'The Thorn in the Flesh' was written by D H Lawrence in 1914. The story can be read in tandem with 'The Prussian Officer' which was written in the same year and has a similar setting and theme. In this story, the young soldier fights against his own shortcomings as a soldier and as a man. He flees the scene of his crime into the arms of his lover where he finds solace and comfort but he cannot escape the inevitable military machine that Lawrence hated.