Changes In Voltaire's Candide

Even though, the Broadway play complements Voltaire’s novel, Candide, there are noticeable changes made. These changes are made in order to captivate the audience. Considering the change in the time period when Voltaire originally wrote Candide, the changes needed to be made in order to contain more modern aspects that the audience would be drawn to. These changes will be discussed throughout the deliberation of the play, but the most important noticed change would be the doubling of the narrator to also play the character of Dr. Pangloss. While the original narrator does this, a second narrator steps in. In the text, the narrator is third person. The medium of the play did face challenges by switching from text to a live Broadway set. Obviously, …show more content…
The institute of religion was often mocked such as the added scene about Maximillian dressed as a women which then the preacher “buys” him for his pleasure. Religious leaders were promoted as corrupt throughout the play and text. This exaggeration was needed to still keep the same theme of Voltaire’s original ideas of corruption of institutions. Candide, on the other hand, was still upheld as a innocent that never did anything corrupt. Everything bad Candide did that could be considered corrupt was an “accident”.This was often the case with when Candide “accidently” murdered the Archbishop, Vanderdendur, and Maximillian. Each of these scenes for the play had exaggerated moments where the actors exaggerated the movement of accidentally falling on the knife Candide held. Also, in the “accidental” murder of Vanderdendur Cunegonde was presented as a devious person; she basically convinces and forces Candide to stab him. This altered the point of view through Voltaire’s work that women are weak, but adding a twist to the idea that women have more control such as women in a modern society. Controversially, the text presents Vanderdendur’s murder as an action that Candide decided on his …show more content…
These larger group of actors often were dressed in different outfits such as cheerleading uniforms and modern clothing to further emphasis the modernization the play strived for in order to relate to the audience. In addition, some parts of the text were dropped out of the play entirely. An example of a cut portion of the text was the scene from the text about the two girls whose lovers were monkeys that Candide killed. The changes that the Broadway production made to the plot of Candide were for the most part improvement of the work in order to create a larger portrait of what Voltaire was trying to convey. These ideas, not only modernized the work, but enchanted the audience by allowing them now more relatable scenes from Voltaire’s original ideas to laugh along with. Most of these ideas now approachable to the audience centered around mocking institutions such as marriage and church and