Theologies Illumination of Occidental World - Term Paper Example

Introduction The Age of Enlightenment is an era in the Western World marked by several changes in popular philosophies and beliefs. While the Renaissance, which precedes the Enlightenment, is characterized by the revival of ancient values and systems, the Enlightenment sought to bring a new mindset to the Western World. Gaining greatest popularity in Netherlands, England, and France, Enlightenment scholars tried to reject Christianity based on faith in favor of a religion based on reason and observation (Wright). Apart from breaking free from traditional beliefs, scholars tried to break away from traditional institutions such as the monarchy. Their actions are based on the fundamental belief that modern thought are superior to ancient thinking. Immanuel Kant, Francois-Marie Arouet, and Thomas Jefferson are some of the most popular thinkers of the Enlightenment. Yet, Voltaire, as Arouet is more popularly known, stands out among them because of his ability to utilize literary skills in presenting his philosophy. His most popular work, Candide, is a satire of the institutions and beliefs that dominate the 18th Century. Voltaire uses several techniques and styles in order to present, study, and criticize social maladies. The Picaresque Novel Candide is basically a satire but it can be more specifically called a Picaresque novel. As defined by Speake, picaresques are travel novels characterized by a loose plot that revolves around a hero (941). In the novel, the looseness of the plot is characterized by the wanderings of Candide, the hero, and the sudden emergence, disappearance, and reemergence of minor characters. Speake further characterizes the genre as violent, comic, and satirical. All these characterizations mentioned by Speake are used by Voltaire to reflect on the important themes during the Enlightenment. In the novel, readers can see the elements of violence in the execution of Pangloss and a military officer, and the murders committed by Candide. The comic, meanwhile, is more evident in the novel’s wordplays such as “metaphysico-theologo-cosmolo-nigology” and Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh. In the first wordplay, Voltaire mocks the complex scientific/philosophical fields of the 18th Century. He suggests that those fields have become so complicated that they have become nonsensical. The other wordplay is a pun on German names, those long, polysyllabic words that have queer combinations of vowels and consonants. It is a mockery of pretentious nature of the nobles. Thunder-ten-tronckh is, after all, nothing but a person’s name but it is made to sound long and complicated in order to give it the aura of importance. These comic elements are the essential component of the picaresque satire. However, its satirical elements are also applied in the portrayal of its characters, as in the portrayal of its hero. Candide is initially portrayed as a “a youth, whom nature had endowed with the most gentle manners” (Voltaire 1). However, in the 8th Chapter, Candide kills Don Issachar and the Grand Inquisitor, who are both the “patrons” of Cunegonde. (By patron, it means that they are the ones who keep Cunegonde as their mistress.) In the 13th Chapter, Candide once again killed a man, the younger Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh. This youth of the “most gentle manners” then has “already kill three men…two were priests” (Voltaire 66). This ironic portrayal of Candide can be viewed as an attack against optimism. Voltaire, being a skeptic, is highly critical of optimists (Riley qtd. in Levine 249) and through Candide, he is able to show that even in the most pleasant things loom horror, violence, and evil. Travels around the World The loose picaresque plot structure gave Voltaire the liberty to combine the comic, satirical, and violent in his reflection of the common themes during the Enlightenment. Since picaresque novels are travel novels, Candide allowed Voltaire to show that the problems in his native France are universal. These problems include corrupt aristocracy, hypocritical Christianity, and false optimism amidst a poor social structure. Candide’s travel began when he was banished from the place he thought was the “best of all possible worlds” (Voltaire 2). Here also begins Voltaire’s criticism of optimism: Candide would not have realized that there is something wrong with the world around him if he had remained in that world, the world where everything is viewed positively. One of the most meaningful journeys in the novel is Candide’s journey towards Lisbon. It is through this journey that Voltaire criticizes the ignorance of Christian “scholars”—here the author shows that these so-called scholars believe that an earthquake is caused by heretics, which is a very irrational belief from the viewpoint of Enlightenment scholars who are strong adherents of reason. This journey also reveals the folly of a church that violates its own commandments. Although the Church teaches against murder, it has organized an army that would punish those that oppose its doctrines, such as Pangloss. Another significant episode in Candide’s journey is in Oreillon, where the savages would have eaten him had he not killed the young Baron. The savages represent the animal nature of man and they show Voltaire’s belief in the cruel reality as opposed to an ideally happy one, the main feature of optimistic philosophy. More importantly, however, that episode presents a human truth in a very hilarious way: “If I had not been so lucky as to run Miss Cunegondes brother through the body, I should have been devoured without redemption” (Voltaire 73). Survival is indeed a basic human instinct but to consider oneself lucky for stabbing someone with a rapier is an attack against religion: Voltaire shows that moral laws are but follies when placed side by side with the need to preserve oneself. Still, the most significant journey that Candide makes is arguably the one towards El Dorado. He arrives there because the canoe he rides on is carried away by raging waters. This journey towards El Dorado shows that the truly ideal world can be achieved by following a raging, uncontrolled current—symbolic of intellectual freedom of which, Voltaire and other Enlightenment scholars were strong advocates. Characters and their Symbolic Significance Unlike the contemporary novels that can be read today, the characters in Voltaire’s Candide are rather flat. With the exemption of Candide, the others do not experience significant changes that refined them into better characters—they do undergo any catharsis. However, they are important in the novel since they carry symbolic significance. There are two in the novel who carry greater symbolic significance among others. Pangloss is foremost in the symbolic characters since he is the teacher of Candide. Having been almost hanged to death, imprisoned, and lost an eye and ear, he still holds on to his optimism. However, Voltaire eventually reveals the folly in his character: “everything went wonderfully well, he asserted it still, though he no longer believed it” (163). Pangloss symbolizes a defective system that maintains its beliefs although all rational and physical evidence are contrary to them. On the other hand, Cunegonde is symbolic of the false beliefs that people held on during Medieval times. Beautiful, of noble birth, and having a passive character, Cunegonde is an exemplar of the Medieval damsel and of Medieval romance. Because of these two symbolisms, she also represents false ideals. Cunegonde is revealed to be nothing more than false when she becomes terribly ugly in the end. This suggests that the ideals that traditional scholars have been upholding are nothing but false and ugly ones when viewed more closely. Yet, in the novel, Candide is forced to marry Cunegonde because of her brother. Here, Voltaire makes two social commentaries: first, unwritten laws such as norms and customs, in this case, keeping one’s word, make people unhappy; secondly, institutions, represented by the young Baron, take away individual freedom. El Dorado as the Utopia of Enlightenment Thinkers The El Dorado can indeed be a Utopia for Enlightenment thinkers. It has no organized religion, has a very democratic government (so democratic it helps everyone have their wish), and its people are not concerned of material things. However, El Dorado appears to be a very static society and such kind of a society negates the fundamental principle behind Enlightenment: reason. While reason exists, there will always be disagreements although tumultuous and bloody ones are neither its prerequisites nor definite results. It is against the reason of human nature, no matter how enlightened one is, to be in stasis. El Dorado, having reached a blissful state, refuses to go further. Becoming static, however, would eventually mean being stuck with the past and thus betray the desire of Enlightenment scholars, i.e., to break away from the past. Conclusion Unlike Renaissance scholars, Enlightenment scholars wanted to break away from the past and its traditions. Candide is Voltaire’s way of reflecting three Enlightenment thoughts: first, optimism is bad since it prevents one from seeing social maladies; second, social institutions and values restrain individual freedom; lastly, an ideal human being is one who utilizes reason but who is capable of dynamism at the same time. At present, many people could still be looking for their own El Dorado but Voltaire has already warned them in the 18th yet that Utopia can only be found in the world they dwell in and not in some distant time or land. Works Cited Levine, Alan. Early Modern Skepticism and The Origins of Toleration. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 1999. Print. Speake, Jennifer. Literature of Travel and Exploration. New York, NY: Fritzroy Dearborn, 2003. Print. Voltaire. Candide. New York, NY: Modern Library, 1918. Print. Wright, Johnson Kent. “Candide, Voltaire, and the Enlightenment.” Yale University Press. Yale University Press, n.d. Web. 17 June 2010. . Read More