Voltaires Candide Essays - Fellows Of The Royal Society,

Voltaire's Candide VOLTAIRE'S CANDIDE The beginning of the 17th century marked many changes for Europe. These changes were both physical and philosophical in nature. Common citizens were tired of being abused, mistreated and most of all labeled as peasants and commoners by the aristocracy. They were fed up with the hypocrisy of the church and the abuse of power by its leaders in the name of God. One man stood tall above the rest. Francois Marie Arouet was born November 21, 1694 to a middle class family in Paris. At that time, Louis the XIV was king of France and the overwhelming majority lived in harsh conditions. The aristocracy of France ruled with an iron fist and poverty was widespread throughout the land. Francois attended the College Louis le Grand, where he got his Jesuit education. His deep-rooted satirical views were prevalent even as a child. After college, Francois worked as a secretary for the French Ambassador to Holland, but left that position to pursue his writing career. Francois' writings soon became fam ous in France. His quick tongue and fast pen soon got him into trouble with the French government and he got exiled to Sully. Using his fame, Voltaire quickly got those in power to allow him back into France. Shortly after he returned he was blamed for a piece of writing that opposed the government, which sent him to prison. While in prison, Francois assumed the pen name ?Voltaire? and wrote his first play, ?Oedipe?. Shortly after is release, the 24-year-old Voltaire's Oedipe was produced in Paris and became an instant success. After being exiled to England, Voltaire became familiar with the English language and in 1979, published Candide. Candide was by far his most famous work. In it he satirizes and criticizes Leibnizian optimism, aristocratic snobbery, the Protestant and Catholic Church and human nature. Leibniz, a German philosopher and mathematician of Voltaire's time, developed the idea that the world they were living in at that time was the best of all possible worlds. Leibniz's optimism displays the philosophical system that believed everything already was for the best, no matter how terrible the circumstances seemed. Through Candide, Voltaire showed the world full of natural disasters and brutality. Voltaire also used contrast in the personalities of the characters to convey the message that Leibniz's philosophy was incorrect. Leibniz's philosophies were based on the idea that everything in the world was determined by fate, theorized that God, having the ability to pick from an infinite number of worlds, chose this world, the best of all possible worlds. Although Voltaire chose that simple quality of Leibniz's philosophy to satirize, Leibniz meant a little more than just that. His philosophy stated that God chose the best of all possible worlds, he also meant that God, being th e perfection He is, chose the best world available to him, unfortunately it was a world containing evil. Voltaire satirized this literal meaning of Leibniz's philosophy by creating the character Dr. Pangloss, an unconditional follower of Leibniz's philosophy. Voltaire shows this early in the novel by stating, He proved admirably that there is no effect without a cause and that, in this best of all possible worlds.... (16) Pangloss goes on to say that everything had its purpose and things were made for the best. For example, the nose was created for the purpose of wearing spectacles (Voltaire 16). Because of his great knowledge, Candide, at this point a very naive and impressionable youth, regards Pangloss as the greatest philosopher in the world, a reverence that will soon be contradicted by contact with reality. The name Pangloss is translated as all tongue and windbag. The colloquialism windbag implies that a person is all talk, and he takes no action. The upper class in Europe at the time of Voltaire was infused with the idea that they were divinely superior to common people. Voltaire attacks this belief in stating in Candide that birth is an accident and every man is the same. In Candide, Voltaire attacks this school of thought using the baron, Cunegund's brother as an example. When Cacambo and Candide flee Buenos Ayres, they come to join the rebellion. The Baron and Candide are joyfully reunited, but when Candide