Paige on Voltaire

Voltaire (Paige Hill)

Voltaire, or François-Marie Arouet, was born November 21^st 1694 in Paris France and died May 30th 1778. However, Voltaire himself said that his birthday was actually February 20^th.  He did not feel any particular familial attachment toward his father or brother, and his mother died when he was seven years old. He did go off to college at the Louis-le-Grand in Paris in 1704 where he would discover a love for literature, especially the theatre. However, the religious aspect of the college he scorned and mocked, being very skeptical. He soon would begin to focus on literature rather than law as a career. He would publish a wide variety of writing from poetry to historical texts. Some of his major works include The Age of Louis XIV (1751), Essay on the Customs and the Spirit of the Nations (1756), Candide (1759), which was a satire and novella. In 1726 he would be arrested and held for a small amount of time before he would decide to be exiled to England rather than remain in jail. He would be in England for nearly three years where he would be inspired by the ideas that were being spread throughout the country because of its own Enlightenment. He would encounter such figures as Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift.  His stay in England would so inspire him to go back to France and suggest “England as a model to his compatriots” (ww.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire#toc59164). He would also be introduced to the tragedies of William Shakespeare while there. Later he attempted to emulate that style of tragedy in his own plays. One of his plays that would become a success was Zaire. although his play Brutus,which was his attempt at emulating Shakespeare, would find hardly any success. Looking at his values and beliefs, he was a deist and considered established religion to be far from rational. He also did not approve of democracy, believing that “an enlightened monarchy, informed by the counsels of the wise, was best suited to govern” (http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Voltaire). Moreover, his rejection of the church and its dogma would allow him to have an affair with the married Émilie du Châtelet for fifteen years. He would escape to her home in Cirey-sur-Blaise after his Letters on the English (1733) really provoked the French church and government to anger. His mistress was also a progressive thinker of the time, being interested in metaphysics and the sciences. They would spend considerable time at her home, studying intensely and even writing literary pieces together. He would also remodeled the chateau with his own money. Voltaire was considered the representative thinker of the French enlightenment. He believed in freedom and progress, being influenced by what he experienced on his trip to England and the work of John Locke. He would ultimately use his wit to criticize unjust institutions as well as the Church and established religion, pushing humanistic virtues and reason over emotion. He really fought against and challenged the current establishments in France. However, what he wrote would also play a very significant role in the French revolution, and would even continue to influence individuals of the nineteenth century such as Karl Marx and Charles Darwin.   

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Voltaire

https://www.biography.com/people/voltaire-9520178