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While Voltaires Candide is heavily characterized by the primary concerns of the Enlightenment, it also criticizes certain aspects of the movement. It attacks the strain of optimism, religion, women, nobility, and colonialism. The name of the barony, Thunder-ten- trench, a guttural name that sounds almost primitive, mocks pretensions of nobility. It is not an especially rich barony, as the castle boasts few luxuries, and the baron wastes much of his time in idle frivolities. He lives off the labor of others, and the justification for his position is merely birth. Throughout Candide, Voltaire mocks the aristocracy's belief in natural superiority by birth.
The barons sister, for instance, refused to marry Candide's father because he only had seventy-one quarterings in his coat of arms. Her own coat of arms had seventy-two. The difference in rank is no difference at all. Voltaire implies that the difference between common and noble is no difference as well.
It is the product of a system that invents and sustains an unnatural and laughable hierarchy. The nobility infuses the accident of birth with meaning, where Voltaire suggests that it is meaningless. Candide's expulsion from the castle marks the beginning of his re-education via direct experience with the world. His experiences in the army and in war directly contradict Pangloss teaching that this is the best of all possible worlds.
In the army, the world appears to be full of evil, cruelty, and suffering. Powerful members of the nobility start wars, but common soldiers and subjects suffer the consequences. Neither side is better than the other, and both engage in rape, murder, and pillage. The world that Voltaire portrays does not have a predetermined, ordered balance of good and evil. Rather, the great deal of evil does nothing to highlight precious little good. The hidden kingdom is a utopia.
There is no organized religion. There are no religious disputes, and none of the inhabitants attempt to force systems of belief on others. Moreover, there are no petty squabbles and no lawsuits because everyone lives in harmony. There are no prisons. No one bows in the presence of the king. Instead, visitors greet him as his equals.
The kingdom has an advanced educational system, and poverty is non-existent. This world is clearly the best of the worlds and yet Candide has traveled through Europe, Asia, and the New World, and has found the same misery and suffering everywhere. But despite all the contrary evidence, he continues to adhere to Pangloss philosophy. However, Voltaires deep pessimism about human nature shines through the glittering portrait of the harmonious, utopian society. This world is almost completely inaccessible from the outside. In fact, Candide and Cacambo are remarkably lucky to ever have found it at all.
It is a world that cannot be found. And yet Candide wants to return immediately to the deeply flawed world outside. He wants to gather the common pebbles of the utopian kingdom so that he can return a hero. Candide and Cacambo succumb to the selfish greed of their own society.
They choose a chance at power and influence over others rather than a chance to live in a perfect society. Voltaire demonstrates that achieving a good society requires overcoming the drawbacks in human nature. The women in Candide represent most of the women in Europe during the time of the Enlightenment, in the story Cunegonde is portrayed as a very beautiful woman who is lusted over by Candide. Throughout the story Candide can t stop talking about her looks and how he wants to be with her. This seemed to be the typical idea through the ages that even though women were smart and able to carry on interesting conversations, like at salons; their looks seemed to be the only thing going for them. Even though women put together the salons and brought important figures, and even chose the topic of discussion, their importance seemed to be lost by most men.
Pangloss is a parody of idle philosophers who debate subjects that have no bearing on real social change. The name of his school of thought, metaphysics- theology-cosmolonigology, pokes fun at the absurdity of the verbal acrobatics of such idle thinkers. Pangloss is also a satire of Leibniz, a seventeenth century mathematician and philosopher who claimed that a pre-determined harmony pervaded the world. Both Pangloss and Leibniz claim that evil exists only to highlight good and that this world is the best possible one because God created it. Leibniz's concept of the world is part of a larger type of thinking called theodicy that attempts explain the existence of evil in a world created by an omniscient, omnipotent, perfectly good God. Voltaire criticizes this school of philosophical thought for its undiluted optimism.
If this is the best possible world, he questions, then why should anyone try to alleviate suffering?
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Research essay sample on Coat Of Arms Human Nature
