it is okay kill others. He thinks that killing more than one person is not any worse than killing just one. Also, Candide has been taught that everything happens for a reason; so Candide would believe that there was some good to come out of killing the Inquisitor. At the end of the story Pangloss goes on to tell Candide that if all of the horrible things that Candide had went through would not have happened then he would not be where he was at the moment (1971). Candide replied by saying, “That is well put, but we must cultivate our garden (1971).” Candide tells Pangloss what he wants to hear but does not really agree with him. After all that he has gone through he does not truly believe in the philosophy of optimism as strongly as he once did. There are several reasons for this, when he finally gets to be with the beautiful woman that he longed to be with she had turned ugly. Also, he went through so many losses throughout his journey which was physically and emotionally tiring on him. During his talk with Pangloss, Candide uses the word “cultivate” which has a deeper meaning than