Why is Voltaire felt to be emblematic of the Enlightenment movement?

Voltaire became the chief representative of the philosophes of France because of his conflict with the French government. He was sent into exile in England after his release from the Bastille. Voltaire was exposed to the Scientific Revolution and the writings of the Royal Academy, as well as Locke's political writings. Because Voltaire was profoundly opposed to absolutism, he had a tremendous admiration for the English constitutional monarchy and wrote his praise in Philosophical Letters on the English in 1733 . While he presented his writings as praise of the English system, they were actually a biting social commentary on the flaws of the French. This earned a warrant for his arrest in France, and the French government ordered his books to be burned. What makes Voltaire so symbolic of the Enlightenment was that he offered a criticism of the forms of government in the hope of achieving reform, maintaining the optimistic tone that is typical of the era.