Commentary and Analysis of Voltaire´s Candide - 536 Words

Candide Voltaire’s Candide is a satirical fiction that was meant as both an insult and a criticism to the wealthy nobility and the Catholic Church. Voltaire, major voice during the Enlightenment period, had a wide spread influence from England and France to Russia. Candide was massively circulated throughout Europe. Voltaire used Candide to offer his opinion of what was wrong with society: being that the wealthy were ungrateful, selfish people and the church was a ruthless, maniacal super power. The title character, Candide, is the illegitimate nephew of a German Baron (3). The Baron, throughout the book, always comes back to the fact that Candide has common blood, and refuses to let him marry his daughter (35). Voltaire uses this to show the pretentious, over inflated superior feeling that was common amongst the nobility of the time. The enlightenment was a period where people view point on the role of the kings changed drastically. The original theory of divine right, which stated that the kings were chosen and ordained by God to be the head of their states, was slowly replaced with the idea that the king was to serve the people and their needs. Enlightened despots such as Catherine the Great and Fredrick the Great enacted policies which were meant to lighten the burdens placed on the people. They built hospitals, decreased the amount of surfs and the harsh conditions, and even in some places built elementary schools. It was the enlightened despots whom Voltaire saw