Back in the days, superstition and spiritual damnation were the main influences of everyday life. Ignorance and corruption ruled the political and religious worlds. Incompetent nobilities who were blinded by greed and gluttony ruled many kingdoms of the known world. Religion was hypocritical. Then in the eighteenth century came the Age of Enlightenment. This brought a better way of thinking to people by observation and experimentation. People began to figure out ignorance was bad for humankind. People started to believe in the power of rational thought and reasoning. In Voltaire's Candide, the mockery and criticism of the monarchy and the church system during the Enlightenment Age are obvious in this book. He strongly attacks the ignorance and arrogance of the nobility and the abuse of the influential power the church has over people. .
In the beginning of the book Candide got kicked out of his kingdom because the Baron of the castle had caught him kissing his daughter. This was not acceptable because of the differences of their ranks due to birth. Another example nobility arrogance shows when Candide traveled to the Paraguay and met Cunegonde's brother. Even though he told her brother how he got her away from Don Issachar and the Grand Inquisitor, the brother slaps Candide when he said that he wanted marry Cunegonde. He disapproves of this marriage proposal because Candide is not of the nobility. These examples prove of the nobilities? arrogance towards the common folk. Social classification was a major deal during the aristocratic times. People of the nobility did not want to socialize barely with people of lower ranks then them. It kept a form of segregation based on birth right and material things.
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Another thing Voltaire criticized about was the greed of the nobility. They practiced .