Voltaire's Candide and Moliere's Tartuffe

            Candide has reason only in the form of a companion upon which he relies for advice. His companion is Dr. Pangloss. He consistently dribbles to Dr. Pangloss about what should be done. Eventually Pangloss is killed by being hanged. But this means that

The similarities between Moliere's Tartuffe and Voltaire's Candide are primarily rooted in common Enlightenment themes. For example, in both stories the writers focus on questioning and criticizing the nature of hierarchies in our society, particularly the members of the aristocratic or upper classes rather than "common" people. In Tartuffe, Orgon and his family are members of the aristocracy. Orgon owns his estate and clearly has enough money to provide for his entire family in addition to Tartuffe and his friend. Similarly, Voltaire's story focuses on Candide, who may be missing a fraction of his aristocratic family tree, but is still considered upper class. As the story progresses, the

In Molière's Tartuffe, translated by Richard Wilbur, the central character, a man named Orgon, has been completely brainwashed and taken advantage of by the title character, a lecherous and parasitic "holy man." Tartuffe has made use of one of the oldest scams in human history to insinuate himself into Orgon's household; he appeals to Orgon's desire to be a good, upstanding, and pious man by appearing to be the same. Tartuffe's manipulations are evident to everyone but Orgon, and seem to the reader to be blatantly obvious. His use of religion to manipulate Orgon is consistent throughout the play. In his religious zeal, Orgon is blind to the truth about Tartuffe's character. As a result,

At the same time, Candide struggles with why the evil happens if it is indeed the best of all possible worlds: "And whatever Master Pangloss said of the matter, I have often had occasion to notice that things went badly in Westphalia"(p.551). One reason that Candide should not follow blindly whatever Pangloss says is that the beliefs are not his own. Candide needs to look within himself for the key to happiness. What makes Pangloss happy will not necessarily make Candide happy. Candide learns to search himself in the end when he discovers that the key to his own happiness is "cultivating

Enlightenment philosophers wanted concrete, tangible proof to back their ideas. Pangloss, Candide’s friend and teacher, is a character that depicts the metaphysical side of the Old Regime. He is an optimist who believes that there is no effect without a cause and that everything is made for a reason and with a purpose. Voltaire portrays Pangloss as naive. Pangloss finds himself in trouble for studying and exploring the world before he becomes sure of himself and his ideas. Even after Pangloss’s troubles, he still refuses to stray from his thoughts and would rather believe his ideas than face reality. Another character that is depicted as naive and optimistic is Cacambo, Candide’s servant. Cacambo consoles Candide after his loss of Cunegonde. Cacambo claims that God takes care of all women and that they will never be at a loss. But Candide knows the sufferings that Cunegonde and the Old Woman have experienced. Cunegonde was bought, sold, and objectified throughout the novel, along with the Old Woman, who was beaten, raped, and treated with

Candide is a naïve character that is in complete control of his ideas and actions despite the influence from others. In chapter two when he is captured by Bulgarians and given the choice between death and running the gauntlet, he groundlessly uses his free will to receive an intense degree of torture and anguish. “He was asked which he would like the best, to be whipped six-and-thirty times through all the regiment, or to receive at once twelve balls of lead in his brain. He vainly said that human will is free, and that he chose neither the one nor the other” (4). Candide tries to argue that having free will meant

The “Age of Reason”, during Europe was a time in history where people started to confide in eachother and themselves when it came to reason and logic; and it was a period when creative ability came to light and it was encouraged. This paper will examine Voltaire 's Candide and the way Voltaire mocks religion and how this outlines Enlightenment thought.

The period, known as the Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment Period, began in the late seventeenth century. It was a time of great turmoil and intellectual movements that ultimately led to the beginning of the French Revolution. Enlightenment thinkers were the ones who encouraged and proposed that we rely on and trust our instincts for decision making along with the actions that make. Many Enlightenment thinkers, such as Moliere and Voltaire, were famous for their works. They were two writers that used a very particular approach to their works. Tartuffe, by Moliere, and Candide, by Voltaire, both addressed similar topics and themes such as satire for example. Tartuffe and Candide satirized religious hypocrisy emphasizing on free thinking and reason.

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Moliere's Tartuffe is an epic play of hypocrisy, betrayal, and the tale of a foolish mind. Moliere's choice of protagonist in this play happens to be the most blatantly ignorant character in the play. Orgon is naive to the villain Tartuffe's hypocritical ways, makes a complete dunce of himself by uplifting Tartuffe as holy, and failing to pick up the abundance of clues of Tartuffe being fake. Analyzing this character is rather interesting and at the same time frustrating to read of someone so ignorant that they fail to see the wolf hiding under the sheep clothing. A fool is a fool unless they open their eyes to see the truth, and it took Orgon the majority of the play to realize the truth.

But once Tartuffe is unmasked and his hypocrisy discovered, Orgon reverses himself and determines to hate and persecute all pious men. Orgon in the play seems to represent man's extravagant and uncontrollable nature, which never takes the right and rational direction, but instead, constantly shifts between absurd extremes.

At this moment, we see that Tartuffe is two-faced and he knows that Orgon will believe what he has to say considering he is a saint. Orgon confronts Tartuffe and in disbelief Tartuffe admits what he has said and continues to tell Orgon what a bad person he is. Orgon then is disappointed with Damis for telling a "lie" and questioning Tartuffe's purity. Orgon is too blind to see that Damis is telling the truth, because he is so sure that Tartuffe could not commit such a sin. As the play continues, in Act IV Scene III, Elmire offers for Orgon to hear for himself.

A common intellectual characteristic of the Enlightenment was anti-feudalism. Philosophers were against the separations in the Old Regime and pushed for equality among human beings. Voltaire parodies the pompousness of the nobility several times throughout his novel. As we are introduced to the Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh, Voltaire describes his castle as luxurious, even though it is inferred that Westphalia is only a moderate estate. Although the name may sound important, Thunder-ten-tronckh lacks

He is at the beginning of the play seen as a God like figure, particularly to Orgon and Madame Pernelle, by this he is strong and inspirational, however, when he does realises he has been found out for being in the wrong, his persona changes to guilty and even vulnerable. This is shown in Act III scene 6 when Damis accuses Tartuffe of trying to seduce Elmire, Tartuffe uses reverse psychology to win Orgon over by confessing the all things awful, to an extent in which Orgon begins to sympathise with him. It is clearly shown that Tartuffe goes to the absolute extreme when he apologises to Orgon;

In Voltaire’s Candide, we are taken by the hand through an adventure which spanned two continents, several countries, and to a multitude of adverse characters. The protagonist, Candide, became the recipient of the horrors which would be faced by any person in the 18th century. But Candide was always accompanied with fellows sufferers, two of which our focus will lay, Pangloss and Martin. In equal respects, both are embodiments of different philosophies of the time: Pangloss the proponent of Optimism and Martin the proponent of Pessimism. Each of the two travelers is never together with Candide, until the end, but both entice him to picture the world in one of their two philosophies. Throughout the story there is an apparent ebb and flow

     “Everything happens for the best, in this the best of all possible worlds.” This is a statement that can be found many times within Voltaire’s Candide. Voltaire rejected Lebitizian Optimism, using Candide as a means for satirizing what was wrong with the world, and showing that, in reality, this is not the best of all possible worlds.