Candide Satire Analysis

Use the guided analysis exercises within the lesson as a model for this part of the assignment.

Voltaire is considered as one of the greatest Enlightenment writers in France for his extensive use of literary elements to convey his message. Voltaire satirizes different aspects of society to expose their absurdity in most of his writings. In Candide, Voltaire, by employing situational irony, mocks the blindness of society, magnifying the narrow-minded human nature.

Voltaire’s novel, Candide, encompasses a lot of things. This includes mockery of the beliefs of an opposing philosopher of the Enlightenment period . But perhaps the most powerful of his satires in his novel is on religion. Voltaire believes in God, but rather a forceful disapproval of religion. He believes that all people should serve God in their own way instead of being told how to believe God through religious officials. The first example of Voltaire mocking religion is after Candide leaves the castle of Baron Von Thunder Ten Tronckh of Westphalia. Devastated by the loss of his relationship with the baron’s daughter, Cunegonde, and by the fact that he will never have a name “Thunder Ten Tronckh”. He arrives at a city that is full of Calvinists, he asks around for help and sees an orator preaching Calvinism, and asks him for food. Instead of caring for him, he questions Candide’s beliefs first. Because Candide did not believe that the pope was the antichrist, he rejected Candide and did not give him food. The orator’s wife agreed with her husband, as she proceeded to throw a pot of feces on Candide’s head. The action is a mock of baptism for Candide, because it involves a liquid being put on his head. James the Anabaptist takes Candide under his wing after Candide leaves the man and the woman and aids him for a while. James the Anabaptist expresses his belief that people should have the choice of whether or not they want to engage in religious practices once they are

In his work, Candide, Voltaire uses satire as a means of conveying his opinions about many aspects of European society in the eighteenth century.  Voltaire successfully criticizes religion, the military, and the philosophy of optimism.

Voltaire successfully uses satire as a means of conveying his opinions about many aspects of European society in the eighteenth century.  He criticizes religion, the evils found in every level of society, and a philosophy of optimism when faced with an intolerable world.

In Voltaire’s short story Candide (1759) the theme of disillusion is manifested through various aspects of the text. From the moment Candide, whose very name means ‘innocent,’ is banished from the kingdom of Thunder-ten-tronckh, the situations he faces should suffice to disprove his master Pangloss’s theory that this is the “best of all possible worlds.” However it is not just Candide’s internal struggle between Pangloss’s views and his own experience that is representative of the process of disillusion; Candide’s own love for Cunégonde, which is the driving force behind his actions, is not all it seems either. It is not only the characters, however, that undergo the process; contemporary readers themselves, being placed alongside Candide in

  In its time, satire was a powerful tool for political assault on Europe's corrupt and deteriorating society. Voltaire's Candide uses satire to vibrantly and sarcastically portray optimism, a philosophical view from the Enlightenment used to bury the horrors of 18th century life: superstition, sexually transmitted diseases, aristocracy, the church, tyrannical rulers, civil and religious wars, and the cruel punishment of the innocent.

Voltaire’s satire contains a strong sense of witful irony and parodies meant to elicit disgust at the topics he is criticizing. “Candide’s” sense of satire is largely derived from the Juvenalian satire which was created by the Roman satirist Juvenal. By using absurdist and ironic images of characters, satirists intend to invoke disgust or laughter at a topic to the point where it is rejected a legitimate. Thi is the point with Voltaire’s mockery of optimism in “Candide”.

Satire. According to dictionary.com it is “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues”. During a time when going against the common mindset, which at the time was philosophical optimism, was rare and often looked down upon, using satire in order to not only communicate one’s beliefs but also mock those who shared the mainstream train of thought was key. The use of satire in Voltaire's Candide aids in the exhibition of his pessimistic mindset towards the social, religious, philosophical, political, and scientific beliefs that were favored during the Age of

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines satire as: “literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn.” Besides this definition satire can also be seen as the particular literary way of making possible the improvement of humanity and its institutions. In the three works: Moliere’s “Tartuffe,” Voltaire’s “Candide,” and Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” the authors indirectly criticize and ridicule human behavior and characteristics but with the goal for improving these faults rather than just demolishing them.

During the late 1700 and early 1800 Enlightenment was heavily influential. Emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. Voltaire is a French philosopher who tended to find conflict in controversial subjects. Voltaire wrote candide in a satire format proving that greed greed is a universal vice and it usually ends in ones own destruction. Voltaire’s portrayal to man’s inhumanity to man, believing that men ruined nature.

   In the story Candide, Voltaire uses the experiences of the character Candide and dialogue between characters to dispute the theory by other philosophers that "Everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds" (Voltaire). Voltaire believed that the society that he lived in had many flaws, flaws which are illustrated throughout the story. Voltaire uses satire to take aim at the military, religion, and societies' emphasis of physical beauty, to illustrate that we do not live in the best of all possible worlds.

Candide is a fictional satire of the optimism many philosophers had for life in general during the mid 1700’s written in response to Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Man. Written by Voltaire, the literary alias of Francois-Marie Arouet, the satire covers religion, the wealthy, love, why people thought natural disasters occurred and especially, philosophy. The novel even goes on to make fun of the art of literature by giving ridiculous chapter headings. Just about everything Voltaire put into Candide is designed to question and satirize real world injustices. In effect Candide is the 18th century equivalent of a modern day sitcom (Shmoop).

Voltaire’s Candide is a satirical fiction that was meant as both an insult and a criticism to the wealthy nobility and the Catholic Church. Voltaire, major voice during the Enlightenment period, had a wide spread influence from England and France to Russia. Candide was massively circulated throughout Europe. Voltaire used Candide to offer his opinion of what was wrong with society: being that the wealthy were ungrateful, selfish people and the church was a ruthless, maniacal super power.

In Candide, Voltaire uses general criticisms paired with specific examples to illustrate his idea concerning the contemporary corruption of the time. It is a "grinning critique of the 18th century's excesses and cruelties" (Kanfer 1). With Candide,