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Character analysis

Captain Barry

in How Many Miles to Babylon? by Jennifer Johnston

Captain Barry is a minor but thematically important authority figure in Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon?. He serves as the commanding officer who oversees the court martial and execution of Alec Moore. Barry embodies the impersonal and procedural nature of the British Army, bound by military law, which sharply contrasts with the human connections celebrated throughout the novel. He isn't depicted as a sadist; instead, his threat comes from his bureaucratic detachment. He processes Alec's fate with the cold efficiency of someone who has put duty above conscience. During the court martial scenes, he maintains formal correctness, never recognizing Alec as an individual, which highlights Johnston's critique of how institutions dehumanize those entangled in them. Barry also interacts with Major Glendinning, whose moral compromises become more apparent against Barry's unwavering adherence to military hierarchy. Barry doesn’t evolve or develop psychologically; he remains deliberately flat, serving as a structural device that represents the rigid wall of class and military power that ultimately brings ruin to both Alec and Jerry. His role, though brief, is crucial: it is his authority that signs the death warrant, making him the means through which the novel's tragic ending unfolds. In this way, Captain Barry embodies Johnston's broader criticism of a system that sacrifices young men—across class lines—to the indifferent machinery of war and empire.

About this character

Form
Novella
Author
Jennifer Johnston
First published
1974

The person01–03

01·Who they are

Who is Captain Barry?

Captain Barry is the military authority presiding over Alec Moore's court martial and overseeing his execution in Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon? He belongs to the officer class that governs the Western Front's rigid social and legal order, yet he is not individualised in the same way as Alec, Jerry, or even Major Glendinning. Johnston provides no backstory, private doubts, or name beyond his rank. This deliberate blankness characterises Barry as the institution made flesh. He does not hate Alec; he processes him. The threat he poses is colder and more absolute than personal malice, as it is impervious to appeal.

02·Arc & motivation

What is Captain Barry's arc and motivation?

Barry does not undergo an arc. This structural choice carries its own weight, rather than being a weakness in Johnston's construction. Whereas Alec transitions from sheltered Anglo-Irish boyhood to a nuanced understanding of loyalty and mortality, Barry remains fixed. His motivation revolves around procedural correctness: military law has been violated, regulations must be enforced, and the machinery must operate. He is never seen grappling with the human cost of his decisions, unlike Alec, narrating from his condemned cell, who contends with profound questions. This contrast highlights that the system does not require cruel men to enact cruelty; it only needs obedient ones.

03·Key moments

What are Captain Barry's key moments?

The court martial sequence defines Barry's character. He presides with a formal correctness that Alec perceives — the charges are read, the process is followed — yet Barry never addresses Alec as an individual with a history, friendship, or conscience. Johnston's portrayal of the proceedings through Alec's viewpoint emphasises the alien nature of the official language when applied to a human life. Barry does not raise his voice, sneer, or condemn in any manner that acknowledges Alec's individuality. The quiet efficiency of his authority is precisely what makes it devastating. His role is essentially complete when Alec is sentenced; thereafter, Barry recedes, leaving the death warrant to be carried out. This recession — the way Barry simply withdraws once the paperwork is finished — reinforces Johnston's argument that institutional violence does not linger to witness its consequences.

The cast04–05

04·Relationships

What are Captain Barry's most important relationships?

With Alec Moore, Barry's relationship is unilateral: he exercises jurisdiction over Alec's life without engagement. He never acknowledges the class anomaly Alec represents — an Anglo-Irish gentry commissioned as an officer yet emotionally and morally closer to the men in the ranks. Barry's indifference to this complexity represents a lethal judgment.

With Jerry Crowe, Barry's authority is indirect yet total. Jerry's execution for desertion triggers Alec's destruction; Barry's military environment views a working-class Catholic soldier from Dublin as entirely expendable. Barry never encounters Jerry in the text, yet his power frames both Jerry's death and Alec's — both men are processed through the same mechanism.

With Major Glendinning, Barry serves as a revealing contrast. Glendinning's hostility toward Alec reveals traces of personal animus and class anxiety — he visibly struggles with the Moore family's social position and Alec's unusual friendship with Jerry. Barry lacks such feelings. Together, the two officers illustrate the full anatomy of institutional power: Glendinning embodies prejudice, Barry embodies procedure, and together they create an inescapable system for Alec.

With Bennett, Barry inhabits the officer-class world that regards soldierly conduct as a matter of honour and rank rather than conscience. Both men operate within a social universe entirely foreign to Jerry Crowe, and Johnston employs this cluster of authority figures to demonstrate how comprehensively that world surrounds and overshadows the novel's central friendship.

05·Connected characters

How is Captain Barry connected to the other characters?

Alec Moore

Barry presides over Alec's court martial and authorizes his execution, functioning as the cold institutional force that ends Alec's life. He never engages with Alec personally, reinforcing the novel's theme that the military machine is indifferent to individual humanity.

Jerry Crowe

Jerry's fate—shot for desertion—is the direct trigger for Alec's destruction, and Barry's authority encompasses both men. Barry represents the system that regards soldiers like Jerry as expendable and punishes those, like Alec, who defy its logic out of loyalty.

Major Glendinning

Barry operates within the same chain of command as Glendinning. Where Glendinning shows flickers of personal animus and class prejudice toward Alec, Barry is simply procedural, making the two officers complementary portraits of institutional power at different registers.

Bennett

Both Barry and Bennett inhabit the officer class that polices the boundaries of rank and conduct. Their shared world of military authority contrasts with the cross-class friendship at the novel's heart.

Study06–07

06·Questions

Questions readers ask about Captain Barry

What is Captain Barry's role in How Many Miles to Babylon?

Captain Barry is the military officer overseeing Alec Moore's court martial and execution. Although a minor character, he is thematically central: Johnston uses him to embody the impersonal machinery of military law, illustrating how institutions can destroy individuals not through cruelty but through cold procedural correctness.

Does Captain Barry have a personal grudge against Alec Moore?

No — Barry never shows personal hostility toward Alec. He processes Alec's case with bureaucratic detachment, never engaging with him as an individual. Johnston contrasts Barry with Major Glendinning, who displays indications of personal animus and class anxiety; Barry's threat is colder precisely because it is entirely impersonal and therefore impossible to contest.

How does Captain Barry's relationship with Major Glendinning reveal the novel's view of authority?

Barry and Glendinning create complementary portraits of institutional power. Glendinning embodies prejudice—personal hostility rooted in class anxiety—while Barry embodies pure procedure. Together, they illustrate that no single element is needed for the system to destroy a man; prejudice and process reinforce each other, trapping Alec.

What happens to Alec Moore as a result of Captain Barry's authority?

Barry sentences Alec to death during the court martial for the act of loyalty Alec showed to his friend Jerry Crowe. After delivering the verdict, Barry simply withdraws — he does not witness the execution he has authorized. This withdrawal reinforces Johnston's argument that institutional violence does not linger to confront its own consequences.

Why does Johnston make Captain Barry such a flat, undeveloped character?

Barry's psychological blankness is a deliberate formal choice. By giving him no backstory, private doubts, or first name, Johnston makes him the institution made flesh rather than a person. His flatness contrasts with Alec's acute moral self-awareness as he narrates from his condemned cell, strengthening Johnston's argument that systems need only obedient functionaries, not cruel ones, to destroy individuals.

How does Captain Barry's authority connect to Jerry Crowe's fate?

Although Barry never directly encounters Jerry, his military environment regards Jerry — a working-class Catholic soldier from Dublin — as completely expendable and executes him for desertion. This act triggers Alec's destruction. Barry's power thus frames both deaths, showing how the same institutional machinery processes both men regardless of class or friendship.

Is Captain Barry presented as a villain in the novella?

Not in any conventional sense. Johnston does not depict Barry as a sadist or tyrant; he is never shown sneering, raising his voice, or condemning Alec with any recognition of his individuality. His villainy, to the extent the novel assigns it, lies in his total moral absence — the quiet efficiency of his authority is what makes it devastating.

What does Captain Barry represent thematically in How Many Miles to Babylon?

Barry represents Johnston's critique of how institutions dehumanize individuals. He symbolizes the rigid wall of class and military power that sacrifices young men — across class lines — to the indifferent machinery of war and empire. His procedural correctness at the court martial, where Alec is never addressed as a person with a history or conscience, conveys Johnston's sharpest image of that dehumanization.

07·Essay angles

Use this in your essay

Tool · Essay angles

  • Bureaucratic evil and moral absence

    Argue that Barry represents Johnston's critique — that systems destroy individuals not through hatred but through procedure. How does his lack of psychological interiority serve as a formal device?

  • Class and military law

    Examine how Barry's uniform application of regulations paradoxically encodes class privilege, as Alec faces punishment for a loyalty that transcends the class divide the army is designed to maintain.

  • Foil to Alec's narration

    Alec writes from his condemned cell with acute moral self-awareness. In what ways does Barry's flat, procedural presence highlight Alec's interiority and deepen Johnston's exploration of individual conscience versus institutional duty?

  • The impersonal as tragedy

    Consider whether Johnston portrays Barry's detachment as more or less culpable than Glendinning's personal animus. Is indifference a greater moral failure than prejudice?

  • War and dehumanisation

    Use Barry to frame an argument about how *How Many Miles to Babylon?* depicts the First World War machinery — not as dramatic violence but as a quiet, paperwork-driven erasure of human identity.

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