Candide Essay Assignment
TA: Véronique Church-Duplessis
Tutorial: 7-8 SS 2104
Sajid Borhan
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Voltaire in his novella Candide portrays the adventures of a young man named Candide as he faces numerous difficulties after he is forced to leave his sheltered life of the court. Voltaire, in his satire, explores many themes. Voltaire being a critic of the Church does not show the religious institutions and the people associated with it in good light, as demonstrated by the various characters in Candide. There are few portrayals of religious characters in a positive tone. This essay will discuss and analyze Voltaire’s view on religion and how he expresses his discontent and negative impression. This essay will discuss the theme of religion as portrayed in the novel and will further reinforce Voltaire’s view on certain aspects with other primary and secondary sources. Religious intolerance was a subject Voltaire dealt with in many of his works, especially Candide. The part where Candide escapes from the Bulgarians and encounters a Protestant man and women who drive Candide away by throwing garbage on him shows religious intolerance and religious zeal, “The orator's wife, putting her head out of the window, and spying a man that doubted whether the Pope was Anti-Christ, poured over him a full.... Oh, heavens! To what excess does religious zeal carry the ladies...” There are many characters present in Candide which are associated with religion; however Voltaire sharply criticises and presents these characters in negative roles with the exceptions of a few including James the Anabaptist. This particular character saves and takes care of Candide and Pangloss. Anabaptists during the writer’s time were not accepted and favoured by society and Voltaire further tries to illustrate the imperfection of the world by death of the Anabaptist when he was trying to save an ungrateful sailor. By this Voltaire symbolises of how a good character dies for a worthless cause. Voltaire being a French Catholic is very critical of his religion. He on the other hand to certain extent favours Protestantism to Catholicism and even denounces some Catholic practices such as baptism in his series of essays Lettres philosophiques, “we are not of opinion that the sprinkling water on a child's head makes him a Christian". In Lettres philosophiques, Voltaire talks about the English nation and for a major part elaborates on the religious scene there and in most of the cases present the English religious communities in a more positive light regardless of them being Protestants. In Candide Voltaire further explores the corruption of the clergy and their disdainful characteristics. The religious characters in the novella are depicted as the most sinful of all, engaging in adultery, homosexuality and operating as jewel thieves. There are many characters present in the novella that further elaborates Voltaire’s impression upon the clergy. A blatant example would be the Grand Inquisitor and how such a high ranking clergyman engages in hypocritical and immoral behaviour. Voltaire being critical of superstition portrays how superstition influences society. An instance would be how even a centre of learning, the University of Coimbra justifies the earthquake by burning people alive, “...for it had been decided by the University of Coimbra, that the burning of a few people alive by a slow fire, and with great ceremony, is an infallible secret to hinder the earth from quaking.” The Grand Inquisitor demonstrates his hypocrisy when he forced a Jew to share Cunegonde with him by threatening him with religious persecution and an ‘auto-da-fe’ which was basically the burning alive of a kinsman. Another case of the hypocrisy of religious officials would be the friar who being in the Franciscan order contradicts the order’s value of living in poverty by stealing Cunegonde’s valuables, "I strong suspect it was that reverend Franciscan who slept in the same inn as us last night in Badajoz; God prevent me from making rash judgments, but he passed through our room twice, and he set off long before us". The corruption and hypocrisy of the religious officials continues by the introduction of the Jesuits in South America. The Jesuits are negatively portrayed in Candide. After Candide goes to South America he encounters Cunegonde’s brother who now resides there as a Jesuit priest. The author in this part of the novella addresses of how the Christian missionaries in the New World are not really ‘civilizing’ the natives. The purpose of the Christian missionaries of the Americas during that time was to ‘civilize’ the local population, as depicted, the natives are in fact against the Jesuits and thus implying that the Jesuits did not actually help the natives there but rather introduced more problems. Voltaire writes about the natives’ anti Jesuit sentiment when the native Oreillons captured Candide and were preparing to eat him mistaking Candide as a Jesuit. The writer shows the hypocritical ways of the Jesuit priest by revealing that he had homosexual inclinations, “While in Turkey,” he stated, “I found myself with a very handsome young officer of the sultan’s palace. It was hot…so I bathed with He, not knowing it was crime for a Christian”. A strong evidence of the extent of Voltaire’s distrust and negative attitude towards religious leaders is demonstrated by the Pope. The old woman that accompanies the main character is none other than the daughter of the fictional Pope Urban X. The old woman used to be a princess and lived in utmost luxury, “I am the daughter of Pope Urban X.... robes was worth more than all the magnificence of Westphalia.” This example shows us the epitome of the hypocrisy of organized religion and how a Pope vowing to live a life of celibacy has children and lives in extravagant luxury which contradicts the values of the Church. So, it is very clearly understood the extent of Voltaire’s despise towards the members of the clergy and organized religion and it is further reinforced in another of Voltaire’s works the Dictionnaire philosophiquewhere Voltaire is visited by an archangel and sees mountains of corpses due to religious warfare and persecution, “What! " I cried, “brothers have treated their brothers like this, and I have the misfortune to be of this brotherhood!". Here Voltaire implies that organized religion has in fact brought nothing but death and destruction. The author being critical of organized religion expresses his thoughts in the part where the protagonist ventures into the fable land of El Dorado. The people of El Dorado are depicted as humble people who are unaware of greed and possess precious materials unaware of their true value in the Old World. Voltaire in opposition to organized religion portrays El Dorado as a Deistic utopian society. William F. Bottiglia in his works analyses El Dorado, “The entire episode displays the deistic ethic in its manifold applications, while the conversation with the old man drives home the deistic view of the relationship between God and man.” Voltaire’s stance against formal religious authority is portrayed by the society of El Dorado as a society without any formal religious authority and religious persecution, contrasting with the religious atmosphere in Europe. Voltaire’s perception of Deism being the religion of favour, and a more desirable alternative to the development of a just and peaceful society influenced the American philosopher Thomas Paine. Paine, like Voltaire was a Deist and advocated Deism as being the religion of peacefulness, “Here it is that the religion of Deism is superior to the Christian Religion. It is free from all those invented and torturing articles that shock our reason or injure our humanity, and with which the Christian religion abounds.” Candide being confused by this free system of Deism addresses the old man, “What! You have no monks who lecture, debate, govern, conspire, and burn people who don’t agree with them?” to which the old man replies, “We would be crazy if we did.” This might imply that, to Voltaire the formation of a utopian society could not be done in a society which is dictated by organized religion. To conclude, Voltaire in his satirical work expresses much discontent and disdain for the Church and everyone associated with it. He expresses his thoughts against the establishment of organized religion and how it does not create a harmonious and perfect society, but rather invokes a society rampant of corruption, debauchery and chaos. Voltaire’s views on these subjects are clearly understood by the many symbols and motifs in his most famous work, Candide.

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[ 1 ]. Voltaire, Candide, trans. Peter Constantine, (Modern Library 2005).
[ 2 ]. Voltaire, Candide, 11.
[ 3 ]. Voltaire, Lettres philosophiques, “Internet History Sourcebooks." FORDHAM.EDU. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1778voltaire-lettres.asp (accessed July 30, 2013).
[ 4 ]. Voltaire, Lettres phiosophiques, Letter I: On the Quakers.
[ 5 ]. Voltaire, Candide, 23.
[ 6 ]. Voltaire, Candide, 23.
[ 7 ]. Voltaire, Candide, 38.
[ 8 ]. Voltaire, Candide, 155.
[ 9 ]. Voltaire, Candide, 43.
[ 10 ]. Voltaire, Dictionnaire philosphique, trans. H.I. Woolf, (New York: Knopf, 1924)
[ 11 ]. Voltaire, Dictionnaire phiolosphique, Religion.
[ 12 ]. William F. Bottiglia, The Eldorado Episode in Candide, PMLA 73 (1958): 339.
[ 13 ]. Thomas Paine, Of the Religion of Deism Compared with the Christian Religion, "Internet History Sourcebooks." FORDHAM.EDU. http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/paine-deism.asp (accessed July 30, 2013).
[ 14 ]. Voltaire, Candide, 83.