Candide Study Guide

Main characters

• Candide: The title character. Illegitimate son of the sister of the baron of Thunder-ten-Tronckh. In love with Cunégonde.
• Cunégonde: The daughter of the baron of Thunder-ten-Tronckh. In love with Candide.
• Professor Pangloss: The royal educator of the court of the baron. Described as "the greatest philosopher of the Holy Roman Empire".
• The Old Woman: Cunégonde's maid while she was the mistress of Don Issachar and the Grand Inquisitor of Portugal. Fled with Candide and Cunégonde to the New World. Illegitimate daughter of Pope Urban X.
• Cacambo: From a Spanish father and a Peruvian mother. Lived half his life in Spain and half in Latin America. Candide's valet while in America.
• Martin: Dutch amateur philosopher and Manichaean. Met Candide in Suriname, travelled with him afterwards.
• The baron of Thunder-ten-Tronckh: Son of the original Baron (a secondary character) and brother of Cunégonde. Thought to have been killed by the Bulgarians. Became a Jesuit in Paraguay.

Secondary characters

• The baron and baroness of Thunder-ten-Tronckh: Father and mother of Cunégonde and the second baron. Both slain by the Bulgarians.
• The king of the Bulgarians.
• Jacques the Anabaptist: Saved Candide from a lynching in the Netherlands. Drowned in the port of Lisbon.
• Don Issachar: Jewish landlord in Portugal. Cunégonde became his mistress, shared with the Grand Inquisitor of Portugal. Killed by Candide.
• The Grand Inquisitor of Portugal: Sentenced Candide and Pangloss at the auto-da-fé . Cunégonde was his mistress jointly with Don Issachar. Killed by Candide.
• Don Fernando d'Ibarra y Figueroa y Mascarenes y Lampourdos y Souza: Spanish governor of Buenos Aires. Wanted Cunégonde as a mistress.
• The king of El Dorado, who helped Candide and Cacambo out of El Dorado and made them rich.
• Mynheer Vanderdendur: Dutch ship captain. Offered to take Candide from America to France for 30,000 gold coins, but then departed without him, stealing all his riches.
• The abbot of Perigord: Befriended Candide and Martin, led the police to arrest them; he and the police officer accepted three diamonds each and released them.
• The marchioness of Parolignac: Parisian wench who took an elaborate title.
• The scholar: One of the guests of the "marchioness". Argued with Candide about art.
• Paquette: The one who gave Pangloss syphilis. After the slaying by the Bulgarians, worked as a prostitute. Became the property of Friar Giroflée.
• Friar Giroflée: Theatine friar. In love with the prostitute Paquette.
• Signor Pococurante: A Venetian noble. Candide and Martin visited his estate, where he discussed his disdain of most of the canon of great art.
• In an inn in Venice, Candide and Martin ate with six foreigners who turned out to be deposed monarchs. They were:
  • Ahmed III
  • Ivan VI of Russia
  • Charles Edward Stuart
  • Augustus III of Poland
  • Stanisław Leszczyński
  • Theodore of Corsica