Robert Graves Character Analysis

Graves is a Captain in the British army, and Sassoon’s commanding officer and dear friend. Although Graves shares Sassoon’s anti-war ideology, he cares more about keeping his head down and protecting Sassoon, though Sassoon sees this as cowardice. In hopes of protecting his friend, Graves initially tells Rivers much more about Sassoon than Sassoon would wish, indicating that he is even willing to betray his friend’s trust to achieve his aims. Graves and Sassoon’s relationship falters when one of Graves’s close friends is arrested for being a homosexual. Although Graves implies that he’s had homosexual inclinations in the past, his fear of being persecuted as well causes him to deny any of those prior feelings and tell Sassoon that he hopes Sassoon never had the wrong idea about him, or assumed he felt such “abominable” desires. To hammer this point home, Graves begins writing to a young woman, seemingly to prove his heterosexuality to himself and the world. Graves’s betrayal in this way deeply wounds Sassoon’s trust and pride, and models once again the cost of society’s aversion to homosexuality and distrust of male relationships outside of combat.