Regeneration characters

Appears from the start

A decorated British officer and poet sent to Craiglockhart after publicly declaring that the war is being deliberately prolonged. He does not consider himself mentally ill and sees his protest as a rational moral decision, even as his combat memories and duty to other soldiers continue to exert pressure.

Also known as Rivers

Appears from the start

The physician responsible for treating shell-shocked officers at Craiglockhart. Patient, observant, and committed to treatment through conversation, he is troubled by the paradox of restoring traumatized men so that the army can send them back to war.

Appears from the start

Sassoon's friend and fellow officer, already returned to duty after treatment for shell shock. Fearing that Sassoon will be court-martialed and his protest dismissed, Graves persuades him to accept a medical board's decision and enter Craiglockhart.

First appears in chapter 2

The commanding officer at Craiglockhart. He supports Rivers's humane work and manages the military institution around the patients without sharing every burden of their treatment.

First appears in chapter 2

A former officer whose trauma makes eating almost impossible because food triggers visions and sensations of decomposing bodies. Rivers treats him with particular concern, recognizing that his symptoms express memories he cannot simply command himself to forget.

First appears in chapter 3

A working-class officer admitted to Craiglockhart without the power of speech. Intelligent, combative, and suspicious of authority, he challenges Rivers more directly than the other patients and resents the social assumptions surrounding both officer status and psychiatric treatment.

First appears in chapter 4

A patient whose military breakdown has attached itself to fears about his former medical career and masculine competence. His nightmares and anxieties make him another example of the varied forms that wartime trauma takes among the officers.

First appears in chapter 6

A young officer and poet receiving treatment at Craiglockhart. Shy and admiring of Sassoon's work, he seeks the older poet's judgment while beginning to turn his own experience of the war into stronger, less conventional verse.

First appears in chapter 8

A munitions worker whom Prior meets while away from the hospital. Direct, curious, and alert to differences of class, she is drawn to him without fully understanding the experiences he keeps behind his officer's uniform.

First appears in chapter 9

Sarah's widowed mother, a landlady hardened by economic pressure and wary of soldiers who form relationships with women before leaving. Her practical judgments reflect the civilian costs and unequal freedoms surrounding wartime romance.

First appears in chapter 19

Rivers's senior colleague at the National Hospital in London and an important figure in his professional life. Their discussions place Rivers's wartime work within a broader study of nerves, language, and the physical effects of psychological injury.

First appears in chapter 21

A doctor at the National Hospital who treats soldiers with severe electrical procedures and strict commands. His method seeks rapid obedience and restoration of function, providing a stark contrast to Rivers's patient attention to memory and speech.

First appears in chapter 21

A soldier rendered mute by trauma and placed under Yealland's care. His treatment becomes a contest in which the doctor's authority is directed toward forcing the return of speech regardless of pain or fear.