Enlightenment | Comparing the Grand Inquisitor
Bussey holds a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies and a bachelor’s degree in English literature. She is an independent writer specializing in literature. In the following essay, Bussey compares the Grand Inquisitor in Voltaire’s Candide to literature’s most famous Grand Inquisitor, who appears in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. By comparing these parallel characters from different literary movements, she sheds light on the Enlightenment as a whole.
Among the many characters who wander in and out of the pages of Voltaire’s Candide is the Grand Inquisitor, a character with historical roots in the Spanish Inquisition. In 1478, Ferdinand V and Isabella I of Spain secured the reluctant approval of the pope to initiate what has come to be known as the Spanish Inquisition. Its original intent was to seek out and punish Jews who had been coerced into converting to Christianity but whose conversion was insincere. Next, the inquisitors began seeking out Muslims who had insincerely converted. In 1520, Protestants became targets of...
[The entire page is 1495 words long]
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