Candide

The daughter of the Baron von Thunder-ten-tronckh, and probably Candide’s first cousin, Cunégonde is a 17-year-old girl at the beginning of the book. She is pretty and grows up in the same household as Candide. Cunégonde is often depicted as an object of desire, not only for Candide, but for the series of men who rape, save, sell, and share her. Like a valuable object, she is passed from one man to the next, always dependent on the protection of a man but still capable of holding some men at bay as she negotiates her own survival.

Cunégonde is relatively devoted to Candide but with far less optimism—Cunégonde has seen her own parents killed, has been raped, stabbed, and sold, and by the time she finds Candide in Portugal, she has abandoned Pangloss’ teachings. Her experiences have made her pragmatic, a needed outlook for basic survival as a woman. As such, she is quick to follow the old woman’s advice to entertain the interest of various men, such as the Governor in Buenos Aires or the Grand Inquisitor, whose protection keeps her alive. At the end of the text, she has traveled almost as much as Candide, but she has lost her beauty and become less pleasant, one of the few people in the text to age. 

Maître Pangloss is the resident tutor in the castle for Candide, Cunégonde, and her brother the Baron, where he teaches “metaphysico-theologico-cosmo-nigology” (4). His main philosophical position is that they live in the “best of all possible worlds” (4) despite believing nothing of the sort. Pangloss is often caught in compromising situations with young women, which leads to his punishment and misery. He contracts syphilis from a tryst with the maid Paquette, and loses an eye and an ear, but is cured because of James the Anabaptist’s generosity. Despite his absence for most of the text, Pangloss is Candide’s main interlocutor, even when he is not present, for his optimism serves as a starting position for Candide’s view of the world. A foil for Candide, Pangloss reappears in the final chapters so the former can revisit the philosophy of optimism with the teacher and move past it.

The old woman was the daughter of Pope Urban X and the Princess of Palestrina. As a young girl she was beautiful and lived a life of comfort, but when her ship is pirated in the Mediterranean, her fortunes change and she spends years living at the whim of whichever captor has her in possession. By the time the reader meets the old woman, she is Cunégonde’s maid, serving as a go-between for her mistress and offering quick, practical advice in urgent situations. The old woman is a pragmatic survivor. Like Cunégonde, she has suffered and survived: The old woman experienced kidnapping, rape, enslavement, humiliation, the removal of a buttock, and the violent deaths of her mother and her betrothed. She is no longer disillusioned with questions of innocence and ideas of purity; her focus is on keeping Cunégonde alive and helping her survive in a world that is ruthlessly cruel to women not living under the protection of a man. Also like Cunégonde, the old woman was passed between men like an object and dehumanized to the point where her body became food for others. She believes that all humans think their own suffering to be the worst, but she also values life and believes in preserving it despite that suffering.

Candide’s loyal valet, Cacambo is his master’s traveling companion on his journey through South America. He is part Spanish and part-native to South America and serves as a guide for Candide among foreign tribes and cultures. He is also a foil for Candide during his journey, facilitating philosophical discourse and explaining foreign cultures and customs to both Candide and the reader. Cacambo balances their dynamic with qualities that Candide lacks, such as practicality, resourcefulness, and quick thinking in urgent situations, just as he is a linguistic and cultural translator among cultures they encounter on the continent. Despite the cynical insistence of Martin, Cacambo is truly loyal to Candide. Rather than take Candide’s money and disappear, he is true to his work, eventually helping Candide reunite with Cunégonde when they have all returned to Europe.