Essay Comparing Candide And Tartuffe

A French philosopher and writer, Voltaire, wrote the novella Candide in the late 17th Century. Candide is a dark comedy describing many atrocities and dark events throughout the life of the eternal optimist, Candide, the main character. A similar masterpiece, Tartuffe, was written in the 17th century by Moliere as a satirical display of religious hypocrisy. Tartuffe is a production of vice and virtue that involves a witty and brusque family that idolizes a single religious figure who tries to insinuate himself into their lives. The two masterpieces, Candide, and Tartuffe, display exaggerated evil and whimsical events of religious hypocrisy and fanaticism, yet Moliere and Voltaire use very different writing styles to achieve that. Voltaire's masterpiece, Candide, has a contrary writing style to Moliere in Tartuffe. Voltaire fancies listing things throughout Candide, along with creating unnecessary run on sentences, and too much punctuation including; dashes, commas, and semicolons. Where as, Tartuffe, is written in a play format with short and snippy sentences, creating incomplete fragments of sentences and dialogue.
Voltaire created Candide as a large, lighthearted, well developed, cast, that were created through dialogue and actions of the characters. On the other hand, Moliere attacked Tartuffe in a smaller, serious, less developed cast, where some characters were more predominant than others, but similarly to Voltaire, all characters were developed through dialogue and actions. Tartuffe was written in an AA-BB rhyming style, clashing with its scholarly diction allows the reader to comprehend it fairly well. Similarly, Candide, was written with scholarly diction; however, it was easier to read with the novella format style, allowing modern audiences to comprehend it better than Tartuffe. Both Candide and Tartuffe use their dramatic ironic tone, writing style and diction to execute a religious satirical masterpiece. Candide and Tartuffe, the main characters, are the buffoons of the story who experience the consistent quick shifts in the plot. The stories deliver direct criticism of religious hypocrisy and fanaticism towards the Roman Catholic church in the 17th Century. For example, Tartuffe himself, was the evident symbol of hypocrisy and fanaticism throughout the play. Tartuffe was obsessively concerned over by the family and attempted to use God to insert himself in the family to take the inheritance. The symbol of religious hypocrisy and fanaticism does not lie within Candide, but in minor characters briefly encountered by Candide.
The Jesuit Baron in Candide is the main symbol of religious hypocrisy, which is demonstrated through talk of the marriage of Candide and Cunegonde. “.... you would have the effrontery to marry my sister, who has seventy-two quarterings!... "(123). The Baron, Cunegonde’s ‘dead’ brother, disapproves of Candide not only because of his attributes but for his social status and wealth. Religious hypocrisy is directly planted in the Jesuit Baron brother, a holy man, who is concerned more with fleshly desires rather than in the souls of others. The religious fanaticism in Candide is displayed from an orator's wife, who dumps a bucket of waste on Candide after giving an indirect answer when he was asked if he believed the Pope was the Antichrist. The orator's wife displays the fanaticism by cursing and dumping human waste on Candide because of his disagreement to their beliefs. Voltaire distributes his religious hypocrisy and fanaticism to multiple groups; whereas, Moliere plants his hypocrisy and fanaticism in Tartuffe.
Candide and Tartuffe are written with characters and events of good and evil that create juxtapositions.
For example, Candide claims to be the best man in the world but then murders three men, two of them priests. “... I am the best man in the world, and here are three men I’ve killed already, and two of the three were priests,” (123). In Tartuffe, the grandmother of the family, Madame Pernelle, wanted the family name to be upheld by supporting Tartuffe, but did not see the hidden evil of Tartuffe which would curse the family name. In both stories several instances of good and evil juxtapositions, first seeing the good intentions of the characters, followed by the exaggerated evil that lies underneath the event. Good and evil juxtapositions, as well as excess and moderation, are themes commonly revisited throughout both Candide and
Tartuffe.
In Candide, there is excessiveness and moderation of events, vice, and virtue, that Voltaire has carefully placed in his masterpiece. Candide and his comrade Cacambo travel to the land of El Dorado where there is an excessive amount of wealth in the city. The local children play games with diamonds and rubies, and the mud is yellow from the amount of gold content present. El Dorado, along with Candide’s excessive, undying, optimism, and the amount of physical violence in the story, represent Voltaire's work with excessive exaggerations. Voltaire uses a balance of moderation in the last sentence of the story in contrast with the excessive exaggeration. “That is very well put, said Candide, but we must cultivate our garden”(159). Voltaire's use of moderation in his closing sentence allows the reader to understand the modesty the characters finally accept in hard labor, contrasting to their previous life of exaggeration. Moliere demonstrates a similar style of excess and moderation both against and in favor for Tartuffe. Tartuffe is worshipped overtly by select members of the family including, Madame Pernelle and Orgon, in Moliere’s performance. The excessive praise and adoration towards the antagonist, Tartuffe, contrasts with a character who represents the moderation; Cleante. Cleante, the brother-in-law of Orgon, disagrees with Madame Pernelle and Orgon’s opinion of the beloved Tartuffe. Cleante acts as the moderation in the story by shedding light on Tartuffe’s hypocrisy and the ridiculous fanaticism the character portrays. Candide and Tartuffe are both religious satirical masterpieces written by master authors in the 17th Century. Candide and Tartuffe contain similar diction, style, and themes displayed through events of excessiveness, moderation, as well as, dialogue and actions. Candide and Tartuffe demonstrate religious hypocrisy and fanaticism, good and evil juxtapositions, and dramatic irony. Although, Candide and Tartuffe are very different in when looked at in structure and the direct and indirect display of message. Candide demonstrates direct philosophical conversations and intentions, while Tartuffe, does not. Tartuffe demonstrates religious hypocrisy and fanaticism directly to its readers, while Candide demonstrates the theme throughout minor characters and events. Voltaire and Moliere created two separate, but equally notable, masterpieces through structure, style, and theme, that are still today expertly executed in the realm of literature.