Candide, The Divine Comedy, Tartuffe, Othello
Voltaire's Candide can be easily considered one of the most potent satires of all times, as it is directed not to a particular aspect of the world but to the world as a whole and to the entire human race. What Voltaire mocks is not so much the state in which the world and humanity are in, but the inveterate optimism that characterized the Age of Reason. The values and creeds of the Enlightenment philosophers are demolished one by one in Voltaire's work: the famous statement maintained by Leibniz and Rousseau that our world is "the best of all possible worlds", the belief that the universe is in a state of unshakable harmony that only gives the impression of chaos, the general optimism that regarded even the dreariest events in the world as good, the faith in the human reason and the free will of man and so on. To remonstrate against what he felt was just hypocritical optimism, Voltaire makes the eponymous character of his work, Candide (who is, not by accident and as his name indicates, incredibly naive and simple) experience, through his journeys and adventures, the entire range of human sufferance: wars, natural disasters, maladies, slavery, religious persecution, rape and so on. In his way, Candide experien
He persuades him by showing him the reasons for his hatred, namely the fact that he has not been promoted as he deserved. He uses Brabantio, Desdemona's father by cultivating his anger as a parent and spurring his racial feelings against the Moor. Besides these sins, Dante also uses the tenth commandments as an inspiration, and elaborates largely by detailing the various forms of sinning according to the Bible. Tartuffe by Moliere Moliere's celebrated play Tartuffe or The Impostor is set in Paris, during the reign of Louis XIV. He repeatedly states his hate for "the Moor", and sets to destroy him and the other characters in the play. Finally, the ninth circle is full of traitors, including famous betrayers such as Judas or Brutus. During his reign, France prospered and there was a true explosion of artistic and cultural developments. Thus, most of the people have sinned are punished, besides the symbolic tortures, by being kept away from the divine light: "Like someone who has imperfect vision, we see things, which are remote from us; so much light the Supreme Ruler still gives to us; when they draw nigh, or are, our intellect is altogether void; and except what others bring us, we know nothing of your human state. Despite of the disasters he meets with and despite of the evil nature of the men he encounters, Pangloss remains a stubborn optimist, an advocate of the perfect harmony of the universe: "Master Pangloss taught the metaphysico-theologo-cosmolo-nigology. These divisions are obviously organized by Dante in a symbolic way that has the Bible as a background. His main target is thus to devise a scheme that would completely destroy Othello. However, in a veiled manner, the head of the household in Moliere's play acts as a divine force who has unlimited, absolute power over his 'subjects' or the members of the family. His play can be seen therefore as a satire directed against absolute monarchy, so well represented by the reign of Louis XIV. Candide, in his extreme naivety is thus influenced by turns by the optimistic Pangloss and by the pessimistic Martin.
Common topics in this essay:
According Martin,
Vergil Hell,
Othello Iago,
Leibniz Rousseau,
Louis XIV's,
Louis XIV,
Shakespeare's Othello,
Judas Brutus,
Supreme Ruler,
Moliere's Orgon,
absolute monarchy,
louis xiv,
evil world,
reign louis xiv,
human passions,
rings hell,
master pangloss,
sun king,
reign louis,
roderigo brabantio othello,
characters play,
hell journey,
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Acceptance Essays
