Voltaire 's View Of Voltaire

The Story of Candide is a short but diverse story that tells of a young man’s journey for love and understanding and the hardships he faces, all the while keeping a very strong, positive and philosophical outlook on life. The novel takes place both in fictional and existing locations throughout Latin America and Europe during the 1750’s. Voltaire believed that the society he lived in had many flaws, which are often illustrated and satirized in Candide. Candide’s journey portrays the flawed human assumption that the grass is always greener on the other side as well as giving the reader an apt example of an individual’s journey from innocence through a series of trials and tribulations to becoming a mature, experienced and enlightened individual.

Throughout Voltaire's life, he inspired people to use their reason to make decisions about religion. He believed in social religion which was the belief in God and in a world of future rewards and punishments.3 Social religion was as old as creation and believed by most people. However, it did contradict organized Christianity with its miracles, supernatural doctrines, and its religious duties. Voltaire made many attacks on the Bible and historic churches. He focused on the contradictions in the Bible and the improbabilities of miracles. The greatest of his attacks was on the Old Testament. Voltaire doubted the existence of Moses, said that the Pentateuch was absurd, and believed the Old Testament was just a "collection of fables." On the other hand, he also attacked the New Testament. He called Jesus "a good fellow, a coarse peasant, and a fanatic."4 Many people read Voltaire's writings on religion and so there was much dispute and conflict among the church. His attacks on the Bible made people think and use reason in their lives.

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

The Enlightenment brought about a brand new way of thinking. The traditional, conservative mannerisms displayed by the church were slowly losing popularity amongst its citizens. The introduction of reason, knowledge, and rationality were beginning to take center stage of the time. However, the power of the church was intact. Quite knowingly, much power presents the threat of corruption and desolation in any situation. Both Moliere and Voltaire utilize strikingly similar characters throughout their adventures in the form of Candide and Orgon. Both characters have exhibited similar levels of gullibility, wealth, and overall good outcomes despite hardships that they face.

The humourous perspective upon philosophy and the general follies of life constructs Candide as a novel to transcend Voltaire’s society and remain relevant to current day. As it is for his satirization of various ideology, specially optimism and pessimism, that makes Voltaire’s purpose apparent to present day. As there is no perfect philosophy in which to partake in life, especially each one with their own benefits and downfalls. And that a mixture of these beliefs result in a better line of thinking. Thus, the characters in Candide demonstrate each stereotypical philosophy by alluding to their respecting philosopher to portray Voltaire’s overall purpose.

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’s discussion in Candide about un-free people and the human rights is significantly repeated throughout the book. Voltaire benefits Candide’s journeys to portray the human assumption. Throughout Candide’s voyages, he approaches many different men with multiple different companionship situations. Voltaire was deeply pessimistic about the human nature and only argued that the world could be less bad than what it was if we replaced ignorance and superstition with knowledge and sensible thought. Throughout all his travels, he sticks to the philosophies of his tutor, Pangloss. Pangloss believes that everything is for the best. Voltaire’s enthusiastic view of life is differed with and challenged by sorrow that he persists throughout this

He also wanted to bring attention to the many problems of the time. This has been observed by many that know the history behind the book and who have read the book. In Candide, Voltaire is also making fun of philosophers, and philosophical ideas, mainly that of Optimism which Voltaire seems to find idiotic. In Candide, the philosopher Pangloss is supposed to be making fun of one of the main philosophers at the time with the name Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Voltaire also wrote Candide to show the idiocy behind optimism and to show the true reality.

Voltaire’s “Candide or Optimism” was written in the enlightenment era. Voltaire’s story is published in The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. Voltaire’s character Pangloss is a philosophy who taught about the all-powerful God, who created the world. Pangloss indicated the world must belong to God, for he was the only divine creator. Pangolss was also a mentor to Candide, who was the main character in the novel. Candide had a good heart, but felt very hopeless in life. Pangloss took Candide under his wings teaching him the “best of all possible worlds.” The enlightenment movement is closely seen in Voltaire’s writing style on page 378. Pangolss

Voltaire, one the Enlightenment's greatest leaders was well known for his use of satire to expose and criticize vices of the 18th century. Through his writing, Voltaire successfully uses irony and parody as a means to satirize what he believes is wrong with 18th-century life. In his novel Candide, Voltaire focuses on many topics, specifically the pitfalls and dangers of optimism, the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church, and political injustice. Although humorous, the irony and parody that exists in the novel serve the purpose of exposing the Enlightenment’s widely accepted views of political, philosophical, and religious practices through the eyes of Candide.

The research done on the Age of Enlightenment helped make it evident that Voltaire’s book Candide was influenced by Enlightenment philosophies. Throughout Candide many tragedies occur to the characters, which Voltaire would ridicule by having the characters constantly say that “everything is best.” (Voltaire, 12). Through this he is emphasizing his view

Voltaire mocks “Pangloss” and “alexander Pop”; another optimistic character when he says “we don’t need to know the reason”. Voltaire is clearly against all of this, that’s why he keeps allowing bad things to happen to “Candide”. He is mocking naïve people like candide and

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.

Throughout Candide, Voltaire uses a variety of characters to represent different opinions and outlooks on life. He uses these characters to critique and contrast the opinions of the main characters. It is an interesting activity to research and compare the many characters in the pursuit of critically examining our own preconceptions and ideas about life. According to Martin, “Man is born to live either in a state of distracting inquietude or of lethargic disgust.”

Candide is a satire written by Voltaire, a French historian and philosopher who is known for criticizing the authority and the Catholic Church. He also dedicated his life to study literature and advocate the freedom of religion. Voltaire is the spiritual mentor and leader of the French Enlightenment in the eighteenth century and he believes that the power of reason and rational thought would lead people to a better social structure. This novel not only expressed Voltaire’s hatred of the Christian regimes but also criticized Leibniz’s philosophy of absolute optimism.