What happens in Chapter 9 of Candide?
Chapter 9 begins right after Candide reunites with Cunégonde in Lisbon. Don Issachar, the Jewish merchant who co-owns Cunégonde with the Grand Inquisitor, unexpectedly returns home and discovers Candide with her. In a fit of rage, he pulls a dagger and charges at Candide, who—still shaken from the auto-da-fé—ends up killing him with the sword given to him by Pangloss's old acquaintance. Just minutes later, the Grand Inquisitor arrives to take Cunégonde for his regular Thursday visit. Upon recognizing Candide as the man he had whipped during the ceremony, the Inquisitor threatens to have him arrested. To his own surprise, Candide acts quickly and kills the Inquisitor as well. The old woman, who has been Cunégonde's guardian throughout, insists they flee immediately. She brings out three horses, they load them up with money and jewels, and they ride out of Lisbon towards Cadiz, leaving two dead bodies behind. Cunégonde is horrified but remains practical; Candide is stunned by his own capacity for violence. The chapter concludes mid-flight, with the characters racing towards another disaster without time for moral reflection.
Analysis
Voltaire condenses two murders into a brief chapter with a lighthearted flair, and that tonal clash is exactly the point. The rapid pace of the killings—Don Issachar gone in one sentence, the Grand Inquisitor in the next—mockingly mimics the heroic duel while also critiquing the institutions these men represent: greed in commerce and power in the church. There’s no mourning for either death; neither murderer hesitates. Voltaire's satirical approach here is based on speed: as the plot races ahead, sentiment takes a back seat, rendering any assertion of a moral order increasingly absurd.
This chapter also signifies a subtle yet significant change in Candide's characterization. Up until this point, he has been a passive victim of hardship; now, he takes action, twice, and with deadly precision. Still, Voltaire doesn’t present this as character development. Candide's reasoning—"if I don't kill him, he will certainly kill me"—is purely pragmatic, a parody of Leibnizian optimism twisted for self-preservation. The best of all possible worlds now demands murder to survive.
The old woman's practicality grounds the scene. Her three horses appear unexpectedly, a comic-epic plot device that keeps the story afloat. Cunégonde's shock is genuine but fleeting, overshadowed by practical concerns. Voltaire’s female characters, even when victimized, consistently demonstrate a clearer understanding of survival than his male philosopher-hero—a recurring technique that this chapter employs with subtle skill.
Key quotes from Chapter 9
“Candide, seeing this, drew his own sword and plunged it into the Jew's belly up to the hilt.”
Candide kills Don Issachar almost reflexively after the merchant draws first, the clinical detail of 'up to the hilt' undercutting any heroic register.
“If a holy man calls for help, he will certainly have me burned; and Cunégonde will perhaps be treated in the same manner; he has been my cruel persecutor; he is my rival; I am already in the humour of killing; there is no time to hesitate.”
Candide's rapid internal logic before killing the Grand Inquisitor, a compressed parody of philosophical reasoning reduced to a kill-or-be-killed calculus.
“The old woman immediately gave her advice, and three horses were found.”
The old woman's instant, unexplained resourcefulness functions as both comic relief and a pointed contrast to Candide's paralysed idealism.
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Create an accountSign inVocabulary in Chapter 9
- Grand Inquisitor
- The chief official of the Inquisition in a given country, wielding enormous religious and political power; in the novel he shares Cunégonde as a mistress and is later killed by Candide.