Candide

Voltaire’s Candide addressed many issues during the Enlightenment period including war, religion, society, disease, and many others. Through many techniques of writing, Voltaire was able to criticize these topics. In the case of Candide, Voltaire used optimism to disguise pessimism through satire. Using satire Voltaire was able to criticize religion, the social gap, and optimism in the 18th century.
In Candide, the church and religion was often the object of Voltaire’s satire. He was a deist like many of the other Enlightenment thinkers. When Candide was dressed in a Jesuit uniform, local inhabitants of a country wanted to eat Candide. They were attacking him for who he was at the moment. Voltaire also spared neither Protestants nor the Catholic Church. The orator is a satire of church officials who waste their time on petty squabbles over religi...