Today we see sarcasm and satire everywhere. In films and books, on television and in our everyday lives. We almost don't realize it because we're so used to sarcasm as a way of showing the crazy or ridiculousness of something, and today's public figures can almost guarantee that they will be parodied at some point of their career; it's perfectly acceptable for today's writers and comedians to jokingly pick on anyone. In the 18th century, however, satire was not as acceptable. Upon the publication of his most famous work, Candide, author Voltaire saw widespread criticism of the authorities implicated by history. Voltaire did not even sign his name to the original work, although many suspected that he had nevertheless written it. Its importance and careful denunciation show that Candide is in fact one of the most important works of social satire of the 18th century. Voltaire attacks the optimism of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz through his character Doctor Pangloss, professor of the main character. From the beginning of the story, the reader can see the extreme optimism of Pangloss, who asks Candide: “Observe that noses were made to wear glasses; and so we have glasses. The legs were visibly instituted to be shod, and we have shoes formed to be taken out and to build castles and Monseigneur has a very noble castle...those who affirmed that all was well; talking nonsense; They should have said everything is fine. » This has a clearly sarcastic tone, as Pangloss's logical fallacies seem ridiculous; it seems to transform cause into effect and vice versa. This is one of many main sources of humor in the story, so we see many other examples of it. When Candide reconnects with Pangloss after being expelled...... middle of paper...... The Austrian Succession, the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War, none of which really changed anything except for lives. they consumed. Although Voltaire did not condone wars for religious reasons, as evidenced by his sarcastic comments through Pangloss, he also did not condone war without any reason, which is what these wars were. It must have frustrated Voltaire, as well as many Enlightenment thinkers of his day, to see that the leaders of the time were so far behind the thinkers of the time, although the same could be said today as well . We must ask ourselves what Voltaire would think of contemporary society. While we certainly recognize that there are problems in our society, that often doesn't get us any closer to solving them. We still fight wars and politicians still avoid blaming each other for their mistakes, although now, instead of blaming God, they blame each other..