Candide Optimism Voltaire Analysis

Voltaire is considered one of the most controversial writers in the eighteenth century. His life went through many turns and obstacles because of his criticism towards the regime. Satire was common in his writings, most notably in “Candide, or Optimism”. Voltaire satirizes concepts and philosophies in this novel through the characters, their sayings and actions, and their trips to various fiction and real countries. Indeed, he succeeded in using satire to deliver his own points of view. This essay focuses on: Voltaire’s life and Candide’s publication, notions of optimism and Voltaire’s attack on them, women’s role in the eighteenth century’s society through the three female characters, and Voltaire’s satire on many elements of the European society.

Voltaire didn’t have that quiet life of other writers. Voltaire was born to a rich family and became a law student according to his father’s will. Later, he devoted all his life to writing and got imprisoned for a year because of his first satire writing against the Regent (Fraser, 2012). Then, he fled to England

The first publication of Candide had one thousand copies distributed each in Paris, Geneva, and Amsterdam. In 1759, there was an attempt to seize its publication (Fraser, 2012). Candide is related to the context of Voltaire’s life and the event that happened at that time. At the beginning, he related the story’s origin to the German text about Dr. Ralph that he has made up to distance himself from its publication. Later, he confessed that he is the real author of the novel in 1768. Moreover, Candide can be put under different genres: travel narrative, dystopia, philosophical tale, and satire. First, travel narrative as the characters travel from a place to another. It has lots of description and narrations and it is used to criticize societies. Then, a dystopian work as it shows the imperfect, impracticable world the humans live