Voltaire and Pope portray two
very different perspectives on life and evil that is present in the world. On
one hand, Voltaire’s Candide focuses
on the bad side of situations and the overall outlook on life is pessimistic. On the other, Pope writes with optimism and decides to not focus on the
bad situations that will occur in life but rather on the good that will
eventually come about. Pope’s Essay on
Man is also written from a very religious perspective and therefore
includes the idea that God is behind our plans in life. However, Voltaire’s Candide goes against this completely and
suggests that reason is not in the universe but is created by humans. It could
also be seen that Candide was written
as a direct response to Pope’s Essay on
Man.
Voltaire uses extremes in his
writing in order to support his argument that suggests there is always a
different side to a story – especially a more sinister one. This idea could be
seen as individualism because Voltaire is suggesting we are in control of our
own lives, there is no mastermind in the universe guiding us through life. In Candide, it is obvious that Voltaire is
writing a secular novel that criticizes the religious order and world view,
hence going against what Pope wrote in The
Essay on Man. A good example is the one of ‘cultivating the garden’. A
garden will only flourish if one puts in effort to cultivate it: an active role
is taken to look after this garden. Similarly to human beings; we will only go
so far without the drive that will encourage us to make the most out of the
life we are living. It is as if he is suggesting that humans need to solely rely
on themselves and not wonder whether there is a force in the universe that has
an impact on one’s life.
The Essay on Man was written at a time where religion was a very
important component in people’s lives. Therefore, it was seen as a guide of how
to lead a life of happiness. Pope writes that man has a specific position in
the social order and it shouldn’t be questioned as there is an ‘omniscient’
being somewhere out there who has already planned for our lives to be a
particular way. Therefore suggesting that we should adapt the outlook that everything
happens for a reason – God has laid a path for us to follow already. It is a
very passive view on life as it could be seen that humans won’t need to try for
anything because our path laid out by God cannot be altered. They could simply
just sit there and live their lives as it has been set out for them. Pope also
points out that all things evil will eventually lead to something good. If
there was no evil, then how can good come about? It is simply a part of life
that just has to be taken as the way it is. Also, evil is something that human
beings perceive it as being bad. There is a limit to what us humans can know and
therefore this idea of evil could simply be a fraction of the whole truth. As
humans are prone to seeing imperfection, we simply dwell on the problems too
much and forget about the goodness that can arise from this problem.
These two examples show us the
two total opposite perspectives that some people may have had during the
Enlightenment. There’s the secular view portrayed through Candide where Voltaire believes that human beings should take
control of their own lives and make it the best of their ability, and the religious
view in The Essay on Man where humans
should take a more relaxed approach to evil as their life has been set up by
God who’s reasoning is beyond a human being’s knowledge.
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