to some measure of awareness of the real world and its cruelty, the perpetually innocent Candide still maintains a perspective which could only be called romantic and naive. Candide nurtures a private garden and dreams of better world, if not here then in the hereafter. In other words, he remains a child, whether one sees that child-likeness as a hopeful or a foolish one.
Shakespeare's Hamlet is not viewed as a child by critics or audiences, but in fact that is precisely what he is. Hamlet refuses to see that the world is as cruel as it is, and, spe
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