Cast of Characters
Candide: The protagonist of the novel. Candide is an open, honest young man
whose driving motivation is to find and marry his love Cunegonde, from whom he has
been separated. Throughout his adventures, Candide both witnesses and personally
experiences such terrible suffering that he is forced to question the teachings of his
mentor, Pangloss, that “all is for the best” and that this is “the best of all possible
worlds.”
Pangloss: The pompous tutor of Candide and the young Baron of Thunder-ten-
tronckh. Pangloss’s character is a satirical version of Enlightenment philosophers whom
Voltaire considered foolishly optimistic. Although the characters in the novel repeatedly
experience things that contradict his philosophy, Pangloss never wavers from the belief
that “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.”
Cunegonde: The daughter of the elder Baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh and the object of
Candide’s devotion.
The Baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh (younger): The arrogant German Baron who
inherits his father’s title after the elder Baron and Baroness are killed by invading
Bulgarians. He refuses to permit Candide’s marriage to Cunegonde on the grounds that
Candide’s blood is not noble enough.
The old woman: The daughter of the Pope and a princess, the old woman has
endured such a series of calamities that she is now reduced to servitude. As the maid
of Cunegonde, she rescues Candide from public execution in Lisbon, and eventually
settles down with the rest of Candide’s company on a farm in...
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