Candide as a Reflection of The Enlightenment Essay

How Does Candide Reflect The Enlightenment?

Emerging in the late seventeenth century and climaxing about century later, the heros of the Enlightenment age demanded for a revolution. One of these Enlightenment heros, by the name of Francois Marie Arouet, was a key ingredient to the rebellion against the norm and did his attacking not with a sword or shield, but with a pen. Going by the later name of "Voltaire" while he was incarcerated in prison, Francois wrote one of his most famous works of his life time, Candide. Francois Candide, bashed the Christian power among many other things and was seen as a major contributor to the idealists of the Enlightenment. Voltaire was able to utilize Candide to demonstrate the most prominent issues of the Enlightenment period such as the hubris of nobility, how optimism and rationality is able to lessen the evils rendered by humans and criticize the revolution itself simultaneously. Even though the symbol of optimism is a key focus of satire in Candide, Voltaire did make sure that he pointed out the flaws of so called Nobility and its need of change in the new Enlightenment age. Voltaire ridiculed the nobles, along with their beliefs, showing readers that the previous way of nobility was arrogant and showed how change of this thought was important in the enlightenment period. Voltaire displayed this idea primarily through two main characters in Candide; the first was with Don Fernando and second was with Cunegund and her family. Candide starts out with Cunegunds father, the baron, catching both Candide and Cunegund kissing and because Candide is of lower class then Cunegund and the Barons irrational belief of her never marrying down, he kicks Candide out. Later in the story, Cunegunds brother, also steps in front of Candide and Cunegund from loving each other and he, like his father, also meets the end of a sword. In doing this repetition, Voltaire is putting emphasis on just how severely rooted noble hubris was engrained in the minds of nobles and in the end, those who were seen as nobles were no longer seen in that light for they either died or were cast out. The importance of this symbolism to the enlightenment period, of how there were no nobles being left for the farm, showed how nobility is futile and needless in the new society.

Besides the irrational idea of marrying down in status, Voltaire also criticized the idea of nobility in society by using the individual in Candide known as Don Fernando. With Don Fernando, even in his name, Voltaire jeered the nobles by calling him Don Fernando dIbaraa y Figueroro y Mascarenes y Lampourdos y Souza. In doing this, Voltaire uses these extreme last names to mock the nobles and make them seem redundant and absurd. He portrays Don as an arrogant man and in doing this shows the haughtiness of nobles and represents the idea of caring on the last name as idiotic and unimportant in the Enlightenment era.

As much as Voltaire attacked the nobles in the story though, one of the biggest representations of the Enlightenment ideas is by the symbolism of optimism in Candide. In the novel, Voltaire mainly emphasizes that optimism that is represented says that evil can be reasoned in life, and that certain givens not even God could alter. This reasoning ends by portraying that God has limits and since God created the entire universe, the system will have imperfections. Using several characters in Candide, Voltaire tries to show how optimism is important yet will not sustain the society if change is needed, hence no effort, no enlightenment.

In the story, Voltaire portrays Pangloss as a representative optimist, who believes in the idea that life is the best of all possible worlds. This claim by Pangloss is reverberated throughout the novel, being later contrasted with things such as natural devastations and bad human behavior. Although a healthy teacher in the beginning, Pangloss is later seen in the novel with syphilis, which is killing him, yet he only replies to his illness by saying that without syphilis we would also not have great gifts such as cochineal and chocolate which were given to us by Columbus. The reoccurring of these calamities in the story make Candide realize that one cannot just coast in life thinking everything that happens, happens for the good. Voltaire tries to show that the Enlightenment can and must be done by people actually putting forth effort to change the world, and that optimism is important but people also cannot be blinded by it. ( )

Going of the idea that people cannot merely let things happen if they want change, Voltaire greatly emphasizes the importance of working towards change. In the novel, Candide runs into many sufferings for he lacks the will power to help himself and allows things to happen to him for he feels it is for the best. It is only until later in the novel, does Candide realize that in order for a being to be content, they first must work towards the effects they desire. A being cannot just coast in life and take what they have been given, but instead question everything that is said to be true. Voltaire wants people to redefine what is seen as truth and make it better, hence the enlightenment age. Candide saw that he must use his own senses given to him to mold his own beliefs and views of the world and Voltaire, using a little satire, wants readers to see that that is the true meaning behind the Enlightenment. That Enlightenment stands for the use of ones reason to dissect earlier accepted values and customs and bring about a civilized change to life.

In the novel, Voltaire exploits Candide to symbolize the people in history who blindly abided by fallacy and religious beliefs such as everything happened for the best, and that this is the best life could be. However, using a collective standpoint near the end of Candide, Voltaire shows the progression of Candide, and how he learns that only with direct feats, will one be able to change what he is given. Voltaire also indicates that the idea of optimism is necessary in a persons life, yet it is not everything and finally Candide shows that nobility is in the eye of the beholder. Using these key ingredients, with a little satire, Voltiare gets across what enlightenment really means to the readers in his time and even today.