Voltaire's Influence On Francois Marie Arouet

One of the greatest writers of the enlightenment era Francois Marie Arouet or as he is better known, Voltaire was born on November 21, 1694 in Paris, France. It is assumed that Voltaire was the son of Francois Arouet and Marie Marguerite Daumand, although there were rumors that his birth was kept secret for a little while because he believed that he was born on February 20th and his real father is a man named Rochebrune (Britannica). Whatever the real story is regarding his birth date, he grew up in an upper middle class family and was the youngest of five children (Bio). His mother passed away when he was the tender age of just seven years old and he never really loved his “father”, which led him to become really close with his godfather Abbe de Chateauneuf who was a really free thinking kind of guy (Bio). He attended the Jesuit college of Louis-le Grand in Paris

While he attended the college during the early eighteenth century, all the events that set the platform for the French revolution such as the end of the reign of Louis XIV and the religious persecution going on inspired him to be a progressive writer (Britannica). Although much of Voltaire’s writing is more satirical and witty, much of his work resonated with the people of Europe and contributed a lot to the enlightenment and progressive era in Europe. Post the death of Louis XIV, Voltaire’s work was spreading like wildfire and being quoted across Europe but unfortunately this led to alot of run ins with the law. Voltaire was heavily inspired by the writings of John Locke about freedom of speech and religion so much so that he spent some time learning English just so he could read more of John Locke’s work (Age-of-the Sage). Voltaire’s works were focused on similar topics as John Locke’s but at the time they were controversial topics in Europe and they consisted of freedom of religion, anti- censorship, and social reform which resulted in a few different