François-Marie Arouet, who went by the pen name Voltaire, was one of the most well-known satirical writers of all time. Voltaire’s use of humor, irony, and exaggeration in his novels exemplified his distastefulness towards the religion, government, and aristocrats of his time (Lewis, 1992). Not only was Voltaire a writer, he was also known as a poet, critic, and intellectual. During this time, many held high optimism, understanding that God is in control and that he plans and make everything work for the good of mankind. Voltaire, being witness to hate, cruelty and natural disaster in this world, could not take part in the beliefs of this time. In spite of this disagreement, Voltaire wrote his famous novel Candide (subtitled Optimism) and displayed his opposition in the form of a satire (Fiero, 2011).
Candide is about a boy named Candide who was brought up in the home of Baron Thunder-ten-tronck, in
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The women of this time did not have much chance for a fulfilled life, either they marry into a wealthy family or be secured as a mistress (“Position of Women,” n.d.). The women characters of Candide were seen as just this, every woman mentioned were at some point subjected to rape in the story. Voltaire writes, “Girls who had been disemboweled after having sated their natural needs of some of the heroes were breathing their last.” Unfortunately, rape was seen as normal and natural, as if the men or “heroes” were only fulfilling their need and women are there to supply it. Voltaire illustrated this degrading act towards females, due to the normality of it in the eighteenth century. One female character says that she is “forced to continue this terrible profession that you men find so pleasant while to us women it is by an abyss of misery”. Voltaire wanted it to be known how devastating it is to degrade females and exploit them in such a way (“Position of Women,”