# John Bartine — Can Such Things Be? character guide

> John Bartine in Can Such Things Be? by Ambrose Bierce.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Bartine

**First appearance:** 0039-john-bartine-s-watch

## Snapshot

Heir to a watch that outlived his murdered ancestor, Bartine guards a family curse with clenched fists and old Tory rage.

## Who they are

Bartine is a Virginia gentleman whose heirloom watch was returned to his family after his great-grandfather, a Tory planter, vanished into rebel custody during the Revolution. The watch's habit of stopping at fatal moments has made him secretive and volatile, and he bristles when a friend demands he simply tell the time. His fierce, unapologetic bitterness about the past turns a parlor conversation into a haunted inheritance, pulling the reader into the story's central question of whether such things can be.

## In the story

### [John Bartine's Watch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/chapters/john-bartine-s-watch)

The narrator's friend who becomes distressed when asked for the time and reveals the dark history of his ancestral watch.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/john_bartine
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters