Joachim Von Pasenow

Lieutenant Joachim von Pasenow attends Cadet school in Culm, Germany - ponders life deeply, and is profoundly embarrassed at anything that is not chaste and honorable. His shock and dismay at any impropriety is painful, although he is having a sexual affair with Ruzena without benefit of marriage. He feels guilty about not being with Elisabeth, but cannot control how he feels about Ruzena. Joachim is romantic, but not in the modern sense of that term. He thinks only of emotions and manipulations and affairs of his own heart. He loves the routine and discipline of the military, because when left to his own devices, he listens only to extreme emotional drives within himself. Joachim makes choices based upon his needs only, and one of those needs is that everyone looks at him with respect and love.

Joachim is required by family duty to return to...