The Enlightenment Philosophy of Voltaire Essay

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Candide is a satire that is certainly a product of the century it was written in, the eighteenth century, and reflects the larger intellectual movements of the Age of Enlightenment. Discuss how themes of the Enlightenment are clearly illustrated in the various strands of the work, specifically using satirical commentary. How does Voltaire engage with these ideas and what is his ultimate stance about them? You might want to develop a theme connected to ideas of a particular character or characters, and connect them to institutions existing in late early-modern France.

Although Candide is obviously a fictional tale, Voltaire did not write the satire merely to entertain but also to instruct. An Enlightenment era philosopher, Voltaire wished to illustrate the importance of rational thought and expose the errors of superstition. Perhaps the most obvious manifestation of this is the novel's disdain for religious hypocrisy, although it also shows similar contempt for tyrannical and absolutist forms of government, as well as political philosophies which encourage subservience to bankrupt ideologies.

This type of attitude can be seen early on in the novel in which the Baron Thunder-ten-Tronckh of Westphalia treats Candide brutally simply for kissing his daughter the Lady Cunegonde, while the young students' tutor openly sleeps with the maid Paquette (and catches syphilis in the process). As a result of his indiscretion, Candide is expelled from the palace and is impressed into military service. Candide's intentions are obviously quite innocent yet the Baron's prurient and despotic attitude reveals his hypocrisy. Candide throughout the novel is shown to be obviously pure and good yet this does not prevent him from meeting with disaster after disaster.

Voltaire does not celebrate Candide's naivete. In fact, he sees it as quite dangerous. It is because of Candide's credulity that he stubbornly remains in love with Cunegonde and also continues to believe that his foolish tutor Dr. Pangloss is wise. Pangloss has one overriding thesis about the world, namely that everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds and even when there are apparent misfortunes, the Creator will show us why eventually such circumstances lead to a higher purpose that is currently obscure. Pangloss even holds fast to his ideology when he and Candide are tortured by the Inquisition and barely escape with their lives. Pangloss' rationalizations are obviously quite irrational and run contrary to the Enlightenment concept that good sense and a realistic evaluation of the world around us, rather than ideals, should hold sway.

Voltaire's emphasis on rationality also requires him to condemn religious hypocrisy. After Cunegonde is found alive, she is initially seen being 'shared' between an Inquisitor and a Jewish man who see no contradiction between the piety of their religion and the fact that they are engaging in sexual intercourse in a manner prohibited by their respective religions.

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After Candide finds Cunegonde's long-lost brother who has become a Jesuit, the supposedly holy man tries to kill Candide when Candide reveals that he is in love with Cunegonde. When the syphilitic Paquette is later encountered she is seen working as a prostitute arm-in-arm with a man of the cloth. She is miserable and Brother Giroflee is miserable as well because he feels trapped in his occupation. Voltaire suggests that religion denies the true, sensual nature of man and is therefore dangerous.

However, as awful as institutional religion may be in Voltaire's eyes, it alone cannot be demonized as the source of all the world's problems, given the extent to which religion was connected to corrupt, monarchist politics. Part of the humor derived from the novel is the fact that the situations Candide finds himself in are so absurdly ghastly and he meets with misfortune after misfortune. But the obsession with war and self-aggrandizement of the ruling powers of Europe is not entirely farcical. At the beginning of the novel, the Bulgars and the Abares are at war and the Portuguese are holding an Inquisition. The British are shown executing one of their own men for not killing enough of the enemy.

Certain aspects of Candide hint at the fact that Voltaire is not entirely cynical about human nature. At one point of the novel, Voltaire and his manservant Cacambo find themselves lost in the famed land of Eldorado where there is so much gold the metal has taken on a meaningless status. Children play with jewels in the street and because there is such abundance; people think nothing of the presence of vast wealth around them. Perhaps most notably from the perspective of the reader, rather than constantly proclaiming that they live in the best of all possible words, the people of El Dorado are actually good and generous and take the wealth around them for granted. Although Europeans dreamed of finding the famed El Dorado for its gold, Voltaire suggests that the true wealth of the country lies in the hearts of its people.

When Candide asks if he can take some of the gold and jewels which they treat like stones with him, the people of Eldorado allow him to do this without thought, confused why he would want something which provides no apparent advantage to him like food or shelter might. Despite Voltaire's expressed cynicism, the example of El Dorado suggests that when people are all equal, when a world exists without religion and monarchist hierarchies, and when the commoners do not have material want, a society can indeed be good. The end of the novel depicts Candide and the now-ugly (and chastened) Cunegonde resolving to tend a garden and lead a simple life, echoing the lessons taught….....

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