Voltaire's "Candide"

Paper Summary:

This paper studies the satirical play "Candide" by Voltaire. The paper analyzes the various themes, which include satirizing the aristocrat class, religion, the military, optimism, and philosophy and philosophers.

From the Paper:

"Voltaire's Candide is full of criticism on other people's beliefs on philosophy, religion, and number other aspects of society. Through the actions of the characters, their disappearance, reappearance, transfiguration, and even insensitivity, Voltaire is able to skew the pomposity of the times in which he lived. However, he does not merely prick a few balloons, so to speak. He offers alternatives to the concepts he ridicules. It seems naive to believe that we live in the best of all possible worlds. But, naivete seems to outlive some of the stronger bulwarks of the world during the time of Voltaire. He is twitting his audience, of course, and implying that, if people only could see how foolish the nobility, the church, the army, and the philosophers of the day were (a sort of Francophile "Emperors New Clothes) then there would be the possibility that "our world" could be the best of all possible worlds. Society is corrupt. Nobility is hardly noble. The military have no life outside a battlefield. Philosophers are a pain in the derriere, but (like Pangloss) simply will not go away. And, love is an illusion where the plain become pretty, and the pretty, beautiful. Also, the key to Candide, which permeates all other satirical themes is: Discontent leads to greater discontent; to be "content" means to do something that one is content in doing."

More papers on Voltaire's "Candide":

• Analytical Essay # 123350 : "Voltaire and Plato"
• Analytical Essay # 59521 : "Candide" and Simple Living"
• Analytical Essay # 63275 : "Satire in Moliere, Swift and Voltaire"
• Book Review # 73744 : "Voltaire's "Candide"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: