How Does Voltaire Use Satire In Candide

Throughout the novel, Candide comes across many religious leaders during his journey that Voltaire portrays with irony and hypocrisy. After escaping to Holland in the beginning of the novel, Candide encounters an orator who has been addressing on the subject of charity for a whole hour. The orator, when asked for food, tells Candide that he “don’t [doesn’t] deserve to eat” because Candide does not believe that the Pope is Antichrist. (27) Although people around him are actually suffering from continuous war and devastating poverty, the orator only seems to care about giving a speech on charity and converting others to his religious beliefs. Not to mention that his own religious belief or speech, ironically, also encourages reaching out to those in need. Stubborn and egoistic orator is engulfed with his certainness in his belief, and fails to recognize it himself that he, in fact, is going against his own belief. Another example of hypocrisy of religion is shown by the Grand Inquisitor who makes a deal with Don Issachar to share Cunegonde as a mistress.

Yet, the Baron is a man of little if any virtue, not to mention the fact that he is a homosexual. Voltaire also introduces Brother Giroflee, a monk who was forced into the religious orders by his parents at the age of fifteen. He detests the monastery, wishes to set fire to his convent, and employs the services of prostitutes frequently. The religious leaders have not chosen to serve their people any more than the military soldiers have chosen to serve honor.

Voltaire's Candide is the story of how one man's adventures affect his philosophy on life. Candide begins his journey full of optimism that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds," but he learns that it is naïve to say that good will eventually come of any evil.

Comedy is often thought of as light-hearted humor; however, it can be used to incite thoughtful laughter- using a humorous situation to invoke reflection. Two examples of books that incite thoughtful laughter are: America (the Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction by Jon Stewart and Candide by Voltaire. The two authors use humor to satirize how people think and the way they act and to incite the reader to actually think about the subject presented in their texts. In Candide, Voltaire uses dark humor and irony to attack philosophical optimism, government, religion, and human greed. Voltaire mainly attacks philosophical optimism- and this is seen through his character Pangloss, who believes that everything is the “best of all possible worlds” even after getting syphilis, being almost killed, and sold as a slave.

Voltaire was the author of the novella Candide, also known as "Optimism". The the novella, Voltaire portrays the idea of Optimism as being illogical and absurd. In Candide, Voltaire satirizes the doctrine of Optimism, an idea that was greatly used during the Enlightenment time period by philosophers. In this narrative, Candide is a young man who goes through a series of undertakings and ventures around the the globe where he experiences evil and adversity. Throughout his journeys, Candide maintained the ideas of the teachings of his tutor, Pangloss. Candide and Pangloss believed in the idea that “All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds...” (Voltaire 4). This belief is what Voltaire pointed out to be an irrational way of

Voltaire’s Candide can be understood in several ways by its audience. At a first glance it would appear to be simply a story blessed with outrageous creativity, but if you look deeper in to the novel, a more complicated and meaningful message is buried within. Voltaire uses the adventures of Candide as a representation of what he personally feels is wrong within in society. Written in the 18th century (1759), known commonly as the age of enlightenment, Voltaire forces his audience to consider the shift from tradition to freedom within society. He achieves this by exploring the reality of human suffering due to

oltaire’s Candide provides an Enlightenment religious and social critique of the Old Regime though satire. In Candide, Voltaire depicts the hypocrisy of the religious leaders during the Old Regime time period along with the criticizing the idea that reason can overcome social turmoil.

  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”.

Despite not believing that God created the best possible world to live in, Voltaire did believe in God. The European Graduate School published a biography of Voltaire which remarked "Voltaire was also a fierce critique of religious traditions but that is not to say that he was averse to the idea of a supreme being. His understanding of God was deist, he reasoned that the existence of God was a question of reason and observation rather than of faith". This demonstrates that he did believe in and accept God, though in an unorthodoxed way, relying wholly on his reason and observations. Not only did these unique beliefs and idea spark some harsh feelings towards Leibniz, but they also forced Voltaire to better mask his criticism. Thus, the employment of satire in his novels, specifically Candide.

In Moliere’s “Tartuffe,” although many things and behaviors are satirized, the play focuses mainly on the issue of religious hypocrisy. Whereas Tartuffe is the obvious hypocrite and

Candide is a reflection of the philosophical values of the Enlightenment. Voltaire’s novel is a satire of the Old Regime ideologies in which he critiques the political, social, and religious ideals of his time.

     Voltaire does most of his satirizing through the character of Dr. Pangloss, an unconditional follower of Leibnitz’s philosophy and Candide’s mentor. Pangloss’ ramblings are not personal attacks on Leibnitz, but in some way represent the thoughts of a typical optimist. He is a very hopeful character in the story because he refuses to accept bad. When Candide encounters Pangloss after a long period of time, Pangloss explains how he was almost hanged, then dissected, then beaten. Candide asks the philosopher if he still believes that everything is for the best, and Pangloss replies that he still held his original views. Voltaire frequently exaggerates his point on optimism; there is nobody in reality who is positive about everything all the time, especially after so many horrible experiences. One could say that Pangloss is irrational and idiotic, and Voltaire tries to depict how inexplicable his beliefs are which do not measure up to reality.

   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 Voltaire’s most known literary work and most extensively read pieces of literature in French. His philosophical tale is a means to portray his ideas. Simultaneously, amuse his readers with satirical wit and ironical innuendo. Candide (the name refers to frankness and purity) is the main character in the tale. The philosophical idea embodies optimism that is opposed by Voltaire’s intend.