How Does Voltaire Use Torture In Candide

Other philosophers also joined Voltaire’s advocacy for legal equality in order to progress society and its people towards enlightenment. Beccaria who condemned torture and believed it was cruelty “to torture the accused during his trial, either to make him confess the crime or clear up contradictory statements” (Perry 79). He believed torture was immoral because if it were certain that the accused had committed the crime, then their confessions would be of no use. You would fairly punish them in that case. However, torture often led to conviction of individuals who had performed no crime, but were forced to accept it wrongfully in order to evade brutal torture. The individuals who committed the crime were strong willed and minded, therefore

John Howard who disputed for prison reforms in order to make them suitable for human necessities. Firstly, people were being tried and convicted of crimes they never did and second of all, the prisons they were detained in were not fit for human survival. “You see prisoners, covered (hardly covered) with rags; almost famished; and sick of diseases” (Perry 81). The prisoners were infected with several diseases and other famine due to unsanitary conditions. They also lacked enough food and water needed to survive and were forced to sleep on hard floors and were loaded with heavy irons to torture them. Conditions of these prisoners were inhumane as they deprived the wrongfully convicted and sometimes the actual criminals from the basic necessities of life violating their natural right to life. Condemning such customs became a focal point of Howard’s advocacy for a progressive society for the betterment of people and the judicial system. Like Voltaire, Howard also supported the treatment of mankind to be moral and just not conditional on whether they were criminals or not but