Voltaire's Candide: The Five Main Concepts Of The Enlightenment

The enlightenment was a European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and the progress of individuals. The five main concepts of the Enlightenment were reason, nature, happiness, progress, and liberty. The Enlightenment was mostly led by the philosophers of Europe including Cesare Beccaria, John Locke, Mary Wollstonecraft and Thomas Hobbes. Another one of these philosophers was Francois Marie Arouet, otherwise known as Voltaire. Voltaire often used satire to combat his opponents and to criticize the world he lived in. He made frequent targets of the clergy, the aristocracy, and the government. He published many works as a writer, including political essays, philosophies, dramas, and over seventy books. One of his most notable works was Candide, a French satire published in 1759. Candide was a novella that mocks society as whole. It covers topics from church …show more content…
The first quote that supports this is from chapter eleven, “You must know that I am the daughter of Pope Urban X.1, and of the princess of Palestrina.”(XI). The pope is supposed to celibate yet he has a child. This relates to the enlightenment because Voltaire wanted the freedom of religion so he criticizes the church by making the Pope out to be a corrupt figure. The next quote is, “Thou deservest not to eat or to drink,” replied the orator, “wretch, monster, that thou art! hence! avoid my sight, nor ever come near me again while thou livest.”. This quote comes from the orator who preaches about charity yet he will give no charity to Candide because he does not believe that the Pope is Antichrist. This relates to the Enlightenment because Voltaire believed that all people should be able to have their own beliefs and not be punished for them. This is only one of many topics discussed in this novella, the next topic is the treatment and status of women in