Essay on Voltaire’s Candide A Typical Enlightenment Work

Candide as a Typical Enlightenment Work Candide on the surface is a witty story. However when inspected deeper it is a philippic writing against people of an uneducated status. Candide is an archetype of these idiocracies, for he lacks reason and has optimism that is truly irking, believing that this is the best of all possible worlds. Thus Voltaire uses a witty, bantering tale on the surface, but in depth a cruel bombast against the ignoramuses of his times. 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†¦show more content†¦For example LHospitals a French Noble had in his possession mathematicians that developed new ways of taking limits (a Calculus idea). Yet in todays society we call this way LHospitals Rule, not Bernoullis rule who is the one who invented it (Bottiglia 310). Candide is consistently being brainwashed by reason (Pangloss) saying that we live in the best of all possible worlds, while it is quite obviously that he does not. For how can there be, in the best of all worlds, war, slavery and many more abominations. Half-way through the book it would appear that Candide has given up his optimism when he looked at the Negro slave. Oh Pangloss... Ill have to give up your optimism at last (73). But to the distress of the readers he has not given up his chafing optimism. Since I found you [an Eldoradian sheep laden with stones], Im sure I can find Cunegnde again (79). Thus we see that he has quickly recovered his optimism. Voltaire is using Candides blatant optimism to relate to the people of his time that also have the same type of optimism. He also bombasts the philosophy that states all actions are a part of an illustrious, benevolent cosmic plan. It is Pangloss who says it is impossible to for things to be where they are. For all is well (30). What Pangloss is saying that a thing greater then man (God) has everything laid out, and everything is for the best (30).Show MoreRelatedEssay on Use of Satire to Attack Optimism in Voltaires Candide1358 Words   |  6 PagesUse of Satire to Attack Optimism in Voltaires Candide       In its time, satire was a powerful tool for political assault on Europes corrupt and deteriorating society. Voltaires 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 innocentRead MoreHypocrisy In Voltaires Candide1300 Words   |  6 Pages In terms of religion, Candide explores the hypocrisy that was rampant in the Church. Consider for example, the inhumanity of the clergy, most notably the Inquisitor, in hanging and executing his fellow citizens over philosophical differences. Moreover, he orders the flogging of Candide for merely, â€Å"listening with an air of approval thus proving himself somehow implicit in blasphemy. Church officials in Candide are depicted as being among the most sinful of all citizens; having mistresses, engagingRead MoreKants Theory of Enlightenment5012 Words   |  21 PagesNotes on Kant’s What is Enlightenment? Posted on  March 16, 2012 ‘Enlightenment is the human being’s emergence from his self-incurred minority.  Kant means emergence from a form of slavery, in which one is not free to think for oneself, but instead is told what to think. In a sense, I think it relates to religious and state imposed rules. This is reinforced when Kant suggests to ‘have the courage to make use of your own understanding’,  making that the motto of the Enlightenment. He, perhaps ironicallyRead MoreThe Role of Nature4799 Words   |  20 Pagesanalysis will spotlight Popes Essay On Man and Coleridges Rime of an Ancient Mariner. First, I want to show that Coleridge and Pope advocate a pantheistic and a deistic conception of Nature, respectively. This should be the general framework through which I will try to show some other differences. Then, in a second time, the use of a concept like reason will be analysed in regard to Popes Essay on Man. This step shows that even if Pope is a writer of the Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, he deeply