Candide Essay -- essays research papers

Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaires novella, Candide, incorporates many themes, yet concentrates a direct assault on the ideas of Leibniz and Pope. These two well-known philosophers both held the bandstand that the world created by God was the best of all possibilities, a world of perfect order and reason. Pope specifically snarl that each human be is a part of Gods great and all knowing plan or design for the world.Voltaire had a very opposite point of take hold of in that he saw a world of needless pain and suffering all around him. Voltaire, a deist, believed that God created the world, yet he felt that the people were living in a situation that was anything but perfect. Thus, the major theme of Candide is one of the world not being the best of all possibilities, sound of actions definitely not determined by reason or order, but by chance and coincidence.To prove his point, Voltaire uses pointed satire directed at various organizations and groups frequent in his time period. In particular, Voltaire takes aim at organized religion, in particular Catholicism, as well as aristocratic arrogance and warfare. All of Voltaires comments are precisely chosen to convey his point that those in power were completely corrupt in all their thoughts and actions.Throughout the entire book, Voltaire portrays religious men, such(prenominal) as monks and priests, as hypocrites who do not live up to the religious standards that they set upon others. Voltaire first attacks the men of the Church and their hypocrisy in chapter three. After escaping from the Bulgars, Candide was simply in need of nourishment and possibly medical attention, but could find no help. When he came upon a minister who had just spoken of charity, Candide asked for some food to eat, but was harshly turned away. After speaking of charity to others, the minister turned Candide away just because they didnt share the same view of the Pope. To fuck off matters worse, the ministers wife proceeded to thro w a pot of urine over Candides head. Voltaire used these rather repulsive acts to show the hypocrisy run aground in many church affiliated men of his time. iodine comminuted the minister was talking to the townspeople of charity and brotherly love, while the next minute he rudely dismissed a man in need of that very Christian ideal. While I dont completely take with Voltaire that the religious men of that time were so blatantly hypocritical, ... ... as it should be.Even after Candide traveled to England, he saw vicious acts of cruelty surrounding him. One example is the death of an admiral that did not have enough dead men to his credit, (111). Voltaire used this brutal death to show that the people of the times were more(prenominal) concerned with numbers than lives. A man was killed merely because he did not kill enough innocent victims. In Voltaires eyes, this was the worst form of viciousness he could imagine. In a world where everything has a purpose, Voltaire could not see where unreasonable deaths fit in. Although the novella, Candide, was partially written for entertainment purposes, it was primarily written to discredit the views of Leibniz and Pope. These philosophers felt that the world around them was just as God would have it, but Voltaire adamantly disagreed. He presented his point of view by satirizing the Church, the arrogance of aristocrats, and war and violence. Voltaire looked at the world with the idea that there could be something done about all the evil in the world. Although he knew the world would never be perfect, he wanted people to see that the world they were living in was one that could be improved upon.