Candide Critical Thinkings Samples For Students

‘Institutional Affiliation’

Candide / Voltaire
Candide, penned by Voltaire, is one of the most significant literary works of the past few decades, not so much for its witty and humorous plot, as much for the way in which the author narrates the social and political issues of the eighteenth century, in a philosophical perspective. It is an excellent satiric novel that questioned many of the popular beliefs of its time and created much debate and criticism wherever it was published. The novel was so scandalous, that it was banned both by the church and secular authorities. In fact it was classified ...

Optimism has never done very well in literature, or any of the written media. From the very beginning, the stories that were recorded for posterity revolved around chaos, around, heartache, around tragedy. The Book of Job, considered by many to be the oldest part of the Old Testament, is about a wager between God and his adversary over the morals of a man; that man's family and possessions are the chattel in that wager. The earliest Greek writings include the tragedies of Sophocles and Aeschylus; the plots include twists that might even make the Kardashians blush: a son murdering his father (without ...

Gender roles and gender-related stereotypes are often depicted in literary works. For example, Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth” could be considered misogynistic because it promotes the stereotype that women are the root of all evil, manipulate men for their selfish needs, and create chaos because all female characters in the play show that form of behavior. On the other hand, it is also possible to notice the lack of stability and logic in the main character Macbeth who is depicted as a naïve, indecisive, and dependent character. In “Candide,” it is possible to notice that Voltaire depicts the vulnerability and ...

Gender roles and gender-related stereotypes are often depicted in literary works. For example, Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth” could be considered misogynistic because it promotes the stereotype that women are the root of all evil, manipulate men for their selfish needs, and create chaos because all female characters in the play show that form of behavior. On the other hand, it is also possible to notice the lack of stability and logic in the main character Macbeth who is depicted as a naïve, indecisive, and dependent character. In “Candide,” it is possible to notice that Voltaire depicts the vulnerability and ...

Candide is Voltaire’s attack on the philosophy of such Enlightenment thinkers as as Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, who believed that the present world was the best of all possible worlds, and that all things turn out for the best. They also believed that God exists, and since God has to be perfect, his world has to be perfect as well. The only reason that people see imperfection in the world is that they have limitations on their understanding. The violence that happens around (and to) Candide, and his fellow optimist, Pangloss, is Voltaire’s way of ridiculing the ...