The Role Of Religion In The Novel 'Candide' By Voltaire

The Enlightenment is the time of reasoning and questioning; one questionable topic is that of religion. During the time of Voltaire religion has a major role in life. Here in his novel, Candide, Voltaire illustrates clear criticism and satirization of religion through his use of religious figures that are corrupt as well as the corruption of church establishments.

The religious figures that Voltaire uses are filled with vile greed which then in return rebukes the church proving that it is a corrupt establishment. Voltaire mentions many religious figures in Candide along with mentioning them Voltaire also mentions lude acts such as coitus for pure physical pleasure and the engagement of prostitution. This pleasurable coitus is seen with

the Pope himself; the Pope happens to have a daughter even though he must be celibate. Voltaire shoots at this immediately in chapter 11 with the backstory of the Old Woman. The Old Woman tells of how she is the Pope’s daughter, the fact that the Pope has a daughter is fully against the Catholic religion. Voltaire shows that the highest position of the Catholic religion is corrupted by lust and it’s supporters blindly follow along unaware of the danger that corruption brings. Voltaire criticizes religion in this format to represent the religious figures in his lifetime that hinder the Enlightenment. Religion in France opposed what Enlightenment thinkers supported during this time such as freedom of the speech and “opposition to the cruel caprices of unenlightened monarchs,” (public.wsu.edu). While Voltaire pushed to enlighten and free Europe, religion figures wanted to continue to uphold divine right and other hindering acts; this is all while the supporters of these figures still continued to follow blindly.

Voltaire next criticizes the religious establishments as a whole. This criticizment is seen early in Candide, in chapter 12 where the Old Woman tells more of her devastating past. Here the Old Woman tells how religious followers cut one buttock off of her to eat because food was low. These religious followers convinced themselves that their god would have mercy on them since they did not fatally harm the Old Woman. Voltaire proves the corruption in religious establishments by showing that religious followers do not see the wrong in their evil actions as long as there is at least some silver lining to their dark cloud. In the case of the Old Woman the followers saw no wrong in turning cannibalistic and eating the buttock of the Old Woman since they did not murder her. In the case of Voltaire the followers did not see that the church was hindering their enlightenment and that there was truly much more to gain by taking power back from the church. Even though Voltaire uses hyperbolic examples to get his point across it sure does the job.

Voltaire criticizes religion with hyperboles and irony only to awake religious followers to take back their power from the establishment that is hindering their overall gain. For Voltaire it was the Catholic church in France that handicapped others around him from gaining the enlightenment effect. Voltaire does not hate religion but he does disagree with religions’ corrupting power on its’ own followers. Voltaire instead wishes that mankind can progress without being stopped or even questioned by the church. Voltaire knew that no change that he or other Enlightenment thinkers wanted could exist as long as the church maintained its power and control over people; that is why Voltaire spent his time in Candide to undermine the power of religion and to show that there is indeed benefits outside the church.