is a risk taker to be able to sit so placidly, putting his life into the hands of a man who might have murdered him before he could get away.

Torres also reveals that he can read character well: He assumes from the start that the barber won't be able to kill him, saying "killing isn't easy." He says he knows this from experience, suggesting that the many murders he has committed might weigh on him—and that he thinks the barber lacks his nerve.

Since the story is told completely from the barber's point of view, there is not much information about the captain we have that is firsthand. We know from the barber's questions that the captain has been in the jungle for days hunting rebels; we know that he compelled everyone in the town to watch the bodies of four revolutionaries be strung up at the school. We also know that the captain made the town watch when his men used the bodies for target practice. So it is fair, I think, to describe the captain as ruthless and sadistic. 

The captain stands in contrast to the barber, who reflects on the violence of the captain ("a man of imagination," he says) while also contemplating cutting his throat. The barber feels a certain obligation to do his job as a barber faithfully. It is possible that he really does feel that way; his decision not to kill the captain could be an expression of honor, or a calculation so that he can continue to inform the rebels about the Captain's actions, or it could be that he is afraid of what will happen to him after. All this thinking differentiates the barber from the Captain, however, who -- apparently -- acts without remorse or a second thought.

The ending comment by the captain, which shows that he was both aware of the barber's connection to the rebels, and his own danger, is a bit of a twist, but does not really clarify what we know about him. It does seem, on the face of it, that the captain was courageous to have the shave knowing what he did. There is also a great deal of arrogance in his remark, suggesting as it does that perhaps he knew he was safe because the barber would not dare do anything. His final admission that "killing isn't easy" highlights this ambivalence. This could mean that the captain does feel some remorse about his killing; it could also mean that killing "isn't easy" for men like the barber who have a conscience (or who are not brave), and that it is a task the captain has mastered. Either way, the captain is showing the barber that he knows the barber is a rebel. One can only imagine the barber's fate. 

In "Just Lather, That's All," Captain Torres is a hardworking person who is dedicated to his career. At the beginning of the story, it is revealed that he spent the last four days in pursuit of some rebel soldiers. His dedication to the job is reinforced through his description: he has a four-day beard and his face is "reddened" by the sun.

From his description in the text, it is also clear that the Captain can be cruel and violent. He allows his soldiers to use some dead rebels as target practice, for example, and he describes the rebels' hanging bodies as a "fine show." At the time of his shave, the Captain is also planning a suitably violent and gory punishment for the rebels he has most recently caught.

Finally, the Captain is also brave, as shown in the final line of dialogue in the story:

"They told me that you'd kill me. I came to find out."

The Captain knew the barber wanted to kill him, but he was brave enough to test the barber's nerve. 

Tellez set his compelling story in Latin America during a period of numerous military dictatorships that were opposed by rebel groups. Civil war plagued Latin America at this time, and individuals and families were often split between the power of military regimes and rebel groups who had popular support and needed aid and assistance in order to fight the military forces. Captain Torres in this story is the commander of the military forces, and the barber, as the reader comes to realise, is a rebel sympathiser. Note what the barber tells us about Captain Torres:

The day he ordered the whole town to file into the patio of the school to see the four rebels hanging there, I came face to face with him for an instant. But the sight of the mutilated bodies kept me from noticing the face of the man who had directed it all, the face I was now about to take into my hands. It was not an unpleasant face, certainly. And the beard, which made him seem a bit older than he was, didn't suit him badly at all. His name was Torres. Captain Torres. A man of imagination, because who else would have thought of hanging the naked rebels and then holding target practice on certain parts of their bodies?

Captain Torres is therefore a man who is a killer and uses the tactics of fear, terror and torture in order to maintain power and to dissaude others from rebelling against him. The reference to how he killed the four rebels shows how ruthless he is and also hints at the fate of anybody caught trying to oppose him. The story thus presents him as a man who is perfectly willing to kill, maim or torture in any way to sustain and keep power. This of course heightens the dilemma of the barber, as he has the perfect opportunity to kill him whilst giving him a shave.

The barber is portrayed as a very moral man who undergoes a soul-searching experience but retains his standards. He has the opportunity to kill the man who is causing so many deaths of innocent people. The barber has the motive because he hates the commander who is killing his friends. He also has an excuse because he could claim that it was an accident. As he shaves the commander, he thinks all he has to do is move the knife a little bit and he can rid society of a murderer. Yet his conscience steers him in the right direction because he is unwilling to become a murderer himself. As a revolutionary, he has vowed to fight against vicious people like the commander; he does not intend to emulate his barbaric acts. Additionally, the barber takes pride in his work and he cannot do a poor job; his work ethic will not allow him to do so.

By contrast, the commander is portrayed as a cruel man who enjoys the power he has over people. It is well-known that he kills revolutionaries, and everyone is afraid of him. He enters the barber’s shop not only for a shave, but also to tempt him. He gives the barber the opportunity to kill him, most likely knowing that he won’t do it. After his shave, he admits, “They told me that you’d kill me. I came to find out. But killing isn’t easy. You can take my word for it.” The commander had purposely walked into the shop just to test the barber, almost flaunting himself in the presence of a revolutionary. Yet his last words before he leaves suggest a possible hidden layer of regret.

Though Captain Torres and the barber are mortal enemies in the Hernando Tellez short story, "Just Lather, That's All," they both have similar character traits.

Both are very serious about their professions. Torres has just spent four days hunting down rebels, and after he finishes his shave, he will execute them for the whole town to see. He risks his life daily by faithfully (though cruelly) ridding the town of his enemies. Though the barber can kill Torres at any moment with a stroke of his razor, he is a slave to the barber's code to never spill a drop of the customer's blood. Torres has come to pay for a shave, and that is what he will receive--just lather, that's all.

Similarly, they are both politically motivated, though on opposite sides. They are both relatively quiet men, for they only speak of matters at hand, with none of the usual small talk found between barber and client. They are both secretive: Each holds a special bond with one another that Torres breaks in the end.

Perhaps, above all, they both find that "killing isn't easy." 

On the other hand, the barber trembles, sweats and feels pale as he shaves his enemy. He does not have the courage to kill the man who has murdered so many of his friends because he is afraid of the outcome.

...But what would I do with the body? Where would I hide it? I would have to flee, leaving all I have behind, and take refuge far away, far, far away. But they would follow until they found me. "Captain Torres' murder. He slit his throat while he was shaving him. A coward."

Torres' death would make the barber a hero, a martyr, but he doesn't have the inclination to die just yet.

The ruthless Torres shows courage throughout. His face is the most visible in the town, but he appears in public without regard for his own safety--an easy target for an assassin's bullet. He sitsquietly and shuts his eyes, allowing the barber to expose his secret. Torres is ready to sacrifice himself to expose one more rebel, but the barber refuses to take the bait.

Tellez based his tale very firmly in South America in the latter half of the 20th century, which faced various military dictatorships that were met with rebel uprisings. One of the reasons this story is so effective is that Tellez presents us with one character who is a representative of the military junta, which is clearly Captain Torres, and another who is a representative of the rebels, who is the barber that narrates the story to the reader. From the moment that he enters the barber's shop, it is clear that Torres is meant to represent military dictatorship that crushes all opposition in its wake. Consider his initial description:

At that moment be took off the bullet-studded belt that his gun holster dangled from. He hung it up on a wall hook and placed his military cap over it. Then be turned to me, loosening the knot of his tie, and said, "It's hot as hell. Give me a shave." He sat in the chair.

Whether it is the "bullet-studden belt," the "military cap" or the imperious way he demands a shave, it is clear that Torres is a force to be reckoned with, and as the text continues, this impression is only confirmed as he tells the barber of his plans to torture the rebels that he caught on his latest excursion in public view. This effectively identifies the way in which Torres is symbolic of military power that so unflinchingly crushes any opposition expressed towards it.