Individual Oral Planning Sheet

Developing a plan for an individual oral:

Global Issue: Corruption within the church

Passage 1: ​Candide
Author’s attitude toward the global issue (remember to include how the issue is portrayed in
the passage itself AND how this passage relates to the work as a whole):

● Voltaire believes the church to be hypocritical and corrupted in this time period and
portrays this through the use of different characters such as the Jew and the Inquisitor.
This relates to the passage as a whole due to Candide holding much of his faith in
religion and philosophy and recognizing the faults in both of these at the end of the
story.

Key strategies used in the passage to develop the author’s point about the global issue: (no
more than 5 bullet points)

● Voltaire utilized irony/reversal of roles when depicting the religious leaders (the
Inquisitor and the Jew) as the rapists which made the audience take a new perspective
on the church leaders.
● The changing of Cunegonde’s virtue after being raped was a large understatement and
reveals that rape and sexual abuse during this time period was accepted and common.
● The technique absurdity comes into play when the author references Cunegonde either
belonging to the New or Old Testament.
● At the beginning of the passage the captain is placed under mock heroism as he is
described as saving Cunegonde from the Bulgarian soldier but then uses her as his own
sexual slave there after.
● Volatire makes a mockery out of the church because he illustrates the corruption and
hypocrisy of the church through these two religious figures and others in the story.