The Officer is stubborn and inflexible. These traits are most clearly shown in his commitment to the old Commandant and the system he created. The Officer knows there is no longer support for the judicial system and subsequent executions, yet he clings to the practice, demonstrating an obstinate unwillingness to change. He reminisces nostalgically with the Traveler about how many people used to come see the executions and how wonderful it was, showing how much he misses the rule of the old Commandant and how he refuses to even consider a new way of doing things. The Officer laments how the new Commandant is making changes, and he says the leader must be influenced by women who surround him because the Officer cannot conceive of any rational person disagreeing with the methods of the old Commandant. The Officer stubbornly maintains his insistence that everyone else is wrong and he alone is right, and he is amazed that the Traveler has not been convinced. 

When confronted with his inability to sway the Traveler away from being horrified by the apparatus and the system in which it’s used, the Officer’s actions further emphasize his unwillingness to concede his beliefs. By exonerating the condemned man and placing himself under torture, the Officer mulishly believes his actions make him a martyr for his cause. His belief in the apparatus and the enlightenment he is sure results from the hours of torture is so strong and obstinate that he’s willing to die for those beliefs. The fact that the killing blow is an iron spike through the Officer’s brain represents how the rigidity and inflexibility of his thoughts are what ultimately destroy him.