Satire in Tartuffe and Candide

Satire in Tartuffe and CandideThe period, known as the Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment Period, began in the late seventeenth century. It was a sequence of great turmoil and intellectual movements that ultimately led to the beginning of the French Revolution. Enlightenment conceiveers were the ones who encouraged and proposed that we avow on and trust our instincts for decision making along with the actions that make. Many Enlightenment thinkers, such as Moliere and Voltaire, were famous for their workings. They were two writers that used a very particular approach to their work. Tartuffe, by Moliere, and Candide, by Voltaire, both communicate similar topics and themes such as satire for example. Tartuffe and Candide satirized ghostly hypocrisy emphasizing on free thinking and reason.Jean-Baptiste Moliere, who was origin completelyy named Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, was one of the greatest and well-known peculiar dramatists. He was known as one of the greatest and famous comic writers mainly because his works challenged the imprudence of trusting reason for different life events. One of Molieres virtually famous works includes Tartuffe primarily for the amount of controversy it sparked related to satire. Tartuffe is a play that tells about a man named Orgon, who is a wealthy family man, who takes a terra incognita into his home named Tartuffe. He later indeed is discovered to be a religious hypocrite. He doesnt have any morals or indeed determine religion. Tartuffe simply used religion as a disguise to manipulate people and do his crimes. He pretends to be extremely religious, but from his actions and behavior, it goes entirely against the morals of religion. For example, when Tartuffe sees Dorine in Act 3, Scene 2, he tells herCover your bust. The flesh is weakSouls be forever damaged by such sights,When sinful thoughts begin their worthless flights.From this scene, there is clear evidence showing how Tartuffe is a hypocrite. Here, he preac hes about the importance of chastity however, in the scene that follows, he goes against this statement when he tries to accompany Elmire. Tartuffe tries to persuade Elmire to cheat on Orgon, but she comes up with a plan to expose Tartuffes true personality to Orgon as well as to show him how Tartuffe was assay to seduce her. As a result of this scheme, Orgon sees first-hand that Tartuffe is a religious hypocrite. The way that Moliere displays Tartuffes behavior, when comparing the two scenes, allows the audience to conclude that the way Tartuffe acts doesnt at all agree with his words. The two different behaviors exemplified in the two scenes is meant to satirize the religious hypocrisy integrated into Tartuffe.A central theme of Tartuffe is religious moderation displayed through with(predicate) Cleante. He shows real pious virtue throughout the play by expressed ideas and thoughts opposed to religious hypocrisy embodied in Tartuffe. Religious moderation is communicated by Clea ntes voice through his speechesSo nothing is more(prenominal) odious to meThan the display of specious pietyWhich I see in every charlatanWho tries to cash in ones chips for a true holy man Religious passion worn as a faadeAbuses whats sacred and mocks God.They dont exhibit zeal thats more longingThan heaven shows us in its own defense.Theyd never claim a knowledge thats divineAnd yet they live in virtues own design.They concentrate their execration on the sin,And when the sinner grieves, invite him in. (Molire 24-25)This speech by Cleante in Act 1 Scene 5 is supported by a hard structured argument to emphasize on Molires belief and support of religious moderation. Molire uses Cleantes speech to compare between the people that are positive pious against those individuals who are only pretending to be pious, like Tartuffe. Those who pretend to be pious do more talking and preaching versus actually showing actions to back up their words. The extremely holy people follow God as w ell as use actions more opposed to teaching. I think by Moliere using these statements in his play through Cleante he is sending a message to his audience to exhibit religious moderation by universe like Cleante.Francois-Marie Arouet, better known by his pen name Voltaire, was an outspoken and fearless writer. So much so, he landed himself in exile more than once. He was determined to have his work published by any means even if he had to do it secretly. One of Voltaires most notable works was Candide, which was written in response to news that Voltaire found to be disturbing. Unlike Tartuffe, where religious hypocrisy is embodied by one character, Voltaire attacks religious hypocrisy through religious communities. Like Moliere, Voltaire satirizes religious moderation as well. In Candide, Voltaire uses the character, Pangloss, as a way to mock his view on religious moderation. Voltaire believed humans should rely on their reason and senses to make decisions and understand the world . Throughout the novel, Pangloss has an optimistic view of how he sees the world. He believes that God made the best possible world that we passel live in and that everything that happens is necessary. Candide recalls his mentors philosophyIt is clear, said he, that things cannot be otherwise than they are,for since everything is made to serve an end, everything necessarilyserves the best end. (Voltaire, 101)Panglosss philosophy encourages and promotes that people should trust and follow their religious faith blindly. Voltaire satirizes this because he has a different belief. As demonstrated by Candides misfortunes throughout the novel, his mentors optimistic view and philosophy proved to be inaccurate, such as with the drowning of Jacques the Anabaptist. After this disaster and all the other horrible experiences, leads Candide to question Panglosss philosophy about whether or not his unfortunate experiences are part of the best of all possible worlds.Moliere and Voltaire successfu lly satirize their views on religious hypocrisy and moderation in Tartuffe and Candide. With each of their works, they hoped to get a message out to society that would delight attention as both did with the amount of controversy their works caused. Even though their works were written many centuries ago, it served as a foundation for satirical writers in the modern day. The world we live in today is still filled with negative aspects of religion such as with the Charlie Hebdo shooting in 2015. The messages Moliere and Voltaire communicated are still important to this day and probably needs to be addressed more elaborately in the present age than it was at the time their works were published.Works Cited PageMoliere. Tartuffe. The Norton Anthology World Literature, vol. 2, 3rd edition, pp. 12-68.Voltaire. Candide. The Norton Anthology World Literature, vol. 2, 3rd edition, pp. 97-159.