Voltaire's 'Exam Questions On Candide'
Ryan Sniffen
Candide
History Exam Question
Voltaire was born in 1694 in Paris and at the time Louis XIV was king of France. He received an education at the college of Louis-le Grand, he was very intelligent. Voltaire words attacked the church and the state which earned him widespread name going against the church. In the 1750s, Voltaire during this time saw disaster all around him, which helped him be more influenced with his composition of Candide; when a disaster earthquake devastated Lisbon in 1755 he saw disaster before writing Candide. He wrote a long poem about the earthquake, which he interpreted as a sign of Gods Indifference towards humanity. The earthquake represented all the terrible natural events for which no reasonable reason can be founded for. Voltaire tutor Pangloss, tries his best to fabricate the justifications …show more content…
to maintain a philosophical approach to life. In 1759, he wrote Candide, which was considered to be Voltaire signature work that criticizes against philosophy, the church, and cruelty. The novel satires a number of Enlightenment philosophies and he demonstrates that the Enlightenment was far from a monolithic movement. The Enlightenment is the name for a movement that has a wide variety of ideas and advances in the fields of science, philosophy, and medicine. Historians mark the French Revolution as the crowning event of the Enlightenment era. They attacked the church and rebelled against fear and prejudice. Candide reflects Voltaire lifelong aversion to the Christian regimes of power but it also criticizes philosophical movements of the Enlightenment.
Voltaire strongly opposed certain Enlightenment ideas about the social class. Some Enlightenment thinker’s prompted the idea of the enlightened monarch as an alternative to a radical reformation of a society, but he did not. Pangloss was a philosopher and became Candide tutor who was well respected. His optimistic belief that “this world is the best of possible worlds”, is one of the reason he was a target of the novel satire. Pangloss own experience contradict this belief, but remains faithful. This optimistic sentiment is the main target of Voltaire satire. Voltaire dislikes and is most eager to criticize as the opposite of what Enlightenment stands for. First his philosophy fillies in the face of overwhelming evidence from the real world. Pangloss maintains his optimistic philosophy even at the end of the novel, when he admits that he has trouble believing in it. So, Voltaire advocates the ideas from concrete evidence. But, Pangloss ignore any evidence that contradicts his initial opinion. So Voltaire used Pangloss as a representative figure of the Enlightenment because he
disliked and criticize what the Enlightenment stands for.
Candide
History Exam Question
Voltaire was born in 1694 in Paris and at the time Louis XIV was king of France. He received an education at the college of Louis-le Grand, he was very intelligent. Voltaire words attacked the church and the state which earned him widespread name going against the church. In the 1750s, Voltaire during this time saw disaster all around him, which helped him be more influenced with his composition of Candide; when a disaster earthquake devastated Lisbon in 1755 he saw disaster before writing Candide. He wrote a long poem about the earthquake, which he interpreted as a sign of Gods Indifference towards humanity. The earthquake represented all the terrible natural events for which no reasonable reason can be founded for. Voltaire tutor Pangloss, tries his best to fabricate the justifications …show more content…
to maintain a philosophical approach to life. In 1759, he wrote Candide, which was considered to be Voltaire signature work that criticizes against philosophy, the church, and cruelty. The novel satires a number of Enlightenment philosophies and he demonstrates that the Enlightenment was far from a monolithic movement. The Enlightenment is the name for a movement that has a wide variety of ideas and advances in the fields of science, philosophy, and medicine. Historians mark the French Revolution as the crowning event of the Enlightenment era. They attacked the church and rebelled against fear and prejudice. Candide reflects Voltaire lifelong aversion to the Christian regimes of power but it also criticizes philosophical movements of the Enlightenment.
Voltaire strongly opposed certain Enlightenment ideas about the social class. Some Enlightenment thinker’s prompted the idea of the enlightened monarch as an alternative to a radical reformation of a society, but he did not. Pangloss was a philosopher and became Candide tutor who was well respected. His optimistic belief that “this world is the best of possible worlds”, is one of the reason he was a target of the novel satire. Pangloss own experience contradict this belief, but remains faithful. This optimistic sentiment is the main target of Voltaire satire. Voltaire dislikes and is most eager to criticize as the opposite of what Enlightenment stands for. First his philosophy fillies in the face of overwhelming evidence from the real world. Pangloss maintains his optimistic philosophy even at the end of the novel, when he admits that he has trouble believing in it. So, Voltaire advocates the ideas from concrete evidence. But, Pangloss ignore any evidence that contradicts his initial opinion. So Voltaire used Pangloss as a representative figure of the Enlightenment because he
disliked and criticize what the Enlightenment stands for.