Voltaire's Candide And The Enlightenment And Old Regime

In Candide, Voltaire is satirizing optimism but cannot help it shining through in parts of his story, undermining his extreme criticism of Leibniz optimism as portrayed by Pangloss. Candide’s embrace of a determined optimism, despite lampooning it through a series of unfortunate events, is a critique of Voltaire’s own argument. This can be proven by explaining the religious and social critiques of the book with relevance to the Enlightenment and Old Regime.
In Candide, the characters must overcome many struggles, including rape, torture, shipwrecks and earthquakes. Their situations are exacerbated by the unending nature of their misfortunes, seemingly coming one after another after another. The titular Candide suffers extreme cruelty and …show more content…
For example, Candide looked up to the English government but his faith in them is lost when he sees the treatment of a British admiral. It is seen that powerful groups do no good. They harm and hurt the innocent, and foster corruption and evil. Candide heavily disagreed with the concept of noble thesis and was very negative about the inquisition. He believed that enlightened despotism was sufficient. In other words, he thought a king or emperor should impose enlightenment reforms on there kingdoms to improve. In addition, Candide was very anti-clerical and anti-noble. He did not believe in the clergy or Catholic Church, which connects to why he was anti-noble, meaning he did not agree with privileges. He wanted to see progress. In the reading, not long after multiple Turkish officials were killed, which was driven by political concerns, many characters decided to take the advice the farmer has given. That advice boiled down to ignoring the corruption of your surroundings and prioritizing the simple things in life, and then you shall receive happiness. This directly relates to the quote by Voltaire, “Man is not born wicked but becomes so as he becomes