Theme Of Slavery In Candide

Voltaire was the French philosopher and one of the prominent Enlightenment thinkers. His intelligence, wit, and style in expressing the reality of his age through his writing made him one of the greatest writers on his age despite the controversies he attracted. He produced works in almost all the literary forms such as plays, novels, essays, and poetry. His school of thought greatly influenced British Empiricism and attacked the philosophers of Continental Rationalism. Voltaire’s prominent work Candide aimed at mocking Leibniz’s optimism. In addition, Voltaire attempted to refute Descartes’ metaphysics which is based on Locke’s Empiricism . On analyzing Voltaire’s Candide in detail, the readers can understand that he is undoubtedly an Enlightenment

The characters in the novel lead a slave life throughout which depicts the poverty stricken lifestyle of people of 18th century. Rather than providing a physical description of the happenings, Voltaire has explained the incidents in details. For instance, the grave digger and the slave’s cloths highlight the poverty in which they survive and the slavery practiced by the masters on them. Voltaire retains the names of the slaves till the end mainly with the intention to depict how the human life is disregarded in society. The term “grave” is used throughout the text to denote the society’s attitude. It is significant to note that Candide first calls Voltaire “mon ami” which shows the author’s attitude toward slavery. Also, the treatment of slavery is clearly brought out in the text. Masters disrespect slaves and render brutal treatment. Slaves are bound to accept the ill treatment of their masters and serve them throughout their life. Voltaire here satirizes Leibniz’s optimism philosophy. The optimistic views which is personified through Pangloss contrasts with the views of Candide’s opinion. In addition, slavery was largely practiced mainly for monetary gains. The slaves were sold by their mother for mere pennies. Also, class system was clearly established in the text. The masters were called “les Blancs” and animals that appear in the book represent different social classes within the

Voltaire and many other philosophers who shared similar thinking had stated that women were not considered equals during their time. This is clear from the following statement - “The state of their [women’s] natural weakness does not permit them to pre-eminence…” their very weakness generally gives them more lenity and moderation, qualifications fitter for good administration . This attitude clearly seems to hide a deeper underside of the patriarchal attitudes of men who set apart a few exceptions. Even at that time, there were some women leaders who enjoyed the privileges similar to that of men of that