# Candide — Character guide

> Key figures in Candide by Voltaire.

- [Candide](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/candide.md): A guileless young man kicked out of his baronial paradise for loving Cunégonde, he trusts Pangloss's creed that all is for the best while the world clubs him senseless.
- [Cunégonde](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/cunegonde.md): The baron's daughter whose kiss with Candide topples them both from Eden, she endures slavery and ruin while remaining the fixed star of his wandering devotion.
- [Pangloss](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/pangloss.md): Candide's tutor, a philosopher who preaches that everything happens for the best in the best of all possible worlds, even as syphilis, war, and the Inquisition dismantle him.
- [Martin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/martin.md): A brooding scholar and self-declared Manichean who joins Candide's voyage, insisting that God has abandoned this globe to a malignant being—and daring anyone to prove otherwise.
- [Cacambo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/cacambo.md): Candide's quick-witted valet, half-Spanish and half-native, whose cunning and courage carry them through Jesuit wars, El Dorado, and the snares of South America.
- [The Old Woman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/old_woman.md): Cunégonde's weathered attendant, once a princess of Popé, whose scarred body and harrowing history make her the company's most clear-eyed witness to human misery.
- [Paquette](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/paquette.md): A young woman who was the chambermaid in the Baron's castle and later becomes a prostitute.
- [The Baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/baron_thunder_ten_tronckh.md): The Baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh presides over the small, self-satisfied universe of Candide's childhood, where his tapestry-hung hall and pack of farmyard hounds are treated as evidence of cosmic order. His vanity is st
- [James the Anabaptist](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/james_anabaptist.md): A kind Anabaptist who helps Candide and Pangloss in Lisbon before dying in a shipwreck.
- [Lord Pococurante](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/pococurante.md): A wealthy Venetian nobleman who is bored with all his possessions and art.
- [Friar Giroflée](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/friar_girofl%C3%A9e.md): A discontented friar who becomes Paquette's lover and later meets Candide in Venice.
- [Don Issachar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/don_issachar.md): A Jewish merchant who shares Cunégonde with the Grand Inquisitor in Lisbon.
- [The Grand Inquisitor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/grand_inquisitor.md): A Portuguese church official who claims Cunégonde as his mistress and is killed by Candide.
- [Mynheer Vanderdendur](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/vanderdendur.md): A dishonest Dutch merchant who cheats Candide in Surinam and steals his money.
- [King Theodore](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/king_theodore.md): A deposed king met by Candide and Martin at a supper with six strangers.
- [The Perigordian Abbé](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/abb%C3%A9_perigordian.md): A French abbé who guides Candide through Paris society and introduces him to entertainments.
- [The Aga](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/aga.md): A Turkish official who buys Candide and his companions as slaves in Constantinople.
- [Pope Urban X](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/pope_urban_x.md): Mentioned as the Old Woman's father, a pope who never existed in history.
- [The Oreillons](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/oreillons.md): A tribe of South American savages who capture Candide and Cacambo but later befriend them.
- [Voltaire](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters/voltaire.md): The author appears as a character in the endnotes, commenting on the story.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/candide_se/characters