Voltaire Was a French Writer who Popularized Revolutionary Goals.

Voltaire was a French writer who popularized many of the revolutionary goals of the enlightenment. He wrote Candide in 1759, to get his philosophical points across and used optimism as the main theme of his novel. Voltaire was born Francois-Marie Arouet in 1694. Since his childhood, he was described as witty, bold and rebellious. Although Voltaire caused a lot of trouble as a child became an important person as an adult. He had an opposition to organize religion and believed in having the right to dissent and oppose authority.

Candide is part of the Enlightenment because he believed and popularized many of the goals, such as; human rights, the value of freedom and tolerance, and the urgent desire to end human suffering where he could. The point of the Enlightenment was to encourage individualism while also having the belief that logical thinking could lead to human improvement and Candide believed in that. We could better understand Candide by reading Marquis De Sade’s theory on how humans are naturally cruel and how destruction leads to a type of evolution.

Voltaire and De Sade are two theorists who played different parts in the enlightenment. By reading De Sade we can understand Voltaire’s point of view. De Sade believes that cruelty comes natural and claimed that humans are naturally cruel. He favored freedom and believed that cruelty and destruction lead to a type of evolution. De Sade did not deny God but he was curious about him and had questions. Candide was no atheist, he knew that there had to be a superhuman spirit or being that had power over nature and humans if one didn’t already exist.

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De Sade claims that things are the way they are supposed to be and that one should always try to be optimistic no matter what they have to endure. He also believed in having the right to have your own opinion towards others and oppose authority.

De Sade and Candide both have similar views on God and how they believe one should live their life. Candide claimed that God steps back and let’s nature take its course, “God gave them reason, then left them free to use it.”’. while De Sade claims that because God is cruel it is natural for humans to be. By reading De Sade we can learn to understand why in Candide they experienced what they did. The tribulations lead Candide to have a different view on things when he reflected on all the hardships he and the people around him had to endure. Candide once said that “If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him”. He created his own religion called Deism which is, “faith in a God who created the world and then stands back, allowing nature to follow its own laws and never intervening.”

De Sade once asked, “how there could be a God when evil existed in the world.”But he did not deny him, he said that God must be cruel and malicious himself. So that meant that humans had the natural right to choose to be cruel. The fact that De Sade believes that humans have a right to choose to be cruel we can understand why in Candide there were many people who did outrageous things. Such as when the old lady explained how the guards ended up eating their two eunuchs and one buttock of each woman in the harem. The old lady explained how the Aga reacted to this by saying, “His eloquence was splendid, and he persuaded them.” Meaning that he chose to be cruel to the women because he saw it as there was no other choice. The cruelty that the people of Candide endured led them to a different type of evolution; completely changing the way that they thought. The definition of evolution is, “The gradual development of something” (Oxford). In the beginning, Candide was optimistic even throughout his trials but because he suffered in the end we could say that he may think of life differently. Candide killed many people on his endeavor to Cunégonde. Such as when he killed the baron without hesitation because he believed that men are equal but Cunegonde’s brother disagreed.

He is no longer naive so he has a different view on life. Candide and Pangloss maintained the attitude that “everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.” (find page number) But Candide ended up going through challenges that caused him to question just that. Such as slavery, prison, and watching people be distorted made everyone think twice about being optimistic. At the end, Candide was enlightened because he learned that no matter how much money or power one has he cannot be a part of something that he was not born into. Such as when he tried to marry Cunégonde at the end again but her brother still refused.

De Sade and Voltaire are important people to understand because they help one see that hardships will come in life because cruelty is natural to humans. The importance of knowing that cruelty comes naturally to humans is because hardships will come to one’s life but it all depends on how one decides to look at it. Candide stayed optimistic and kept trying no matter what, in the end he got what he wanted but by that time came he was not impressed and it really wasn’t what he wanted. De Sade claims that we are born cruel so when we look at Candide we can think twice about why the people treated Candide, Cunégonde, and the others the way they did and understand why their circumstances changed their point of view on life and evolution was born in their life.

References

1. Works Cited “Candide.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Gen. ed. Martin Puchner. 4th ed. Vol. D. New York: Norton, 2019. 372-431. Print.
2. Francois- Marie, Arouet. “Voltaire.” The Norton of Anthology of Word Literature. Gen. ed. Martin Puchner. 4th ed. Vol. D. New York: Norton, 2019. 369-372. Print
3. Marquis, De Sade. “From philosophy in the bedroom.” The Norton of Anthology of World literate. Gen. ed. Martin Puchner. 4th ed. Vol. D. New York: Norton, 2019. 137-140. Print.
4. “Evolution.” Oxford-learners dictionaries. Com. Oxford learners, 2019. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/evolution
5. Web. January 30 2019.