Voltaire's Candide: Literary Analysis

Using a satirical approach, Voltaire seeks to expose much of the misguided notions of the renaissance period in his book, Candide, or Optimism. Despite humanism thriving, Candide’s experiences show that life in the 1700’s was not easy, nor fair. The world was becoming more complicated as religiosity, politics, economics, and social life underwent massive changes, yet for everyday folks such as Candide, Pangloss, and Cunegonde, these changes did not have an immediate impact on the commoners wellbeing. In reading this book as a primary historical source, one must use caution due to Voltaire’s hyperbolic approach; Despite the style, the book is useful as a historical source as it conveys the optimism coursing through Europe’s veins during the
Candide sees a jolly Theatinee friar with a girl around his arm, and invites them to dine with him and Martin, so that him and Martin can converse with the two and figure out whether they are happy or not. The friar is referred to as Gillyflower, and the girl, who is a prostitute, is named Daisy. Daisy first confessed her unhappiness and misfortune to Candide, as she explains the tribulations of her trade, and the idea is conveyed that she has no real freedom at all, and is treated like a piece of property by her husbands, and the judicial courts after her husbands death. The friar’s misfortunes seemingly represent the division amongst the Catholic church throughout the renaissance. He has been forced into the trade by his family, in order to heighten his older brother’s status and wealth. Gillyflower remarks that “jealousy, discord, and fury reside in our monastery”. Martin’s pessimism and realist attitude prove themselves to once again be true, as he answers Candide’s conviction that he “lacks faith” by stating it is because he has “seen the world”. As he does throughout the story, Voltaire seeks to assert that things, and people, are not what they seem, and that when viewing the world through a realistic lens, as Martin does, Europe is really not such a great, sophisticated society as one would