Candide: Voltaire's View Of Capital Punishment

Early in European history, punishment for crimes was cruel and usually performed in public and for entertainment. As time progressed, the views of capital and corporal punishment progressed with it. People began to hate any kind of capital punishment, and many began to speak out against punishment, including major philosophes and prison reformers. Many eyewitnesses saw the delight of people watching the executions, and became disgusted. The factors that lead to this punishment also changed, going from absurd to more reasonable crimes.

Philosophes were very outspoken against capital punishment. In the satirical novel Candide, philosophe Voltaire pokes fun at the punishment of criminals in the eighteenth century. He describes an earthquake in Lisbon, and how another one was thought to be prevented by killing criminals. He satirized the death penalty by saying that another earthquake happened, even though people were killed to try and prevent another. Another philosophe, Cesare Beccaria, in his An Essay on Crimes and Punishments, explains that it is better to prevent crimes than to punish them. Being a legal reformer, he would believe in changing the ways of the legal system and making it more fair and humane. This document was written in 1764, when capital punishment was

widely accepted and seen as a form of entertainment. The thought of preventing crime rather than punishing it was radical for the time. Panopticon, a plan for a penitentiary by the philosophe Jeremy Bentham in 1787 displays perfectly how many were moving towards a new view of punishment. Instead of being killed, criminals would spend time in penitentiaries for their actions.
The views towards cruel punishment started to change, as documented by an anonymous eyewitness to an execution on “justice day” in 1773.

He described how he “distracted his eyes” while the condemned men climbed a ladder. He also accounted to the disgust in the crowd. There was no bias in this statement, since it was an eyewitness account for a pamphlet. While the crowd at this execution was disgusted, the general ideas of less cruel punishment were still progressing elsewhere. In 1788, Restif-de-la-Bretonne observed an execution in Paris, and wrote about it in his social criticism, The Nights of Paris. While he was disgusted, he observed a young woman in the crowd who was amused by the

killings.
Prison reformers such as Walter Venning and Reverend John Clay also changed the minds of others on the topic of capital punishment. Walter Venning pushed for a Christian approach to punishment in his plans for a Russian prison system in 1817. He wanted criminals to be “informed and persuaded” towards God. He was a Quaker, and Quakers were peaceful people, so naturally he would be opposed to the death penalty. Another account by Reverend John Clay on the Pentonville Prison in France in the 1840s shows how solitary confinement can break a criminal of his ways. People moved towards a much gentler way of punishing criminals, changing in many ways from the punishments of one hundred years prior, which were usually bloody and harsh.
The way punishment was brought about also changed. In 1757, Voltaire wrote in his novel Candide about “criminals” that were punished. Two men from Portugal were punished for “refusing to eat bacon,” a Spaniard was punished for marrying his godmother, and the two main characters were arrested, “one for speaking his mind, and the other for seeming to approve what he had said.” These factors for punishment were ludicrous, but that soon changed. In 1791, reasons for punishment included murder, as noted by Maximilien Robespierre’s speech “On the Death Penalty.” The data collected by Europa Publications in 1980 shows crimes against property from the years 1834-1914. Property crimes were another understandable factor for punishment. The factors that affected punishment changed from absolutely absurd to more reasonable within a short amount of time.
In terms of capital punishment and factors leading to punishment, European history has changed drastically. Philosophes, eyewitnesses to executions and prison reformers all had a say in changing the way criminals were punished. The punishment went from intense hangings, guillotine deaths, solitary confinement and other forms of torture to more humane ideas like imprisonment. The factors for punishment also became more understandable as time progressed. As ideas change more as time progresses, maybe humanity will see a total irradiation of capital punishment.