Voltaire's most recognized piece of literature, Candide, is a sarcastic assault on almost everything that was rife in society during his lifetime. The novel as a whole can be considered as a bleak story where main characters compare life stories to distinguish whose life is worse. Just when you think this novel cannot get anymore depressing, it does. While Candide is generally considered a universal castigation, it is optimism that Voltaire is attacking. However, there are several other humorously critical themes throughout this novel worth talking about. These themes of mockery include aristocratic snobbery, religious intolerance, militarism, and human nature.
There is plausible reason to why Voltaire was so disgusted with optimism, or more particularly, Leibnizian optimism. During the years in which Candide was composed, this subject of what Voltaire considered ridiculous optimism was in full swing. This degree of optimism earns its name from Gottfried Leibniz, a rationale leader of the Voltaire's time, branching off of Descartes. Leibnizian optimism is a theory in which we are told that there is evil in the world, and reason alone could explain that evil. Leibniz believed that there were truths even God could not change, such as one plus one equals two. If this is excepted to be truth, then there were restraints when God created the universe, thus God was working with a fallible system. Leibniz further states that this being the case, an infallible world is impossible, yet Earth is the best possible world. Now, while Voltaire was learning that everything that happens is for the best from his contemporaries, there were several important things happening throughout Europe and his life. .
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There was a powerful earthquake killing thousands in Lisbon, the gruesome and savage Seven Years War, and not to mention his mistress of many years had just died. While all these drastic events happened to Voltaire, there is no question to why he had a problem swallowing the "all is for the best" pill.
