Voltaire

Throughout the novel Candide, Voltaire satirizes and mocks many aspects of the

Enlightenment period. Just to name a few, he often makes criticisms towards the military,

the church, and cruelty to human beings. The world of the miltary during the

Enlightenment was full of evil, cruelty, and suffering. The church insisted that it was the

only source of truth and that all who lived outside its bounds were damned. Many people

were against the beliefs of Voltaire but based upon the happenings in the militrary and the

church I believe that his criticisms were justified.

Powerful members of the nobility start wars, but common soldiers and subjects

suffer the consequences. Neither side of the conflict is better than the other, and both

engage in rape, murder, and destruction. During the Enlightenment the military nor

those who were governing them did not care for the safety or care of their soliders. They

were both equally corrupt. In the novel, Canide is conscripted to serve in the Bulgar

army, where he suffers abuse and hardship as he is indoctrinated into military life.

When he decides to go for a walk one morning, four soldiers capture him and he is court-

martialed as a deserter. He is given a choice between execution and running the gauntlet

(being made to run between two lines of men who will strike him with weapons) thirty-six

times. Candide tries to choose neither option by arguing that "the human will is free," but

his argument is unsuccessful. He finally chooses to run the gauntlet (Voltaire Ch. 2).

Voltaire strongly criticizes the military for its contradictory against themselves and the

cruelty and suffering that they inflict on not only each other but others as well. Given that

this is the way that society was during the Enlightenment period, I believe that Voltaire's

criticisms were justfied.

"Can an opinion be heretical and yet have no concern with the salvation of souls?"

(Galileo p.223). According to the Inquisitors of Enlightenment, there is no such thing as

having an opinion other than what is taught of the religion. The auto-da-fÐ"©, or act of faith,

was the Inquisition's practice of burning heretics alive. Beginning in the Middle Ages, the

officials of the Inquisition systematically tortured and murdered tens of thousands of

people on the slightest suspicion of heresy against orthodox Christian doctrine. Jews,

Protestants, Muslims, and