Voltaire's Candide

While Voltaire's Candide is heavily characterized by the primary concerns of the Enlightenment, it also criticizes certain aspects of the movement. It attacks the strain of optimism, religion, women, nobility, and colonialism. The name of the barony, Thunder-ten- tronckh, a guttural name that sounds almost primitive, mocks pretensions of nobility. It is not an especially rich barony, as the castle boasts few luxuries, and the baron wastes much of his time in idle frivolities. He …

…good and that this world is the best possible one because God created it. Leibniz's concept of the world is part of a larger type of thinking called theodicy that attempts explain the existence of evil in a world created by an omniscient, omnipotent, perfectly good God. Voltaire criticizes this school of philosophical thought for its undiluted optimism. If this is the best possible world, he questions, then why should anyone try to alleviate suffering?