Candide Voltaire

Main characters

• Candide: The title character. The 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 is the mistress of Don Issachar and the Grand Inquisitor of Portugal. Flees with Candide and Cunégonde to the New World. Illegitimate daughter of Pope Urban X.
• Cacambo: Born from a Mestizo father and an Indigenous mother. Lived half his life in Spain and half in Latin America. Candide's valet while in America.
• Martin: Dutch amateur philosopher and Manichaean. Meets Candide in Suriname, travels with him afterwards.
• The Baron of Thunder-ten-Tronckh: Brother of Cunégonde. Is seemingly killed by the Bulgarians, but becomes a Jesuit in Paraguay. Disapproves of Candide and Cunégonde's marriage.

Secondary characters

• The baron and baroness of Thunder-ten-Tronckh: Father and mother of Cunégonde and the second baron. Both slain by the Bulgars.
• The king of the Bulgars: Frederick II
• Jacques the Anabaptist: Dutch manufacturer who takes Candide in after his escape from the Prussian Army. Drowns in the port of Lisbon after saving a sailor's life.
• Don Issachar: Jewish banker in Portugal. Cunégonde becomes his mistress, shared with the Grand Inquisitor of Portugal. Killed by Candide.
• The Grand Inquisitor of Portugal: Sentences Candide and Pangloss at the auto-da-fé. Cunégonde is 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. Wants Cunégonde as a mistress.
• The king of El Dorado, who helps Candide and Cacambo out of El Dorado, lets them pick gold from the grounds, and makes them rich.
• Mynheer Vanderdendur: Dutch ship captain/pirate and slave holder. Offers to take Candide from America to France for 30,000 gold coins, but then departs without him, stealing most of his riches. Dies after his ship sinks.
• The abbot of Périgord: Befriends Candide and Martin in the hopes of scamming them. Tries to have them arrested.
• The marchioness of Parolignac: Parisian wench who takes an elaborate title.
• The scholar: One of the guests of the "marchioness". Argues with Candide about art.
• Paquette: A chambermaid from Thunder-ten-Tronckh who gave Pangloss syphilis after getting it herself from her Franciscan confessor. After the slaying by the Bulgars, works as a prostitute in Venice and becomes entangled with Friar Giroflée.
• Friar Giroflée: Theatine friar. In love with the prostitute Paquette.
• Signor Pococurante: A Venetian noble. Candide and Martin visit his estate, where he discusses his disdain of most of the canon of great art.
• In an inn in Venice, Candide and Martin dine with six men who turn out to be deposed monarchs:
  • Ahmed III
  • Ivan VI of Russia
  • Charles Edward Stuart
  • Augustus III of Poland
  • Stanisław Leszczyński
  • Theodore of Corsica