Living In Harmony
Profiles
Number 2 – the Judge
Male
Height…. 5 feet 11 inches {approx}
Weight…. 180 lbs {approx}
Hair…….. silver/grey and thinning
Age…….. 50’s {approx}
Nationality…. American
Chief Administrator
Chairman of the village
Attire black frock coat, grey trousers, white frilled shirt and black tie, grey waist coat, and black boots
Single breasted blazer, blue polo neck jersey, dark grey trousers, deck shoes and the old school scarf about his neck.
This man gives the appearance of being a southern gentleman.
He owns the Town of Harmony
But he is a bad Judge, dispensing justice as he sees fit and it is in this regard that he is in the same league as Judge Roy Bean, who also dispensed his own brand of justice.
He has a band of gunslingers about him, who dispense his justice and protect him.
But yet he wants the man with no name to work for him, in fact he wants him to work for him so badly, that he would kill him first, rather than let him work for some other outfit!
The Judge will use any amount of brute force in order to coerce the man with no name to work for him, even to use the threat of harm to Cathy, but promising that no harm will come to her while he is working for him, this to coerce the man with no name to work for him.
He also asks him why he turned in his bade, this puts him on a very strong par with Number 2, wanting to know why the prisoner resigned.
He coerces the man with no name to wear a badge.
Tries to have him beaten into submission by his men, and there by to wear a gun
The Judge controls the citizens of Harmony as number 2 would the citizens of the village.
The Judge has a bullying nature, is corrupt, he permits unlawful hangings, beating and killings to go on, nothing is allowed to happen without his say so.
His eyes are cold, there is little humanity in this man, he is cruel and without compassion.
But he doesn’t like to see the towns folk disappointed, when it is plain that the stranger is not going to hang, he gives them another prisoner, Johnson, Cathy’s brother and hangs him instead!
He does like the finer things in life though, shirts from Paris
He has few vices, the one being poker!
Number 2, is cunning and takes the Prisoner further than any of his predecessors, using hallucinatory drugs combined with reality role playing, this under the strong persuasion of Number 8, who has seen his techniques work before.
But Number 2 said that it wouldn’t work and he was proved to be right, so why did he allow himself to go along with Number 8’s methods, perhaps because they had worked before and the results of Number 8’s methods spoke for themselves.
However he becomes involved, unable to control the situation which runs away with him, he only did what he would in a normal situation. But he was the lesser effected than Number’s 8 and 22.
He is truly shocked by the murder of Number 22, and of the suicide of number 8, who sees him as the fearful Judge, which of course he isn’t.
But at the end of the day it is yet another failure for Number 2, even though the idea was that of Number 8, and this failure not fully attributed to Number 2, it is he who ultimately have to answer for this failure, as so many before him have had to do.
Number 2 is an American, but surely he was not just brought to the village for the sole purpose of role playing the part of the Judge, in the American frontier town of Harmony
How much of the character of the Judge, was that of Number 2? Quite a bit one should think, the Judge ruling the towns folk of Harmony in much the same way does number 2 with the citizens of the village.
Number 8 - The Kid
Male
Height…. 5 feet 10 inches {approx}
Weight…. 150 lbs {approx}
Hair……. Redish brown
Age……. Late 20’s
Nationality… English speaking
Attire black top hat, red combinations, high waist trousers with braces, black boots and a pair of colt 45’s
An orange anorak, beige trousers, grey polo neck jersey and deck shoes
The baby faced kid is nothing more than a hired hand, a gunslinger, fast on the draw but not as fast as the man with no name.
Nothing is known of the Kids back ground, but it is likely that both his parents are dead, perhaps killed by Indians either that or out laws.
He would have been left to fend for himself from an early age, he would have had to learn to protect himself, and the only way to do that would be to get himself a gun and learn how to use it.
With that gun and being fast on the draw, and with it would come a reputation of being a gunslinger. Others would want to see just how fast he was, but having such a reputation would see him well suited and being hired by the Judge.
His clothes, such as they are, would probably have been scavenged from his victims, the black top hat however he treats with some affection, as though it has great significance to him, perhaps it belonged to a friend of his, perhaps of someone once close to him, someone who may have looked after him at an early age maybe.
The kid is certainly something of a psychopath, having some sort of personality disorder. He certainly has a fixation about Cathy and wants her for himself. So when Cathy rejects him, he strangles her with his bare hands, murdering her so that no one else can have her.
A crazed psychotic, a homicidal maniac, but sensitive!
Cold blooded, brutal
Fast on the draw and lethal with his pair of colt 45 peace makers
He does like whisky and gets drunk on occasion
He smokes cheroots
His job with the Judge, is to look after the Jailhouse for much of the time.
He never utters on word, not one syllable, it is possible that he cannot speak, his loss of speech having been brought on by some traumatic event, such a s witnessing the death or murder of his parents at an early age.
The Kid maybe fast on the draw, sensitive, but he also has to be kept in line by the Judge and takes his punishment without resistance. Punishment which could be deemed as abuse, if the Kid has be so abused in the past, that would explain his personality disorder and psychopathic state of mind.
His obsession with Cathy is probably born out of the need to feel love, to be loved, and so if Cathy will not love him she will not love anyone, the Kid sees to that and in doing so destroys the only person he has loved since his parents.
The kid does his best to goad the man with no mane into a gun fight. In the saloon he shows just how good a gunman he is, by drawing and firing his colt, grazing the cheek and left hand of the stranger, tying to force him in going for the gun on the bar, this in much the style of a gunslinger once facing up to Billy the Kidd.
Number 8, a young man who has developed a method of breaking people through using hallucinatory drugs and role playing, a method which has worked before. Only this time he has allowed himself to become involved, so much so that having played his part of the Kid so well, he has assumes the personality of the kid. A psychotic, crazed homicidal maniac. Who, when upon returning to Harmony after the experiment, continues his blind obsession with Cathy-Number 22 to the extent that he strangles her with his bare hands, and then upon seeing Number 2-the Judge screams that the Judge aint going to hit him no more! And it is his fear of the Judge, which sends Number 8 clambering the stairs onto the balcony, from where he throws himself off to his death, his fear of the Judge, driving him to commit suicide, rather than to face him again.
Number 8 was a young man with an unbalanced mind, who needs little in order to push him over the edge.
Footnote: suicides
Number 8 is the second person in the village to commit suicide, the first being number 73.
Number 12 in ‘The General’ looked as though he was attempting to save the Professor’s life. But it can also be viewed as an act of suicide.
Of course you cannot count Cobb.
Nadia had not suicidal tendencies what so ever.
Number 22 - Cathy
Female
Height…. 5 feet 3 inches {approx}
Weight…. 125 lbs {approx}
Hair……. Dark brown
Age……. 30’s
Nationality…. American
Attire off the shoulder black dress with pink frills, black and pink feathers in her hair, a black choker about her neck and high heeled boots
White and pink feathers in her hair, a black low cut dress and high heeled boots
A light pink PVC hat, lime green jacket, blue slacks, light pink top and deck shoes
Cathy is a young, shapely and very attractive woman who works in the “Silver Dollar Saloon” as a saloon girl, who is admired by many and attracted to few.
She fools around with the customers and allows them to buy her a drink now and again, but chiefly gets the customers to part with their money, but regulars always gets the first one on the house!
She has an unwanted suitor in the Kid, but has thus far been able to fend him off, keeping him at arms length, but no doubt also able to twist him round her finger should the need arise.
Cathy has a dubious character, but seems like a nice girl underneath that saloon girl exterior.
She has a brother, who is in jail for a crime he probably didn’t commit, but never the less who the Judge has hanged anyway.
This hanging of her brother has its effect upon Cathy, so much so that she goes out of her way to help the man with no name escape from the town of Harmony
She steals the jailhouse keys for him, gets him a canteen of water, telling him that the only way out of town is due north.
But having done so soon finds herself facing the Judge in court and being found guilty of aiding a prisoner to escape, soon finds herself in jail, and there by becomes a damsel in distress, who is then taken under the protective wing of the newly appointed sheriff.
As long as the man with no name works for the Judge, no harm will come to Cathy.
Cathy becomes close to the sheriff, even attracted to him even to the extent of falling in love with him.
Cathy agrees to leave town with the sheriff, but they had not taken into account the Kid and his fixation with Cathy. Poor Cathy, who late one night as she is closing up the saloon, does her best to fight off her crazed suitor, drawing blood from his lip as he tries to force himself upon her, but the Kid is far too strong for Cathy his hands around her throat as he strangles her to death.
Number 22, a young girl, slim and very attractive, it is easy to see why she was chosen to assist Number 2. For it is up to Number 8 to make herself attractive to the prisoner, to make him love her, something which she finds both easy and an enjoyable thing to do. In fact Number 22 seems to have been another to more involved than she should have been, in her role playing, as she stands weeping by the penny farthing.
It is clear that even after the event, Number 22 has feelings for Number 6.
Cathy the saloon girl plays her parting harmony just like anyone else, and helps the man with no name to leave town and clearly has feelings for him. And of course the man with no name-Number 6 comes to the aid of another damsel in distress.
In the end Cathy-Number 22’s feeling for the man makes her wish that it had been real.
This is another woman who betrays the prisoner, but yet feels something for him. No doubt if given a second chance, she wouldn’t do it again.
Cathy has a loathing of the Kid and that loathing does appear to be evident when number 8 is alone with Number 22 in the saloon.
But strange how fact soon follows fiction, as the Kids fixation with Cathy, now alive in Number 8, brings about her own murder by strangulation.
Hers is the most saddened and regretful death, that there can be in the village.
Number 6 - The Man With No Name
Attire buck skin jacket, blue shirt, corduroy trousers, black boots, a brown Stetson and a colt 45 peace maker not to mention a sheriff’s badge
Give him love, take it away from him, put him in a dangerous situation, make him kill then face him with death, he’ll crack!
A rather apt title for the prisoner, because we neither know his name here nor at any time before, but the actions are the same, as a sheriff hands in his badge and gun, he resigns and we don’t know why!
The man with no name shows his weakness for a damsel in distress.
He smokes, the brown roll up papers being liquorice papers.
He drinks whisky
He is handy with his fists as he is with a gun
He is fast on the draw, even faster than the Kid.
He has nerves of steal as he faces up to the Kid without a gun, and is grazed on both his cheek and left hand without flinching.
We see him walking on the open prairie, carrying his saddle on his back suggesting either that his horse came with his sheriff’s job, or somewhere back along the trail his horse had gone lame. And as his saddle was his most expensive and important possession, he would carry his saddle until he found another horse.
But on the trail he is bushwhacked and taken to the town of Harmony
He tries to buy a horse from the owner of the stables, but there expensive!
He tries to escape town, the only way out being due north. But as the trail is guarded by the Judges men, he is soon dragged back to town.
He is placed in the jailhouse under protective custody
First he is coerced into wearing the sheriff’s bade, but only to keep Cathy safe, while he is sheriff, no harm will come to Cathy. Then a fight is picked with him by Zeek, who along with two other of the Judges men, try and show him that it’s not safe to walk around without a gun!
But the man with no name is tough and strong, he needs to be, and gives better than he gets in the free for all fist fight.
His injuries are such, that they are nothing that a bit of water wont take care of!
He is independent
No one can buy him
He is a man of principles
He works for who he chooses
Cannot be coerced
Cannot be beaten into submission
He will not be taunted or goaded into a gun fight, this shows a great strength in self restraint.
He will not be goaded into a gun fight by the Kid
He will not be persuaded by the town’s people to get some guns on!
He doesn’t like how the town of Harmony
He sees the Judge as a bad Judge
He is a fair man, paying for his whisky {not being a regular}, and paying for the horse he takes at night from the stable.
We see a mannerism of the prisoner in the man with no name, in the fact that he has a very delicate way of handling his colt 45, holding the butt of the gun by thumb and index finger as he tests the action of the gun sliding out of its holster.
He will not wear a gun, only when he gets angry enough after Cathy’s murder does he finally put on his gun to avenge her death.
He cares for Cathy, and it is he who buries her at boot hill.
As time goes on, he becomes close to Cathy and they plan to leave town together.
But after finding Cathy murdered in the saloon, the man with no name puts on his gun and now faces the kid in the street, who he leaves lying dead in the dust.
He faces a gun battle with other gunslingers working for the Judge, but none of them are a match for him. Only when faced by the Judge himself, is he shot and killed, or so we are lead to believe!
Why did the sheriff hand in his bade and gun? Well perhaps like so many of his type before him, Doc Holliday, Jesse James and the like, being so fast on the draw that he might very well one day come up against someone faster than himself, or maybe that as a sheriff he simply became tired of killing.
Number 6 wakes up to find himself lying upon the dusty floor of the saloon, he knows not where he is, or how he came tom be there. Hallucinatory drugs are used upon him, in order to put his mind in the town of Harmony Harmony
However Number 6 is made of stern stuff, and is able to distinguish between fact and fiction so sooner than anticipated by Number 8.
Hearing the Brass Band somewhere in the distance, Number 6 sets off along a well worn track and is soon looking down upon the central piazza of the village.
He goes the Green Dome where he discovers, Cathy-Number 22, who he sees as someone who has betrayed him. Then the Judge-Number 2 and the Kid-Number 8.
Having returned to the town of Harmony
Once again they have underestimated the prisoner, and two people have paid the price with their lives, one regretfully so.
In both the town of Harmony
The Prisoner has once again triumphed over coercion, but at what price?
The towns people of Harmony
They have not been profiled, as they simply do not exist. I’ve pushed it somewhat by including the profiles of the Judge, the Kind, and Cathy.
Next time The Girl Who Was Death
Be seeing you
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