# Alcibiade — Short Fiction character guide

> Alcibiade in Short Fiction by Kate Chopin.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Alcibiade Mr. Fred Bartner, Fred Bartner, Bartner

**First appearance:** 0038-the-return-of-alcibiade

## Snapshot

A young man who returns to the old plantation after years away and finds himself summoned to a dying patriarch's bedside as 'Alcibiade, mon fils.'

## Who they are

Bartner comes back to Nég Sévérin to find Monsieur Jean Ba failing and the old man mistaking him, or choosing to mistake him, for a son named Alcibiade. He answers the summons patiently, holds the old man's hand, and listens to instructions about refusing Robert McFarlane's offers for the slaves—even to using the shotgun if necessary. Esmée is there too, and as the afternoon light creeps across the still body, Bartner finds himself caught between the dying world's demands and the living one's claims.

## In the story

### [The Return of Alcibiade](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_33_se/chapters/the-return-of-alcibiade)

Monsieur Jean Ba's son, killed in the war, whose return is still hoped for by his father every Christmas.

### [The Return of Alcibiade](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_33_se/chapters/the-return-of-alcibiade)

A young commission merchant from New Orleans who is mistaken for Alcibiade and agrees to play along for the day.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_33_se/characters/alcibiade_fred_bartner
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_33_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_33_se/characters