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.

Satirical Cruelty: Candide 4-9

Chapters four through nine have a lot of philosophical comments that at the beginning may sound confusing, but later on you realize are actually satirical elements put there by Voltaire.

In these chapters I could see how society was mocked when the author shows how tragic events were not given much importance by the characters. This could be seen in the scenes that followed the shipwrecks, storms and earthquakes, where the characters showed to be more concerned about other personal affairs, than by such tragedies. In a way, Voltaire is being satirical when he does that because he is saying that human beings, are very superficial and selfish, always concerned for their personal benefit, and not for the wellbeing of others, not even in the most terrible circumstances like the ones above. Another example beside the natural disasters is the personal tragedies of others, “During treatment Pangloss lost only one eye and an ear.”(31) This quote shows how Voltaire makes the characters so uninterested and uncompassionate about somebody else who has lost and eye and an ear by making it slightly bad. Loosing only one eye is something that will handicap a person forever, I say it because when my Dad lost one, it was very hard on him and it was very difficult to recover. The satirical element here is society itself and how humanity is so cruel and self centered.

I also found another example of this in the following citation, “private misfortunes contribute to the general good, so that the more private misfortunes there are, the more we find that all is well.”(31) When I read this segment I found it very true, because most of the time “somebody’s lose is our gain”, but putting it like that is just too perverse and evil, although it portrays the essence of society and how it functions. This could be linked to Macbeth as he and his wife benefit directly from the misfortune of others, especially on their death. When this occurs, these characters gain more social status and therefore more power. They begin to kill the people so that they can achieve the maximum position faster and more efficiently.

Later on after the earthquakes and the series of natural disasters, there is a specific comment that is mentioned that can be very shocking to the reader, “For it is impossible for things not to be where they are, because everything is for the best.”(35) What the character that said this meant, was that all of those terrible events were meant to happen for the best. This is too much of a positive attitude to be taken towards such tragedies. It is true that sometimes a loss or a bad thing will make you grow as a person and will open your mind, but most of the times tragic events may scar people eternally.

On the next page, I found this segment which caught my attention, “The authorities of that country could find no surer means of avoiding total ruin than by giving the people a magnificent auto-da-fé. (36) This auto-da-fé was the scarifying of people that were really innocent but were charged with the most absurd offenses under the superstition that the natural disasters would stop that way. The most ridiculous thing of all is that after they did this, another earthquake occurred and they did it again. By saying that it was a “magnificent auto-da-fé” Voltaire is being very sarcastic and is criticizing society for being so superstitious and ignorant.

Finally, in chapter IX, Voltaire targets the Inquisition and attacks it in a very harsh way through Candide’s behavior, “a jealous man in love doesn’t know what he is doing, especially if he has been whipped by the Inquisition.”(46) Here, he is blaming the impulsive behavior of Candide on the Inquisition and what it did on him. This is a very clear attack and Voltaire is not afraid to blame the Church for the troubles of the main character.

Vocabulary:

disembowelled: to cut or slash open the abdomen of, as by bayoneting, so as to expose or remove the viscera.