Code Name Verity

Code Name Verity

by

Elizabeth Wein

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SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain Character Analysis

One of the novel’s antagonists, von Linden is the Ormaie Gestapo captain who oversees Julie’s interrogation—and who decides how, and how much, Julie is tortured. Julie refers to him as von Linden in her account; when Maddie is writing about him in her pilot’s notebook, she and the other Resistance members simply call him “the captain.” Everyone agrees that while von Linden is soft-spoken and intellectual, he’s absolutely terrifying. Julie feels this way because of how von Linden treated her “like a wireless set” while he was torturing her, meaning that he didn’t take pleasure in it or even watch much—it was just his job. And she’s even more afraid of him after starting to translate some of his notes, as she gets more insight into how his mind works (and she sees just how good he is at his job). Despite her fear of him, Julie sometimes pushes him to try and show herself and von Linden that he’s human—such as when she asks him about his daughter, Isolde, and what he’s told Isolde about his line of work. The two also regularly debate about literature; they have read many of the same books and poems, and he reads things based on Julie’s recommendations. Eventually, Julie discovers that von Linden was a headmaster of a prestigious boys’ school before he joined the Nazis. Others who don’t know this—like Maddie—nevertheless remark that von Linden reminds them of a headmaster. Von Linden seems overwhelmed by the weight of the horrible things he must do to please his superiors, though his support for the Nazis more generally never seems to waver. It’s implied that he, like everyone else, is terrified of his boss, Ferber, and Maddie characterizes him as cowardly for following Ferber’s order and sending Julie to the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp. Ultimately, not long after the Resistance bombs the Ormaie Gestapo HQ, von Linden is found dead. The telegram bearing this news suggests it was a suicide.

SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain Quotes in Code Name Verity

The Code Name Verity quotes below are all either spoken by SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain or refer to SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Friendship Theme Icon
).
Part 1: Ormaie 8.XI.43 JB-S Quotes

Von Linden resembles Captain Hook in that he is rather an upright sort of gentleman in spite of his being a brute, and I am quite Pan-like in my naïve confidence that he will play by the rules and keep his word. So far, he has.

Related Characters: Julie/The Narrator/Queenie/Verity (speaker), SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain
Related Symbols: Peter Pan
Page Number: 5
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Ormaie 11.XI.43 JB-S Quotes

He wanted to know, then, why I was choosing to write about myself in the third person. Do you know, I had not even noticed I was doing it until he asked.

The simple answer is because I am telling the story from Maddie’s point of view, and it would be awkward to introduce another viewpoint character at this point. It is much easier writing about me in the third person than it would be if I tried to tell the story from my own point of view. I can avoid all my old thoughts and feelings. It’s a superficial way to write about myself. I don’t have to take myself seriously—or, well, only as seriously as Maddie takes me.

Related Characters: Julie/The Narrator/Queenie/Verity (speaker), Maddie Brodatt, SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain, Anna Engel
Page Number: 58
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Ormaie 20.XI.43 JB-S Quotes

“Your accent is frightful,” I answered, also in French. “Would you repeat that in English?”

She did—taking no insult, very serious, through a pall of smoke.

“I’m looking for verity.”

It’s a bloody good thing von Linden let me have that cigarette, because otherwise I don’t know how I’d have managed to conceal that every one of us was dealing out her own DAMNED PACK OF LIES.

Related Characters: Julie/The Narrator/Queenie/Verity (speaker), Georgia Penn (speaker), Maddie Brodatt, SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain, Anna Engel
Page Number: 131
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Ormaie 23.XI.43 JB-S Quotes

He has a light nasal tenor—so beautiful. It hurt worse than being slapped, being shown the irony of his life. And of mine, of mine—OF MINE—Isolde alive in the day and the sun while I suffocate in Night and Fog, the unfairness of it, the random unfairness of everything, of me being here and Isolde being in Switzerland, and Engel not getting any cognac and Jamie losing his toes. And Maddie, Oh lovely Maddie,

MADDIE

Related Characters: Julie/The Narrator/Queenie/Verity (speaker), Maddie Brodatt, SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain, Anna Engel, Jamie, Georgia Penn, Isolde
Page Number: 181
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Section 11 Quotes

“She showed me,” Penn said. “She was pretty clear about it. Adjusted her scarf as soon as we’d shaken hands—gave me a good look. Ugly row of narrow triangular burns across her throat and collarbone, just beginning to heal. It looked like it had been done with a soldering iron. More of the same all along the insides of her wrists. She was very clever about showing me, cool as you please, no drama about it.”

Related Characters: Georgia Penn (speaker), Maddie Brodatt, Julie/The Narrator/Queenie/Verity, SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain, Mitraillette
Page Number: 261
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Section 13 Quotes

Because that’s what it’s like, schoolmates being guillotined as spies. I didn’t understand before—really didn’t understand. Being a kid and worrying that a bomb might kill you is terrible. But being a kid and worrying that the police might cut your head off is something else entirely. I haven’t words for it. Every fresh broken horror is something I just didn’t understand until I came here.

Related Characters: Maddie Brodatt (speaker), Julie/The Narrator/Queenie/Verity, SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain, Amélie/La Cadette, The French Girl/Marie
Page Number: 265
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Section 20 Quotes

What’s strange about the whole thing is that although it’s riddled with nonsense, altogether it’s true—Julie’s told our story, mine and hers, our friendship, so truthfully. It is us. We even had the same dream at the same time. How could we have had the same dream at the same time? How something so wonderful and mysterious be true? But it is.

Related Characters: Maddie Brodatt (speaker), Julie/The Narrator/Queenie/Verity, SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain
Page Number: 297
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Section 22 Quotes

“You never gave any to Julie.”

“Never gave any to Julie!” Engel gave an astonished bark of laughter. “I damn well gave her half my salary in cigarettes, greedy little Scottish savage! She nearly bankrupted me. Smoked her way through all five years of your pilot’s career!”

“She never said! She never even hinted! Not once!”

“What do you think would have happened to her,” Engel said coolly, “if she had written this down? What would have happened to me?”

Related Characters: Maddie Brodatt (speaker), Anna Engel (speaker), Julie/The Narrator/Queenie/Verity, SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain
Page Number: 308
Explanation and Analysis:
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SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain Quotes in Code Name Verity

The Code Name Verity quotes below are all either spoken by SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain or refer to SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Friendship Theme Icon
).
Part 1: Ormaie 8.XI.43 JB-S Quotes

Von Linden resembles Captain Hook in that he is rather an upright sort of gentleman in spite of his being a brute, and I am quite Pan-like in my naïve confidence that he will play by the rules and keep his word. So far, he has.

Related Characters: Julie/The Narrator/Queenie/Verity (speaker), SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain
Related Symbols: Peter Pan
Page Number: 5
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Ormaie 11.XI.43 JB-S Quotes

He wanted to know, then, why I was choosing to write about myself in the third person. Do you know, I had not even noticed I was doing it until he asked.

The simple answer is because I am telling the story from Maddie’s point of view, and it would be awkward to introduce another viewpoint character at this point. It is much easier writing about me in the third person than it would be if I tried to tell the story from my own point of view. I can avoid all my old thoughts and feelings. It’s a superficial way to write about myself. I don’t have to take myself seriously—or, well, only as seriously as Maddie takes me.

Related Characters: Julie/The Narrator/Queenie/Verity (speaker), Maddie Brodatt, SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain, Anna Engel
Page Number: 58
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Ormaie 20.XI.43 JB-S Quotes

“Your accent is frightful,” I answered, also in French. “Would you repeat that in English?”

She did—taking no insult, very serious, through a pall of smoke.

“I’m looking for verity.”

It’s a bloody good thing von Linden let me have that cigarette, because otherwise I don’t know how I’d have managed to conceal that every one of us was dealing out her own DAMNED PACK OF LIES.

Related Characters: Julie/The Narrator/Queenie/Verity (speaker), Georgia Penn (speaker), Maddie Brodatt, SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain, Anna Engel
Page Number: 131
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Ormaie 23.XI.43 JB-S Quotes

He has a light nasal tenor—so beautiful. It hurt worse than being slapped, being shown the irony of his life. And of mine, of mine—OF MINE—Isolde alive in the day and the sun while I suffocate in Night and Fog, the unfairness of it, the random unfairness of everything, of me being here and Isolde being in Switzerland, and Engel not getting any cognac and Jamie losing his toes. And Maddie, Oh lovely Maddie,

MADDIE

Related Characters: Julie/The Narrator/Queenie/Verity (speaker), Maddie Brodatt, SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain, Anna Engel, Jamie, Georgia Penn, Isolde
Page Number: 181
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Section 11 Quotes

“She showed me,” Penn said. “She was pretty clear about it. Adjusted her scarf as soon as we’d shaken hands—gave me a good look. Ugly row of narrow triangular burns across her throat and collarbone, just beginning to heal. It looked like it had been done with a soldering iron. More of the same all along the insides of her wrists. She was very clever about showing me, cool as you please, no drama about it.”

Related Characters: Georgia Penn (speaker), Maddie Brodatt, Julie/The Narrator/Queenie/Verity, SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain, Mitraillette
Page Number: 261
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Section 13 Quotes

Because that’s what it’s like, schoolmates being guillotined as spies. I didn’t understand before—really didn’t understand. Being a kid and worrying that a bomb might kill you is terrible. But being a kid and worrying that the police might cut your head off is something else entirely. I haven’t words for it. Every fresh broken horror is something I just didn’t understand until I came here.

Related Characters: Maddie Brodatt (speaker), Julie/The Narrator/Queenie/Verity, SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain, Amélie/La Cadette, The French Girl/Marie
Page Number: 265
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Section 20 Quotes

What’s strange about the whole thing is that although it’s riddled with nonsense, altogether it’s true—Julie’s told our story, mine and hers, our friendship, so truthfully. It is us. We even had the same dream at the same time. How could we have had the same dream at the same time? How something so wonderful and mysterious be true? But it is.

Related Characters: Maddie Brodatt (speaker), Julie/The Narrator/Queenie/Verity, SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain
Page Number: 297
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Section 22 Quotes

“You never gave any to Julie.”

“Never gave any to Julie!” Engel gave an astonished bark of laughter. “I damn well gave her half my salary in cigarettes, greedy little Scottish savage! She nearly bankrupted me. Smoked her way through all five years of your pilot’s career!”

“She never said! She never even hinted! Not once!”

“What do you think would have happened to her,” Engel said coolly, “if she had written this down? What would have happened to me?”

Related Characters: Maddie Brodatt (speaker), Anna Engel (speaker), Julie/The Narrator/Queenie/Verity, SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden/The Captain
Page Number: 308
Explanation and Analysis: