¶ … Voltaire's "Candide" (Blake and Kazin, 1976) contain aspects of anti-religious sentiments. Both epics are quasi-historical -- they provide a commentary on the prevailing times; both works also provide a view into Blake and Voltaire's personal opinions and leanings. Voltaire was educated by the Jesuits -- priests belonging to the society of Jesuits. Voltaire railed against the prevailing cultural and religious mores that sought to forget socio-economic conditions to satisfy some pre-ordained, religious (mis)interpretations of divine mandates. Blake, similarly, was mortified by the dualism practiced by the religious of the time. He did not like or appreciate the way in which every thing was seen from the point of black or white. If the Church deemed something unfit, the practitioner of that aspect of life came under severe remonstrations and even met the ultimate penalty of death. Both authors struggle against the fact that these rules were beneficial to those in the higher "estates," the ill-effects of which were borne by the common man. Today, moral relativism is much ballyhooed. During the days of Blake and Voltaire however, there was no room or tolerance for alternative worldviews. The following couplets describe the relationship between the two writers can be summed up in Blake's own words:
Mock on, Mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau,
Mock on, Mock on, 'tis all in vain (Blake and Kazin, 1976, p. 142)
Candide is several novels rolled into one. It involves romance, graphic violence, sexuality, philosophy, religious persecution and international intrigue. The narrative however, provides for one distinct thesis. Those who live real lives must forgo philosophy for pragmatism. The protagonist, Candide, starts out as a commoner in the home of a nobleman (Pangloss). To make a long story extremely short, he undergoes an Odyssean...
Aside from Candide and Pangloss, the character who suffers the most in this novel and demonstrates that the world is far from the best of all possible places is Cudgeon's servant, the old woman. With the characterization of the old woman, Voltaire makes it quite clear that he is satirizing human suffering and the value of philosophy that seeks to endorse or even defend one's existence in such a cruel
On the one hand his gesture can be interpreted as the desire to reconstruct the original garden of paradise. This hypothesis could be supported by the name of the character and the reader could understand that he maintains his innocence despite having seen and experienced the evil which characterizes the real world. The fact that he dedicates himself to gardening also suggest that his awareness regarding the fact that if
Candide LIFE IS WORTH LIVING Voltaire earned much fame and criticism at the same time for his powerful crusade against injustice and bigotry, expressed in brilliant literature. He went up against the government and the Catholic hierarchy, particularly because of the Grand Inquisition. His character, Candide, was very much patterned after his own personality and experience, but his character begins by believing in goodness as prevailing in the world and ends the
The group does not end up at a house or on the road or at a castle but in a garden, at work where new seeds can grow, yield produce and perhaps enhance the quality of life. As members of a small group of individuals away from the world's corruption, they can each have a personal task as well as set and reach goals together. This, after all, is what
" (Voltaire, Chapter 30) as much as the reader might have suspected Pangloss' increasing embitterment, irrational emotional ties to creed, in the world of the novel, still hold true, although rather than believe him or attempt to show disrespect towards the former tutor who has proved so useless to him, Candide stresses that the mans remarks are "excellently observed...but let us cultivate our garden." (Voltaire, Chapter 30) Let us, in other
He has refused to see the world clearly for so long, that once he has no choice other than to apprehend reality with its full force, it hurts him to see Cunegund grown ugly and shrill, and himself in mean and reduced circumstances. He resolves to find some inner strength and bear down upon his ill temperament, to make his garden grow and to take pleasure in the simple tasks
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