"O! that this too too solid flesh would melt.
Or that the Everlasting has not fix"d.
His Cannon "gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!.
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable.
Seem to be all the uses of this world.".
from Hamlet.
This quote from the 17th century play Hamlet is an expression of disgust with the world. Hamlet seems dismayed and appalled with the way the world is going. Shakespeare, the novelist was trying to point out that there are issues in the world that must be answered. Shakespeare believed that action must be taken for a change to occur with the troubles of the world. Likewise, in 1755 Voltaire, author of the novel Candide expresses the same detestation of the similar situations in the world. Voltaire brings attention to horrors such as natural disasters, war, violence, sickness and disease, and religious wars. He exemplifies these horrific occurrences in hope that things may change for the future. Unfortunately, these terrible disturbances can even be observed in 21st century today. They have become universal and timeless and will continue to plague the world unless something is done. .
In the novel Candide violence and war can be illustrated throughout this book. Voltaire uses these horrors among others in order to make his point that there is something wrong about what it going on. Nonetheless, the world has to change. In chapter two of the story vicious "heroes" of the Bulgarian army unwillingly make Candide the main character, into a soldier. He is thrown into a regiment to fight wars for the Bulgarians. In the regiment Candide is made to run a gauntlet. Voltaire describes his punishment which was, "composed of four thousand strokes, which had laid bare every muscle and nerve from his neck to his backside." Moreover, when Candide visits a village, which the Bulgars had burned down, he observes, "old men with wounds all over their bodies were watching the death throes of butchered women who clutched their children to their bloody breast.