Voltaire and Dostoyevsky

Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground and Voltaire's Candide are precisely similar works: in attempting to construct a narrative critique of a philosophical system, they slip from harsh satire into a form of sentimentality. I would suggest that comparing the two works' differing approaches to the philosophical problems of optimism, adversity, and violence are indicative of a different attitude altogether toward the philosophical problems presented. Dostoyevsky is passionate but ultimately sees no alternative between traditional religious morality and nihilism; Voltaire, by contrast, sees traditional religious morality as banal and proposes his own alternative. But in my conclusion, I will compare and contrast the role played by comedy in both works -- although each takes a broadly satirical approach toward the philosophical fashions of the present-day, only Candide is the genuinely comic work.

In comparing the role played by optimism in both works, it is important to recall that this...
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