Short Fiction · Character

Captain Ventzel

A rawboned, restless-eyed staff-captain whose courteous manner and quiet 'here we are all alike' unsettle the soldiers' stories that precede him.

supporting

Also known as Ventzel, Only Ventzel, Staff - Captain Ventzel, this Ventzel

First appearance: coward

As a supporting figure in Short Fiction, Captain Ventzel is not background color—the story leans on what they do once the chapter opens.

An officer who intervenes during the incident.

In the storyAn IncidentOpen this moment free

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Captain Ventzel sits sipping tea laced with rum in Zaikin's tent, bowing courteously to a student and asking questions with thin-lipped precision while the other officers joke and splutter around him. The soldiers' uncomplimentary talk about him lingers in the narrator's mind, yet his calm courtesy contradicts it, leaving his true nature unresolved. He matters because he embodies the gap between rumor and encounter that runs through the regiment's early scenes.

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See Captain Ventzel in coward

Character Web

32 connections

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Relationship types

Other

Character groups

Military and landowner figures
Plot drivers and minor cast

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Narrative arc

Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.

Setup
Escalation
Breaking point
Aftermath
Closing

This excerpt is the narrative climax because it marks the psychological breaking point of Bezsonow, where his…

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In the story

Captain Ventzel appears across 9 companion beats. Open any chapter in the free preview to see the notes beside the text.

An Incident
An officer who intervenes during the incident.
II
Engages in literary discussion, recites poetry, and expresses cynical views about the common soldier.
III
Orderly officer who beats fallen soldiers with his sword scabbard to enforce discipline; confronts the narrator.
IV
Sent off under arrest by the General after the river crossing.
V
Shouts and swears at the soldiers, adjusting their belts and shirts before the Emperor's train passes.
VI
Ventzel is described as the best company commander in terms of feeding and training, but his brutal beating of a soldier for smoking sparks hatred among the men.
VIII
Moodily questions the narrator about his thoughts on the dead, leading to a confrontation about the humanity of fallen soldiers.
IX
Leads his company in repeated charges, loses 52 men, and is found sobbing in his tent afterward.
The Action at Aislar
Present during the action at Aislar, involved in the military engagement.

Chapter companion notes

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See Captain Ventzel in coward

See Captain Ventzel in An Incident