Candide · Chapter
Chapter XXIX: How Candide Found Cunégonde and the Old Woman Again explained
Candide, the Baron, Pangloss, Martin, and Cacambo arrive at the house of the Transylvanian prince and find Cunégonde and the old woman hanging towels.
What happens
Candide, the Baron, Pangloss, Martin, and Cacambo arrive at the house of the Transylvanian prince and find Cunégonde and the old woman hanging towels. Candide is horrified by Cunégonde's ugliness but agrees to marry her out of good manners. The Baron refuses to allow the marriage, insisting his sister must marry a baron. Candide threatens to kill the Baron again, but the Baron remains obstinate.
Themes in this chapter
Social Class and Inequality
The Baron's refusal to allow his sister to marry Candide, despite Candide's rescue and Cunégonde's ugliness, underscores the persistence of class barriers.
Suffering and Human Cruelty
Cunégonde's physical deterioration and the Baron's stubbornness reflect the ongoing suffering and cruelty in the characters' lives.
Folly of Metaphysical Systems
The characters' continued reasoning on 'contingent or non-contingent events' and 'effects and causes' satirizes metaphysical speculation in the face of harsh reality.
Characters to notice
- Candide
Reunited with Cunégonde, recoils at her ugliness but agrees to marry her; threatens to kill the Baron again.
- Cunégonde
Found hanging towels, now ugly with withered features; insists Candide keep his promise to marry her.
- The Old Woman
Found with Cunégonde hanging towels; proposes they live on a small farm.
- The Baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh
Pales at seeing Cunégonde; refuses to allow her marriage to Candide, insisting on a baron.
- Pangloss
Present, relating adventures and reasoning on events.
- Martin
Present, relating adventures and reasoning on events.
- Cacambo
Present, relating adventures and reasoning on events.
Key passages
“The tender, loving Candide, seeing his beautiful Cunégonde embrowned, with bloodshot eyes, withered neck, wrinkled cheeks, and rough, red arms, recoiled three paces, seized with horror, and then advanced out of good manners.”
Candide, shocked by Cunégonde's ugly appearance, steps back in horror but then approaches her out of politeness.
Highlights Candide's internal conflict between his promise and his revulsion.
“I will not suffer, said the Baron, such meanness on her part, and such insolence on yours; I will never be reproached with this scandalous thing; my sister's children would never be able to enter the church in Germany.”
The Baron refuses to allow the marriage, citing the disgrace it would bring and the social barriers it would create for any children.
Illustrates the Baron's adherence to class hierarchy despite his sister's reduced circumstances.