Synopsis
The work is in two acts, divided into 11 scenes. The setting is an imaginary empire.
The general, who gives no thought to the morality of his profession, has put down an abortive revolution. A deserter is executed, after the general has heard his pleading. Later, the soldier's wife and her mother, who have been looting corpses to try to survive, are also shot. Later, the doctor tells the general that he has a disease that will eventually render him blind. This news causes the general to start to come to terms with his own vulnerability, and to start to question war. Finally repulsed by images of the battlefield wounded, the general leaves the army, but this does not obliterate his past actions.
In Act II, the general has been imprisoned in an insane asylum. The asylum inhabitants obsessively tell tales of violence while tearing at their hair and clothes. They also prepare an imaginary boat for a future escape. One of the general's soldiers tells him of the atrocities going on. The authorities approach the general again to order him to take the field on behalf of the empire. When he refuses, the emperor's henchmen blind him so that he cannot lead a revolution from the asylum. The blind general sees visions of his victims. At the close of the work, the inmates kill the general.
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