The Enlightenment and enlightened thought is often associated with eighteenth

century France because France is where the movement began and many of the leaders resided. The enlightened way of thinking became a revolutionary force against the

Church and its tyrannical control of people’s thoughts. The Enlightenment is often described as a balanced combination of both rationalism and empiricism. In this movement, knowledge was believed to be, for the first time, gained through research/observation and by using reason as the basis for thought. In Candide, Voltaire uses the main character of Candide to portray this new idea by having him born and raised in a class oriented, monarchial society and eventually travel throughout the world escaping his former society to make ob

Candide’s reformation came full circle at the end of the novel when he finally discovered the way of life that gave him true happiness. He came across a poor farmer one day and, much to his surprise, discovered that the farmer was truly happy and content by working all day every day to feed himself and his family. Candide decided to try this lifestyle and successfully found happiness by spending his days gardening and working feverishly on his farm. He found that this lifestyle allotted little time to think about philosophical views and worry about what class you were in and how oppressive the Church was. On his small farm with his family there were no noblemen, kings, or rules and this allowed everyone to do as they please without having to worry about the consequences. This is an example of the society that the ancient philosophers and thinkers of the eightennth century were trying to create during the Elightenment. A society where you learned everything by doing it yourself and simply did what made sense, not what some powerful leader told you to do.

By writing the novel, Candide, Voltaire was attempting to relay the new way of thinking during the Enlightenment by using metaphorical stories that can be applied to the every day lives of the working class people of his time. While he used extreme examples and exaggerated circumstances, this helped to expose the purpose of the novel. His novel was a success and is one of the

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