Voltaire’s View on Social Status During the Enlightenment Pe
In the eighteenth-century, Europe was going through the Enlightenment era that offered not seventeenth-century absolutism but of different views on science, religion and politics, Voltaire, a famous French philosopher, wrote Candide during this period. The novel Candide was written by Voltaire as a result of the many hardships he had suffered during his life and the events that led him to write Candide was the earthquake in Lisbon in 1775, the Seven Years War in 1756 and the execution of an English Admiral John Byng in 1757. The purpose of this book was to show his criticism and satire against the nobility, the church and the cruelty of this time period and Voltaire succeeded in showing this purpose by Candide being one of the best novels during the Enlightenment era. In this novel, Voltaire’s perception of the social relations in Europe during the eighteenth century is one of the major themes. Voltaire believes that with higher social status one is able to separate themselves into different classes. This can be proved in Candide by comparing Candide, Baron von Thunder-ten-tronckh and Cunegonde and the many servants that were introduced in the novel.If one reads a book or novel about history, one will always read about th
In the novel, many servants were introduced and Voltaire showed each of these servants as being wise and intelligent. With the servants, Voltaire shows the reader that the lower class does not mean being less intelligent or wise or having a worse life compared to that of a higher class. According to Voltaire, the French philosopher, all people are created equal. He shows this by introducing us to Cunegonde after she left the house. Cunegonde once a daughter of the Baron has her life now reduced to “serve as a kitchen-maid” (49). After she was forced out of the house and was serving as a kitchen maid, she still sees herself being superior and of a higher class than the servants. This proves that during the Enlightenment era that a person of a higher social status is able to separate themselves into a class of their own no matter what they become in life. e social relations, which separated different people into different classes. As seen in the eighteenth-century, people started to protest against the higher class such as the right hand man of the kings and the nobilities. In Candide, Voltaire first shows us the separation of classes between Candide, Baron Thunder-ten-Tronckh and Cunegonde. In the begi
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Approximate Word count = 818
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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