Aristocracy and Religious Oligarchy: Candide 10-15

In chapters ten through fifteen Voltaire targets the Catholic Church and its power in society, as well as he points out the resentment that the people have towards the high social classes.

On one of these chapters, there is a satiric element used by the author to criticize how society, especially the lower classes were very ignorant and enjoyed the misery of others. We can see this in the following quote, “It is wonderful how quickly these gentlemen can strip people; but what surprised me more was that they put their fingers into a place where we women admit nothing but a syringe-tube. This seemed to be an unusual custom...”(51) After reading this, anybody would deduce that the acts committed were in a form raping women. The women their selves are completely ignorant of what was being done to them and this female character uses words such as “wonderful” to describe the situation. This is obviously a satiric element used by Voltaire.

Some pages later, the author makes a direct attack to the Catholic Church. “The reverend fathers own the whole lot, and the people own nothing: That’s what I call a masterpiece of reason and justice.”(62) This is very sarcastic and offensive to the Church which had all the power and money of the people. The priests manipulated everyone and they demanded many things from the people. By using words such as “masterpiece and justice” when referring to the abuse of the religious leaders with the civilians is definitely the sarcastic element used by Voltaire. I can relate this directly to the ideologies that Voltaire proposed during his time, especially the one that said that the Church and the State should be separated and that there should be freedom and tolerance of religion.

Later on, another attack is made, but this time against the people’s behavior during this times and how they blamed it on the higher social classes. This was mainly due to their resentment towards those upper classes that had all the power and that abused of the rest of the people. This could be related as well to the French Revolution or at least the beginning of this important movement, where the people of France had to revolt against the aristocracy to be able to gain some rights. There is a perfect example of the impulsive behavior of the people before the revolution, as their anger accumulated against the most wealthy and powerful such as the members of the church, “I have killed my old master, my friend and my brother- in -law. I am the best tempered man there ever was, yet I have already killed three men, and two of them were priests!”(67) The example that related even better to the French Revolution is the following quote, “My master Pangloss used to tell me that men are equal...”(67) Here Voltaire addresses the equality of men through Candide and in a way it is an incentive for the people to meditate about their rights as human beings and as citizens of a nations. Voltaire was definitely one of founding fathers of the revolution and he was the person that most desired to have a society where the religions were separate from the government and there was no involuntary actions from part of the people to join the Church. The respect for human rights and civil liberties were the main objectives that Voltaire had, and Candide is the written proof of that. This novel is a legacy, not only because of its political and philosophical content, but because of the satire it uses to achieve a literary style that was of significant reflections and profundity.