Molière and Voltaire are thought to be the masters of satire due to their outstanding literary artworks. Their stories usually focus on the modern society, which is usually full with flaws. The authors are responsible for making those flaws not only obvious to the readers, who are not always educated, but also showing them in a humorous way. This genre was very popular back then, but it can still be seen in on TVs and in the modern books. However, nowadays, people are free to express their dissatisfaction with the world. Back then, it was often dangerous to go against the leaders of the countries. Satire definitely made it a lot easier (and safer) to laugh at the rottenness of the people in power, and thus it was an essential tool in literature of the past. Without satire, many books would lose their charm. In this paper, I’m going to prove this statement with some of the examples from Molière’s “Tartuffe” and Voltaire’s “Candide” that both contain a big portion of satire, which helps the stories develop and builds their paces.
“Candide” has a lot of vibrant characters, and each of them carries a certain purpose. It can be supposed that each of them carries a certain fatal flow, which the author makes fun of. For the main character, Candide, it would be self-confidence and naivety. For Vanderdendur, that would be an excessive violence towards the people of lower social class. For the priests that are killed by Candide, it would be greed and corruption. Interestingly enough, in “Candide,” the Church is shown as a terrible rotten institution, which needs nothing but money and which has lost its divine purpose long time ago. The contrast between social classes – the poor and the rich – is also a satirical exaggeration. This contrast is demonstrated throughout the story, when Candide meets the suffering ones on his way.
Not always satire was “pro-humor.” It cannot be said for sure that in “Candide,” Voltaire is on Pangloss’ side. On the contrary, when I read the book, it seemed to me that Voltaire disapproved such a reckless optimism that Pangloss was full of. Voltaire made his life very hard: Pangloss was poor, and at some point he caught syphilis. Everything pointed out at the fact that his positive attitude wasn’t welcome in this tough world. Maybe Pangloss was also a victim of Voltaire’s satire. Voltaire laughed at him and his inability to open his eyes and see the world in its real state. His disease doesn’t kill Pangloss, but damages his ear and eye, which once again hints on the weak spots of the character. He views syphilis as a price that people paid for the goods brought from America. It seems that in Voltaire’s eyes, syphilis is a price for Pangloss’ naivety. Of course, nowadays it’s hard to understand what exactly is bad about being optimistic. But European society back then was serious and conservative and viewed optimism as stupidity, because the world was obviously dark and cruel, and being optimistic about it only looked absurd.
“Tartuffe” is much more about religion and the Church, than about anything else. With this piece, Molière shows the readers that the Church has lost all the ethics and values that it someday had. Priests teach people certain ideas but never follow them themselves. They work in the house of God, but they are filled with lust and greed. The central character of the book, Tartuffe, is an image of all the sins that can be present in one human body. It seems like while in “Candide,” every character has one certain fatal flow, Molière just gave it all to Tartuffe.
The character is ready to do everything to gain money, power and influence. He manipulates Orgon by first winning his trust, and then trying to get all his money, marry his wealthy daughter and have an affair with his wife. Being satirically naïve, Orgon trusts him and keeps defending him in the eyes of his friends and relatives. The fact that Tartuffe is religious means a lot to Orgon, and of course, he doesn’t realize that people that are connected with the Church are also capable of being mean and doing nasty things. He approves of Tartuffe so much that he doesn’t even ask his own daughter if she wants to marry this person.
Clearly, these two literary artworks are very alike, although they do have some major differences. The main feature that unites them is obviously satire. Both of them would be pretty violent stories about deadly sins that surround us, and people that are hopeless and will never change, if satire weren’t there. Satire makes it much easier to understand for all kinds of readers, and therefore it makes the stories look less violent. Of course, the laughter that they produce is not a happy one. It’s that moment when one understands that what he reads is sad but true, and that nothing can be really done about it. Satire also made it easier for the writers to publish, because it didn’t directly laugh at the people in power, and thus the writers couldn’t be blamed for disagreeing with current politics. However, it is known that “Tartuffe” was opposed by the Church. When it came out, the influence of the Church was still great, and the King himself had to insist on the performance of “Tartuffe” to happen. The Church didn’t want people to turn against it, because it manipulated everything that was going on in the state. The state and the Church were in close relations during that time, and the opinion of the Church was not the least important.
Satire played a key role in the works of Molière and Voltaire. In this paper, I have proved that satire was important for literary works of the past, because it gave the stories their colors and vibrancy. On the example of two pieces, I have showed how satire worked, what it concentrated on, and how it helped the authors to achieve their final goals. Both “Tartuffe” and “Candide” were quite popular back then. Their fame can be connected with the fact that the genre of satire was accessible and clear for all the social classes, and literally anyone could understand it and laugh at those who have power but abuse it.
Works Cited:
"Satire." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2016.
Molière. Tartuffe. San Francisco: Chandler Pub., 1962. Print.
Voltaire. Candide. New York: Dover Publications, 1991. Print.
"Examples of Satire in 'Candide'" Examples of Satire in 'Candide' N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2016.
"Tartuffe Study Guide." Tartuffe Study Guide. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2016.
