Beginning of Essay
Candide is an outlandishly humorous, far-fetched tale by Voltaire satirizing the optimism espoused by the philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment. It is the story of a young man’s adventures throughout the world, where he witnesses much evil and disaster. Th ....

Middle of Essay
.... is heavily characterized by the primary concerns of the Enlightenment, it also criticizes certain aspects of the movement. It attacks the idea that optimism, which holds that rational thought can inhibit the evils perpetrated by human beings. Voltaire did not believe in the power of reason to overcome contemporary social conditions. In Candide, Voltaire uses Pangloss and his ramblings to represent an often humorous characterization of the “typical” optimist. Of Pangloss, Voltaire writes, “He proved admirably that there cannot possibly be an effect without a cause and that in the best of all possible worlds the Baron’s castle was the b ....