Candide on the surface is a witty story. However when inspected deeper it is a philippic writing against people of an uneducated status. Candide is an archetype of these idiocracies, for he lacks reason and has optimism that is truly irking, believing that this is the best of all possible worlds. Thus Voltaire uses a witty, bantering tale on the surface, but in depth a cruel bombast against the ignoramuses of his times.

Candide has reason only in the form of a companion upon which he relies for advice. His companion is Dr. Pangloss. He consistently dribbles to Dr. Pangloss about what should be done. Eventually Pangloss is killed by being hanged. But this means that Candide’s reason is also dead! Candide goes and finds a new companion, “Lacking him [Pangloss], let’s consult the old woman” (37). He soon loses her, gains another, looses him, and then gains another. Thus we see that Candide can only

Finally we can see that Voltaire is writing a typical Enlightenment work because Candide is a jeremiad against those people that are lacking Enlightenment knowledge, by this of course, lacking the epitomes of the period: reason, senses and self-interest. Thus Voltaire is using a charming story to attack the people of his time who are against or are not Enlightened. Many other writers also attacked the ignoramuses of their time. For example Montesquie, a French philosopher used The Persian Letters to bombast French culture. Hence one reason that Candide is typically Enlightenment is because it makes fun of the reader who thinks that it is merely a comical story of a man and a quest for his lover.

Candide is consistently being brainwashed by reason (Pangloss) saying that we live in “the best of all possible worlds”, while it is quite obviously that he does not. For how can there be, in the best of all worlds, war, slavery and many more abom

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