Voltaire's Candide

A detailed Summary of Voltaire's Candide


Voltaire wrote Candide for many reasons. He used it to present his opinions on the state of society and on the ideas and theories put forth by his contemporaries. He used the character of Pangloss to satire Leibnitz and his view that this world was the best world because God had created it. All of the misery and greif shown in the story, and the constant referral by Candide to Pangloss' philosophy is meant to show Leinbitz to be a fool. Candide is also meant to show Voltaire's pessimistic view on the human being and on society. He shows the perfect society of el dorado in order to demonstrate to Candide how corrupt and full of prejudice (relating to religion, class, etc) his society was, but instead Candide and Cacambo showed their greed by le


aving el dorado with gold and jewels in order to gain wealth and notoriety in their world. Voltaire was even as specific as to attack Elie-Catherine Freron, a critic of his, in Candide by making her the insufferable critic at the French play. To make a long story short, Voltaire was trying to make everyone see how ridiculous and dumb they looked to be involved in petty squabbles on religion or class when none of that mattered. He is stressing the importance of equality, and his belief that humans cause their own misery thru greed and prejudice.

Voltaire lived in a time when Europe was very much a devout religious, autocratic society, but the advent of science and geology were challenging convention, such as the creation of the world in seve

Some common words found in the essay are:
Elie-Catherine Freron, Candide Pangloss', , Rosseau Candide, Candide Cacambo, Liebnitz's Optimists, Utopia Candide, el dorado, religion class,

Approximate Word count = 502
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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