The Ideal Government In Voltaire And John Locke's Candide

In Candide, Voltaire demonstrates his different political views through the story of a young man’s life. In this story a man named Candide, was brought up in a castle where he met his dear friend and philosopher, Pangloss, and the girl he loved named, Lady Cunegonde. However, at the beginning of the story he gets kicked out of the castle and is forced to undergo many different obstacles in order survive, and while still trying to find happiness while facing the horrors of unfamiliar places with unfamiliar governments. He ends up traveling from Europe to America and is exposed to two very different types of governments. The two types of governments that Candide becomes exposed to show how flawed our governments are, and how politics affect people. Coincidentally, these two governments are easily comparable to Thomas Hobbes’ ideal government, and Jon Locke’s ideal government. It is in my opinion that Voltaire illustrated that John Locke had the correct idea of how government should work, and that Voltaire favors a government that is under a fair social contract.
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Throughout the story, he continuously shows the flaws of Thomas Hobbes’ ideal government and the current governments while Candide is in Europe, by having his friends tortured, killed, and stolen from. Then Voltaire shows the possibilities of having a government similar to John Locke’s when Candide is in Eldorado, and when Candide and his friends figure out that having money and honor is not what will make them happy, but rather that working and living harmoniously with each other will lead them to a more fulfilling life than money can provide. In order to show the flaws in governments Voltaire made the characters in Candide experience many extreme situations in order to make a point about how unfair similar governments could be in real