Voltaire: Difference between revisions

In the story Candide almost everyone in the story is or at once in the clutches of poverty.  This seems to be a vice that no one can escape.  At one point in the story Candide has supper with six people that used to be kings.  Now they were all stripped of their glory and reduced to taking handouts.  The old woman that helped Cunegonde was a wealthy princess at one time and also reduced down to slavery.  Maybe Voltaire's use of this theme was to show how bad poverty was during his lifetime.  He might have felt he could show people how poverty effects those that have to endure it.