Satire in Voltaire's Candide vs. Swift's Gulliver's Travel - Term Paper Example

Compare and Contrast between the Satires in Voltaire's Candide vs. Swift's Gulliver's Travel In the novels “Candide” and “Gulliver’s Travels” both Voltaire and Jonathan Swift have distorted the reality that the readers’ are very familiar with in a way to make it ridiculous (sometimes disgusting) and simultaneously “funny, comical, something no reasonable person would engage in” (Johnston 3). Obviously in their works the distortion of reality engages their readers to view something different that apparently keeps itself hidden beneath the surface of the familiar one. When this distortion is clearly visible in “Gulliver’s Travels”, it is subtle and inherent in “Candide”. Indeed in “Candide” Voltaire reshapes reality to ridicule the prevailing belief and philosophy, since rearrangement of reality is more reliable than its complete distortion, and therefore, more convincing in showing the anomalies between the realities and the people’s expectations from a philosophy. But in “Gulliver’s Travels” Swift can distort the most familiar into the most ridiculous and comic, since his target of satire is more objective than Voltaire’s. When Swift’s target of satire is the vicious and condemnable nature of human race, the polar opposite of the picture of human race conjured up in his book is fairly perceivable in plain eye. Therefore deformation of the familiar rather contributes to the ridiculously comic effect of his novel. For example, Swift’s six-inch Lilliputs are the direct deformation of man and their humanly vices and follies rather highlight human race’s vicious and gullible nature in a ridiculously comic way. Referring to this effect, Eddy says, “The effect of reducing the scale of life in Lilliput is to strip human affairs of their self-imposed grandeur. Rank, politics, international war, loses all of their significance. This particular idea is continued in the second voyage, not in the picture of the Brobdingnagians, but in Gulliver himself, who is now a Lilliputian," (Eddy, 149) But since in “Candide” Voltaire’s target is a complex and established philosophy, for him the direct distortion of reality, as Swift did, is riskier than the rearrangement of reality. In ‘Candide’ Voltaire tactfully opts for a natural religion -defying Pangloss’s philosophy- that simply appears to be his attempt to amend the evils in the society discovered by innocent Candide in his adventures or journeys. Unquestionably “Candide” that is considered to be a humorous and farcical satire on the philosophy "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds” of Gottfried Leibniz presented as Pangloss in the text, also refers to Voltaire’s attempt to fill the void created by discarding the conventional religion. Voltaire’s attack is on the theory, “everything was made for a purpose, everything is necessarily for the best purpose” (Voltaire, 16). In the novella he prepares a plot in which the protagonist is to suffer a perilous journey: enduring physical torture, natural calamity and extensive material loss, and he is pushed to the situation to question his teacher’s philosophy. The satirical nature of the religious organizers of his age is vividly expressed in the sentence, “I still hold my original opinions, because it would be improper to recant…” (Voltaire 106). Swift takes his readers to a new world of distorted physical realities where humanly natures, norms and customs are the same; but in it the follies are highlighted. Throughout the most part of Book I, the Lilliputs are the comic deformation of life in Europe. This part on the “public rewards of leaping and creeping” or the nonstop disputes and strife between the “Big Endians” and “Little Endians” and the ridiculousness of the royal decrees are “obvious and funny distortions of the court life, the pompous pretentiousness of officials, and the religious disputes familiar to Swift's readers” (Johnston 3). There are also sections where he upholds the Lilliputian laws and regulations as the representation of utopian ideals in order to show just “how much better they understand true reasonableness than do the Europeans” (Johnston 3). In Book II also, the Brobdingnags are again depicted as distorted Europeans, but in a positive light. Unlike Swift, Voltaire keeps his readers in the real and familiar world and he simply depicts it in a different way to make its ridiculous for the prevailing optimistic theism. Rather by rearranging the familiar world he manages the scope to mock his target philosophy. Throughout the whole novella, Voltaire argued to convince his readers that if God (if ever He existed) were benevolent, He should make the best of all possible worlds and he should not inflict injustice, war, disparity, natural disasters etc over His best possible world. So to shed blood for such a fake God is the worst evil for the society. Also the religious characters, the Grand Inquisitor, the Friar, and the Jesuit Priest, in “Candide” are presented to be hypocritical, lustful, corrupted, deceitful aura. Here what he tries to prove is the anomaly between the expected and the reality. How the religious characters are presented in Candide is totally different from what the readers expect. The only character Jacques who appears to be honest and benevolent dies for no cause. It also proves the fakeness of the existence of a Benevolent God whom the Christians believe. For Voltaire if this world is the best of all possible worlds, there a princess should not be raped in such a cruel manner by the pirate. Even if the pirates and the cannibals would not happen to exist in this best possible world. While Swift is concerned with a moral world, Voltaire depicts a world of belief. The expression that Voltaire very often used to refer to the organized religion of the world is “We must crush the vile thing” or “Ecrasons l’infame.” Through out his whole life he cherishes hatred for conventional organized religions. One of the themes that Voltaire attempts to espouse in “Candide” is religious intolerance. Voltaire’s deism is supported once again by his presentation of the religious characters. Almost all of the religious characters with the exception of Brethren, the Anabaptist in the novella are negative. In it religions are presented in an aura of “evil superstitions”. Voltaire’s presentation of the conventional religious characters and the religions obviously renders a view of Voltaire about conventional religion and the concept of God. For him religions of the world are a set of superstitions that never propose any reason. Consequently there a void was created, and Voltaire becomes biased to the deistic ideas to fill the void of the conventional religion. Voltaire’s deism is not to be perceived in the light of the religious authorities of the world. Voltaire’s deism is based on ones perception of the natural laws. Voltaire’s perception of the natural laws is expressed in the episode of the cannibals. The cannibals are proved to be wiser than the Jesuit as they are witted enough not to let good meat go waste. Works Cited Eddy, William A. Gulliver's Travels: A Critical Study. New York: Russell & Russell Inc., 1963. Johnston, Ian. “Lecture on Swift's Gulliver's Travels”, 12 December, 2011. available at http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/introser/swift.htm Voltaire. Candide. Translated by Lowell Vair. New York City: Bantam Dell, 2003. Read More