One common literary technique is the author's use of one or more of his characters as his 'voice' to speak out the authors views on a certain subject. For instance, in Moliere's Tartuffe, the author uses the character of Cleante to speak out against religious hypocrites (page 1419, lines 99-102):

Nothing that I more cherish and admire

Than honest zeal and true religious fire.

So there is nothing that I find more base

Than specious piety's dishonest face.

In Candide, Voltaire makes use of several characters to voice his opinion mocking philosophical optimism. On page 1594, Candide is asking a gentleman about whether everything is for the best in the physical world as well as the moral universe. The man replies:

...I believe nothing of the sort. I find that everything goes wrong in our world; that nobody knows his place in society or his duty, what he's doing or what he ought to be doing, an

Voltarie has occasion to use the comedic style of exaggeration in Candide, such as the Baron's sister refusing to marry Candide's father because he can only prove seventy-one quarterings of his family tree. Later, Candide is sentenced to receive a flogging for having deserted the Bulgar army. He must make thirty-six passes through the gauntlet of two thousand troops. More outlandish examples of exaggeration can be found in Gargantua and Pantagruel, such as the size of Gargantua's mare (as big as six elephants) or the weight of his dumbbells (each one is eight hundred and five tons). Beside being entertaining to read, these exaggerations serve to point out the ridiculousness of an ideal by showing it in a preposterous light.

By having this character take on such a pessimistic tone, he directly contradicts the obviously over-optimistic tone of Candide. In the conclusion (page 1617) an old turk instructs Candide in the futility of needless philosophizing by saying that "...the work keeps us from three great evils, boredom, vice, and poverty." In each of these examples, the character chosen by the author comes across as a reasonable and respectable person, making the author's point of view seem just as reasonable and respectable.

From these examples it can be seen how Voltaire, a writer from the Enlightenment period, uses methods from writers centuries before him to effectively communicate his point to his contemporary readers. The times and issues may be quite different, but the writing style works just as well for him as it did all the way back to the twelfth century.

d that outside of mealtimes...the rest of the day is spent in useless quarrels...-it's one unending warfare.

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Approximate Word count = 1141
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)