“Religion, Politics and Morality”How did Voltaire exploit the pre-modern era through mockery and criticism of 18th century society? Voltaire's Candide can be understood in different ways by its audience. At first glance it appears to simply be a story with outrageous creativity, but if you look deeper into the novel, a more complicated and significant message is buried within. Voltaire uses Candide's adventures as a representation of what he personally believes is wrong within society. Written in the 18th century (1759), commonly known as the Age of Enlightenment, Voltaire forces his audience to consider the transition from tradition to freedom within society. It achieves this by exploring the reality of human suffering due to the traditions that it mocks throughout Candide. In particular he focused on the exploitation of corruption which he believed was strongly and unfairly present within three main aspects of society: religion, politics and morality. Each chapter represents the different ways in which Voltaire believes corruption exists, providing the audience with the reality of society's problems due to his fixation on tradition. As an Enlightenment philosopher, Voltaire advocated freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and the separation of church and state. Voltaire successfully presents these ideas within Candide highlighting why they represent a significant problem in 18th century Europe. Each chapter of Candide is a part of the story in which Voltaire carefully expresses his concerns and criticisms of 18th century society. Chapter 11 “The Story of Old Women” in particular criticizes the pre-modern era with regards to religion. The Enlightenment period called for freedom of religion on the part of many philosophers... middle of the paper... where he saw a tunnel two thousand feet long, filled with the various apparatuses of mathematics and natural philosophy." (Candide, chapter 18). This shows how Voltaire, as an Enlightenment philosopher, believed that it was necessary to move away from tradition and towards science so that society could progress and everything that was wrong could be corrected. Dorado has aspects of a society that Voltaire would like to see in the near future complex Voltaire manages to promote his ideas and beliefs. It is clear that he wants to see a drastic change in religion, politics and morality in the pre-modern period. Throughout his novel Candide is able to criticize society with light mockery but also earnestly, using extreme examples to address his points and concerns. It is arguable that his ambitions were too high in a time of hope and debate in the 18th century.