Candide: Voltaire's View Of Capital Punishment

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Recommended: Historical background of punishment

Early in European history, punishment for crimes was cruel and usually performed in public and for entertainment. As time progressed, the views of capital and corporal punishment progressed with it. People began to hate any kind of capital punishment, and many began to speak out against punishment, including major philosophes and prison reformers. Many eyewitnesses saw the delight of people watching the executions, and became disgusted. The factors that lead to this punishment also changed, going from absurd to more reasonable crimes. Philosophes were very outspoken against capital punishment. In the satirical novel Candide, philosophe Voltaire pokes fun at the punishment of criminals in the eighteenth century. He describes an earthquake in Lisbon, and how another one was thought to be prevented by killing criminals. He satirized the death penalty by saying that another earthquake happened, even though people were killed to try and prevent another. Another philosophe, Cesare Beccaria, in his An Essay on Crimes and Punishments, explains that it is better to prevent crimes than to punish them. Being a legal reformer, he would believe in changing the ways of the legal system and making it more fair and humane. This document was written in 1764, when capital punishment was …show more content…

He described how he “distracted his eyes” while the condemned men climbed a ladder. He also accounted to the disgust in the crowd. There was no bias in this statement, since it was an eyewitness account for a pamphlet. While the crowd at this execution was disgusted, the general ideas of less cruel punishment were still progressing elsewhere. In 1788, Restif-de-la-Bretonne observed an execution in Paris, and wrote about it in his social criticism, The Nights of Paris. While he was disgusted, he observed a young woman in the crowd who was amused by the

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