History 1401E Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Persian Letters, Montesquieu
Document Summary
In the voltaire"s candide , denis diderot"s supplement to the voyage of. Bougainville , and montesquieu"s the persian letters the authors all use satire to ridicule and denounce certain european societies in the eighteenth century. The authors hope to convey their messages in a way to influence other people to feel the same. Through these messages the authors attempt to suggest improvements that can be made to society through humour in order to portray their ideas in a lighter tone. The use of satire was very effective as an individual who reads any of these pieces literally word for word without looking for a deeper meaning would not truly understand the messages the authors are trying to convey. Therefore someone who comprehends what the authors are attempting to say would already have some concept of the problems of european societies. Thus these pieces of word would only add or strength the ideas the individual already had.
