25 pages • 50 minutes read
A Horseman in the Sky
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Character Analysis
Private Carter Druse
Druse is the protagonist of the story. He is characterized as a young Union supporter in contrast to his Successionist father. He has been brought up in a wealthy and comfortable home and so has been relatively sheltered from the vicissitudes of life. The story largely concerns his loss of innocence and emergence into a state of tragic knowledge.
Druse is remarkable for how inconsistently the narrator describes him rather than for the depth to which his character is developed. When the narrator first describes him asleep, he is described as a “criminal” (3) who would be executed for dereliction of duty if caught by his superiors. In sharing his backstory, the narrator reveals that he has been a successful and courageous soldier and is asleep only because of exhaustion. After Druse wakes, the narrator describes him in terms as positive as previously they had been negative: he is now a “courageous gentleman” and a “hardy soldier” (6). In the final scene, the superlatives—in either direction—have been stripped away. He is the “man” (9). He has been portrayed from different perspectives throughout the story, the first two reducing his character to over-simplified extremes (absolute criminal or absolute hero) and the last providing a less distorted view. This series of lenses suggests the stripping away of the beliefs that shaped his understanding of war as something potentially glorious and governed by ideals of duty. Ultimately, duty cannot make sense of, let alone render morally or psychologically palatable, the violence war requires.
Druse’s Father
Druse’s father represents a contrast to Druse’s youthful, emotional, and individualistic qualities. Yet, he embodies the ideals of duty and heroism toward which Druse strives. The father suggests how achieving the latter may involve repression of the former. He is kept at a distance throughout most of the story, speaking dialogue in one brief scene when Druse announces his intent to join a Union regiment. The act is one of rebellion against his father and his state, as the father makes clear, as well as against his mother, who is dying. The son nevertheless respects the “leonine” patriarch of the family (4), bowing “reverently” to the man as he departs (5). He obeys the admonition of his father, who says, “Whatever may occur, do what you may conceive to be your duty” (4). Later, Druse will recall these words in resolving to fire upon his father for the sake of his fellow troops. Paradoxically, Druse following what he conceives to be his duty forces him to separate from the human connections and home he has held dear and later kill his father. The father’s stern demeanor enhances his statuesque appearance later in the story. He is not completely without feeling, however, as when Druse leaves he salutes “with a stately courtesy that masked a breaking heart” (5).
An Officer
The unnamed Union officer who witnesses the father’s fall from the cliff plays a small but pivotal role. Bierce leaves him vaguely defined as if to represent an average soldier, though he is of somewhat elevated rank. He possibly resembles Druse in possessing a “spirit of adventure” and holding to an immature view of war (7). He is awed and credulous at the vision of the horseman in the sky but perhaps no more so than many people who have witnessed something incomprehensible.
He carries several of the themes of the story. His path in the valley is described as “aimless” (7), and his motives for exploring the valley are not clear; it may be a matter of impulse like Druse’s accidentally falling asleep at the beginning of the story. The officer is susceptible to illusion and misperception, believing the rider is in control of the horse. However foolish the officer may seem, he remains, the narrator says. “wise” enough not to reveal what he saw to his commander, knowing “better than to tell an incredible truth” (8).
The Commander
The commander appears very briefly but delivers a resonant line of dialogue. When the officer returns to camp after fruitlessly searching the valley floor for the rider, the commander questions him as to whether “he had learned anything of advantage to the expedition” (8).
This raises the question of lessons from experience, particularly the experience of the father’s death. The officer cannot share it, because he will not be believed—nor can Druse, because of how horrible it is. Whether Druse learns something “of advantage” remains for debate: It may be that he has only learned the pain of loss and the guilt of patricide.
The commander’s knowing smile may mean that he saw the strange event but took it for what it was, not a supernatural visitation. Alternatively, given that the narrator stated the existence of a southern road earlier, the commander’s knowing smile may be one of satisfaction that the routes in and out of the valley remain difficult to detect, and thus their hiding spot is safe. The knowing smile from this perspective is at once true and ironic because the commander has no idea of the wild sight the officer has seen, let alone the act of patricide behind it. The ambiguity highlights key themes of the story: the importance of context and perspective in interpreting what one sees, the capacity for humans to overestimate their knowledge, and self-knowledge despite these limitations.
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By Ambrose Bierce
