VoltaireS Candide Essay Research Paper Voltaire — страница 2

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of Candide’s wild adventures is a result of being thrown out by Cunegund’s father. Her father, the baron, catches them kissing, and is so appalled that someone from a lower class would dare pursue his noble daughter. However, her father is then immediately killed by a bloody war that was going on. Later in the book, Cunegund’s brother, presumed to be dead, turns out to be alive and resumes his father’s position. Even after Candide saves Cunegund’s life, her brother still protests and states he will never allow the marriage because of his snobbery. Thus he faces the same fate as his father right after vowing to never allow the two to be together, this time at the hand of Candide’s sword. Even later in the book, it is discovered that he is once again still alive. This

time Candide saves him from slavery, but the brother still will not allow the marriage after all Candide has done. Voltaire is emphasizing just how deeply rooted noble arrogance is rooted in the minds of the nobles. Even after the noble has turned to slave, and has his life to owe to a friend, the noble snobbery still persists, even though it seems so absurd. In the end, Candide throws the brother back to slavery since he will not budge his position. This event is very important in Candide, because with the brother back in the galleys, there are nobles left at the end of the novel on the farm. This is so key because it illustrates Voltaire’s belief that nobility is useless and unnecessary in proper society. Voltaire also uses the character Don Fernando to portray arrogance of

nobles. His name itself is a mockery of nobles. His actual name is Don Fernando d’Ibaraa y Figueroro y Mascarenes y Lampourdos y Souza. It is quite obvious all these excessive last names further show just how absurd nobility can be. Don Fernando, like the baron, also is a very pompous and self-important. One of the other important satirical elements of the work is religious bigotry. There are numerous characters showing the hypocrisy of the church. The Grand Equisitor does just about everything the church is against. He is involved in much promiscuous activities, and is constantly having someone put to death. He is the one who orders Pangloss to be burnt and Candide to be whipped. However, Voltaire offs him by the hand of Candide’s sword, ending his mini reign of terror.

Friar Giroflee is another excellent example of the problems of the church. First off, he is always with a prostitute. He also squanders money, and had no desire to be religious, his parents forced him into for financial reasons. He also squanders money and is utterly miserable. Then there is also the reference to the Anabaptist. This is very interesting, because he is the only real sympathetic character in the whole novel. The great satire of this is that the Anabaptists were the really hated group of the time, yet he is the only character that is honorable through the whole story. This very much was a slap in the face of Protestants and Catholics of the day, and is very important in showing religious intolerance. As mentioned earlier, the bloody and bitter Seven Years War was

taking place during this stage of Voltaire’s life. With most of the philosophes, war was considered the most terrible and ignorant of all mistakes. So of course in Candide there had to be a mockery of war, and the Seven Years War at that. More generally, he was mocking militarism as a whole, especially the war machines such as Prussia. The war at the beginning of the novel between the Avars and Bulgars is indeed a reference to the Seven Years war between France and Prussia. The battle that he is forced to flee from and that leaves so many dead is actually even based on a real battle. He uses this battle to show just how bloody and savage war is. A great stroke of brilliance is starting the novel in Westphalia, the “the earthly paradise.” This paradise that is in “the best

of all possible worlds” quickly turns into a scene of massive death and rape. Then when Candide is forced to run the drills in the army, he becomes a skilled warrior. The torture and pain that he went through is a satire of what Voltaire himself witnessed while with Frederick of Prussia. Perhaps the saddest thing of all that Voltaire makes fun of is humans ourselves. Humans are very selfish, very vane, and easily bored. Voltaire makes us very aware of this, perhaps best through the city of El Dorado. It is true that all the characters are not good role models, selfish, scheming, unscrupulous, violent, greedy, and other such unpleasant words, but it is not until the city of El Dorado that we see a great point about the human condition. Quite simply, humans want, and humans need,