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Lady Barbara d’Orsey
A soldier whom Robert Ross and Clifford Purchas meet on the prairie during their training in Lethbridge, Alberta. He is a decorated hero who is renowned among Robert’s fellow soldiers, having returned to Canada after being wounded in France and been assigned to supervise the military horses before being reposted overseas. Robert admires Taffler’s unbridled confidence and athleticism, viewing him as a role model who might teach him how to fight courageously. His romanticized image of Taffler is shattered, however, when he sees him having sex with a man (the Swede) at a brothel. Later, once Robert has shipped off to England, he sees Taffler with Barbara d’Orsey (who he is presumably dating) visiting Captain Jamie Villiers at the same hospital where Harris is staying. Taffler and Barbara help Robert scatter Harris’s ashes after he dies of pneumonia, and Robert does not see him again until he receives an invitation to stay at St. Aubyn’s convalescence hospital bearing Taffler’s forged signature. Here, he finds that Taffler has lost both of his arms in battle. Soon after, young Juliet d’Orsey walks in on Taffler trying to commit suicide by unraveling his bandages and rubbing his wounds on the wall. Though Juliet knows that Taffler does not want to live, she calls for help and he receives an operation that saves him from bleeding to death.
Captain Eugene Taffler Quotes in The Wars
The The Wars quotes below are all either spoken by Captain Eugene Taffler or refer to Captain Eugene Taffler. 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:
).
Part 2, Chapter 9
Quotes
All he wanted was a dream. Escape. But nobody dreams on a battlefield. There isn’t any sleep that long. Dreams and distance are the same. If he could run away…like Longboat. Put on his canvas shoes and the old frayed shirt and tie the cardigan around his waist and take on the prairie…But he kept running into Taffler. Throwing stones. And Harris.
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Part 2, Chapter 12
Quotes
And what I hate these days is the people who weren’t there and they look back and say we became inured. Your heart froze over—yes. But to say we got used to it! God—that makes me so angry! No. Everything was sharp. Immediate. Men and women like Robert and Barbara—Harris and Taffler…you met and you saw so clearly and cut so sharply into one another’s lives. So there wasn’t any rubbish. You lived without the rubbish of intrigue and the long drawn-out propriety of romance and you simply touched the other person with your life.
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Captain Eugene Taffler Quotes in The Wars
The The Wars quotes below are all either spoken by Captain Eugene Taffler or refer to Captain Eugene Taffler. 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:
).
Part 2, Chapter 9
Quotes
All he wanted was a dream. Escape. But nobody dreams on a battlefield. There isn’t any sleep that long. Dreams and distance are the same. If he could run away…like Longboat. Put on his canvas shoes and the old frayed shirt and tie the cardigan around his waist and take on the prairie…But he kept running into Taffler. Throwing stones. And Harris.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 12
Quotes
And what I hate these days is the people who weren’t there and they look back and say we became inured. Your heart froze over—yes. But to say we got used to it! God—that makes me so angry! No. Everything was sharp. Immediate. Men and women like Robert and Barbara—Harris and Taffler…you met and you saw so clearly and cut so sharply into one another’s lives. So there wasn’t any rubbish. You lived without the rubbish of intrigue and the long drawn-out propriety of romance and you simply touched the other person with your life.
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