ience (Ayer 2). Although his education was typical of the time, it was likely that the formality of Voltaire's early education had a great deal to do with his anti-religiosity and cynical view of the world, expressed in later life.
By 1712, Voltaire had become involved with a particular upper-echelon of French bourgeois society, and was attached to staff of the French Ambassador to the Hague. During this time, Voltaire became embroiled in a love affair, and the Ambassador was forced to send him home in disgrace. During the years following this initial setback, Voltaire was rather flighty and was unable to hold a steady job (Ayer 4).
During the period from 1714 to 1726, Voltaire decided that he wanted to be "a man of letters." From an early age, Voltaire had shown a talent for cynicism, and with the death of Louis XIV in 1715, the age of debauchery in France made it an ideal time to write. According to one scholar,
Voltaire made the most out of it. Already his keen eye for satirical possibilities had begun to focus sharply on the social landscape. In chirping light verse he gleefully ridiculed practically everyone, regardless of wealth, sex, or social position. Many were amused, many were offended. one of his poems had finally stung a leading critic so badly that [he] was advised to leave town until things had cooled off (Richter and Ricardo 23-24).
The next few years were a series of incidents in which Voltaire was in favor and out of favor, depending on who he had criticized in his poetry. In November, 1718, his version of the Greek tragedy Oedipus opened in Paris at the Comedie Francaise. The play was an immediate success, owing much to the political climate of the time, and even more to the particular blend of wit and humor at which Voltaire excelled.
But there was another element that made the play even more appealing to its first audience. It was shocking not only in its plot; its dialogue was at sev...