The Prussian Officer

The Prussian Officer and Other Stories is a collection of 12 stories by D. H. Lawrence. The title story of the collection begins as an army captain and his orderly are trudging along a German road. The captain sits high and proud on a horse while the orderly ambles along beside him. It soon becomes apparent why the orderly is in such a dire physical condition. The orderly is involved with a woman, and his captain does not approve of the relationship. The captain, who, as it turns out, is a sadist, is physically and emotionally detached from women. He prevents the orderly from seeing his lover by beating him and abusing him every night. Eventually, the orderly experiences an emotion he has never felt before: hatred. Undone by the captain’s injustices, the orderly plots revenge. The orderly successfully strangles his captain, but by the end of the fight, he collapses and dies as well.