Candide Characters

Candide is our novel’s main man. He is innocent, idealistic, and faithful to an extreme degree. Incredibly gullible, he blindly accepts Dr. Pangloss’s overly optimistic worldview as a y...

Dr. Pangloss and his philosophy are the principal focus of Voltaire’s satire. Dr. Pangloss, Candide’s tutor and mentor, teaches that in this best of all possible worlds, everything happ...

Candide hires Martin, a downtrodden scholar, to accompany him on his journey from Buenos Aires to France precisely because of Martin’s misfortune and pessimism. Martin embodies the polar oppo...

Cunégonde and the Cunégonde of Candide’s imagination represent two distinct characters in Candide. Like the Old Woman, Cunégonde is subject to horrific violence, both sexual an...

Cacambo, Candide’s loyal servant, is quick thinking, restless, and thirsty for adventure. Unlike many of the other main characters, Cacambo has no interest in philosophy. It is precisely beca...

Voltaire satirizes Cunégonde’s brother, the Baron, for his uncompromising adherence to traditional ideas about lineage and status. Despite his appreciation of Candide and feelings of bro...

The Old Woman suffers more than perhaps any other character in the novel. And she knows it, too, as demonstrated by her telling us all the time. However, more than anyone else, the Old Woman expres...

This character has an incredibly minor role. So minor, in fact, that most people overlook him altogether. But before you dismiss him as yet another foolish caricature, take a look at his lines. You...

James the Anabaptist represents yet another solution or viewpoint to the world’s suffering. He brings into the picture the Christian theory that there is past sin (Adam and Eve, and that whol...