Analysis of Voltaire´s Candide

This epic satire zeroes in on Voltaire’s criticisms against the Catholic Church, related through a dry comedy and swift plot. This is the life of Candide, the main character, his journey around the world and adventures. Candide opens with blatant mockery of society, government, and religion, but he also mocked the philosophy of optimism by philosopher Leibniz. To make the novel more alive, he uses real events that have happened in the world. This mockery of society can lead one to read it as a less blatant commentary on gender roles and xenophobia.

"Candide" is a satire of society, government, military and optimism, these issues were depicted throughout events in history. Voltaire did a good job at incorporating the mockery in the history of society and it starts at the beginning where he describes Candide. Candide's home is beautiful castle where one can see the power of the wealthy and the church. He began to make fun of society when he talks about the mother of Candide; she refused to marry his father because he lacked the family lineage. In another scene, when the brother of Cunégonde refuses to allow his sister to marry Candide, as they were of the nobility they were too proud to allow his sister to marry even a privileged commoner. What Voltaire mocked in society is the importance of position in society, that in order to be happy one should be rich and in a good position.

Topics of interest that we did not discuss in detail are the gender roles and the xenophobia that exist in Voltaire's Candide. In Voltaire's "Candide", the female characters accentuate the exploitation of women in Voltaire's Europe. The same can be said of the role of Margaret in Goethe's "Faust" but the two characters differ drastically in their end...

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...lthy, greedy, and morally depraved. Like other religious figures, such as the Inquisitor and the Abbé, Voltaire depicts Isaachar as self-serving and unkind. While Voltaire singles out and criticizes a number of religions, notably Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in Candide, his standpoint is more of a rejection of religious factionalism and violence than of any one religion in particular. It’s also possible that, in portraying negative stereotypes of Jews, Christians, and Muslims, Voltaire satirizes prejudice itself.

Works Cited Voltaire, Francois-Marie Arouet de. Candide. The Norton Anthology of Word Masterpieces. The Western Tradition. Ed. Hugo, et al. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 1999.