Satire in "Candide"

In the eighteenth century, the people of Europe began to open their eyes and see past the religious, political and philosophical dogma that had been blinding them for almost a thousand years. This era is now known as the Enlightenment and is a turning point in history that transformed the ancient world into its modern state. The fore-runners of this movement were artists and writers whose ideas, by way of their works, spread across the European continent and into other parts of the world. A country that symbolizes this movement is France, the home of the philosophes. The French novelist Voltaire satirizes certain institutions and beliefs in Candide in order to spread his messages across the globe. In his most famous work, Candide, he tells the tale of a young man’s adventures across the globe in search of his true love. While the title character travels, he learns to reject certain parts of society and the social structure. In Candide, Voltaire satirizes philosophy, romance, and rel...