Use Of Satire In Candide

As depicted in his novel Candide, a French satire written in the eighteenth-century, Voltaire stood as an indisputably witty writer. Throughout Candide, Voltaire targeted philosophical optimism, war, and religion: what he considered to be the ills of the world. His primary purpose in writing Candide was to oppose the philosophical theory of optimism. This anger towards optimism primarily arose as a consequence of the 1755 earthquake in Lisbon. He felt a deep compassion for the thousands of victims of the earthquake and did not believe the optimists’ explanation that “everything happens for the best of all possible worlds” was sufficient. In addition, he began to seriously question the idea of an all-good, all-powerful God who allowed his children to live in a world full of suffering. Through the use of satire, irony, and exaggeration, Voltaire strategically and successfully challenged optimism, war, and religion: issues that affect all of mankind. François-Marie d'Arouet, more commonly referred to as Voltaire, was born in Paris, France in 1694. When he was a mere seven years of age, his mother passed away. Following her death, he formed a close relationship with his godfather and
Voltaire used humorous characterizations of the “typical” optimist, or in the case of Candide, a man named Pangloss, to argue that optimism served as a ridiculously passive and inaccurate approach to life. The very name Pangloss symbolized a person who, despite the circumstances, remained naïve and optimistic. Pangloss had a tendency to disregard all the bad things that happened in the world and he never strove to find a further explanation than it being for the “best of all possible worlds”. The idea of the “best of all possible worlds” presented itself numerous times only to be refuted by Voltaire through satire and exaggeration. For example, Voltaire described a war scene in which there were