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The Prisoner
An authoritarian leader and inventor of the apparatus, the old Commandant is dead at the outset of the story but at one point had the power to command the respect of the entire penal colony. The old Commandant was very close to the officer, making him his right-hand man and enlisting the officer’s help in constructing the apparatus. The old Commandant also conferred the power of judge, jury, and executioner to the officer, who remains worshipful of the old Commandant even after his death. The old Commandant represents systems of justice that are dehumanizing and have no regard for the rights of individuals. This is in contrast to the new Commandant, who does not approve of the old Commandant’s ways and is slowly decommissioning the use of the apparatus and the officer’s power. The old Commandant’s gravestone, which claims he will rise again and tells his followers to have faith, has a messianic quality that strengthens the story’s suggestion that religion has a part to play in authoritarian systems of power.
The Old Commandant Quotes in In the Penal Colony
The In the Penal Colony quotes below are all either spoken by The Old Commandant or refer to The Old Commandant. 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:
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In the Penal Colony Quotes
“For I was the former Commandant's assistant in all-penal matters and know more about the apparatus than anyone. My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted. Other courts cannot follow that principle, for they consist of several opinions and have higher courts to scrutinize them.”
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Diverting from his tour of the apparatus, the officer takes a moment to explain the prisoner’s crime and the system of justice that he follows to the explorer. This is a system he learned from the old Commandant, one that enforces punishment for the sake of maintaining the social order rather than rehabilitation. In this aside, the officer reveals that the foundation of the traditional judicial system in the penal colony rests on the fact that guilt is assumed. Therefore, those accused of crimes—ostensibly always low status prisoners subject to the whims of other officers—are automatically guilty and have no Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque err
“He has calculated it carefully: this is your second day on the island, you did not know the old Commandant and his ways, you are conditioned by European ways of thought, perhaps you object on principle to capital punishment in general and to such mechanical instruments of death in particular…”
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The officer explains his theory about the schemes of the new Commandant to oust the use of the apparatus, and subsequently the officer’s entire system of justice, from the penal colony. Using the opinion of a famous guest like the explorer would enhance the new Commandant’s viewpoint and finally put the officer’s way of administering justice to an end. The officer cites the explorer’s “European ways of thought” as the reason for his potential objection to the apparatus. This reinforces the idea that the explorer, and the new Commandant, represent a liberal mindset that is oriented toward progress and way Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaq
Here rests the old Commandant. His adherents, who now must be nameless, have dug this grave and set up this stone. There is a prophecy that after a certain number of years the commandant will rise again and lead his adherents from this house to recover the colony. Have faith and wait!
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The soldier takes the explorer to a teahouse, where the explorer reads the headstone of the old Commandant. The message of the headstone clearly shows the religious significance of the old Commandant, who ruled the penal colony like an authoritarian god and commanded religious devotion from his adherents. The stone suggests that the old Commandant will, like a messiah, come back to help his followers. The role of the headstone near the end of the story lends more significance to the officer’s sacrifice because it couches the death in the context of religious belief, which the story suggests is a Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas au
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The Old Commandant Character Timeline in In the Penal Colony
The timeline below shows where the character The Old Commandant appears in In the Penal Colony. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
In the Penal Colony
...helped with the development of the delicate machine but credit for its invention goes to the old Commandant , a leader who structured the whole society on the penal colony. The officer is...
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...the new Commandant, who didn’t explain the procedure to the explorer in the way that the old Commandant always did for guests. Continuing to drone on, the officer explains the function of the...
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...the lack of funds to keep the apparatus operating smoothly. Nostalgically pointing out that under the old Commandant there was “free access” to money when it came to maintaining the apparatus, the officer...
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...tries to clean the apparatus, the officer reveals that he is the “sole advocate” to the old Commandant ’s ways in the penal colony. Others that used to follow the old Commandant no...
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...to a better time, the officer describes the days of executions during the time of the old Commandant when there would be “hundreds of spectators” in attendance. The silent, glittering apparatus would do...
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...Commandant will see the error of his ways and humble himself before the system of the old Commandant .
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...prisoner return to the penal colony and visit a teahouse, which holds the grave of the old Commandant . Speaking for the first time, the soldier tells the explorer that the “priest wouldn’t...
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