Reading 'ARMS AND THE MAN' (G. B. Shaw), Part-II

Questions & Answers:

1. What are the two main themes of ‘Arms and the Man’?

Shaw’s play ‘Arms and the Man’ takes as its main themes war and marriage both of which are two major institutions of civilization from its early dawn. Shaw believes that in modern world while war is evil and stupid, marriage desirable and good. But both of them are wrapped in romantic illusions which cause disastrous wars and unhappy marriages. This play of Shaw in an attempt to expose the false romantic notions associated with war and love, and to bring out reality.

2. What is the ‘romantic view of war’ and how is it revealed in ‘Arms and the Man’?

Bernard Shaw, being a stern realist, exposes the romantic illusions associated with war in his play ‘Arms and the Man’. According to him, the romantic view of war is that men fight because they are heroes, and that the soldier who takes biggest risks wins the greatest glory. 

Raina Petkoff, the romantic girl, takes pride in the thought of marrying the ornamental soldier, Major Sergius who valorously leads a cavalry charge towards victory. Raina rejoices at the news of his victory, without knowing the real situation, and adoring his portrait murmurs, “My hero! My hero!” This is a romantic girl’s romantic view of war.

3. “It is not the weapon of a gentleman.” –Who says this and why?

The quoted line from Shaw’s play ‘Arms and the Man’ is said by Raina Petkoff to the fugitive soldier, Bluntschli. 

Bluntschli, who takes shelter in Raina’s chamber, takes the aid of Raina’s cloak to escape from the hands of pursuing Bulgarian soldiers because he knows that she would not allow them to enter into her chamber while she is in her night-dress. This cowardly behaviour of a soldier makes Raina surprised, and so, she utters these words. 

4. What does Raina want to convey by expressing her fondness of reading Byron and Pushkin? 

Raina is a young lady who looks at life and society through the prism of romanticism. Raina is exalted at the news of her fiancé, Major Sergius’ victory in the Bulgaria-Serbia war. She tells her mother, Catherine, that Sergius and his ideas have been coloured. Raina says this because she is profoundly influenced by the works of Byron and Pushkin whose poems are vibrant with adventures and romanticism.

5. “And there was Don Quixote flourishing like a dream thinking that he’d done the cleverest thing ever known.” –Who is Don Quixote? Who is compared to him and why?

Don Quixote is the hero of the sixteenth-century Spanish novel, ‘The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha’ by Miguel de Cervantes. He is a romantic adventurer, and he is so overcome by romantic illusions that he attacks the sails of windmills considering them to be evil spirits. 

In Shaw’s play ‘Arms and the Man’ Major Sergius of Bulgarian army is compared to Don Quixote. Bluntschli, the man with a rational view of life, draws this comparison because Sergius, the romantic hero, led a Cavalry Charge against a battery of machine guns which were without ammunition, and hence, as innocuous as windmills. 

6. “From Raina, to her Chocolate Cream Soldier a souvenir!” –Who is Chocolate Cream Soldier? Why is he so called?

Bluntschli, the deserter hero of Shaw’s play ‘Arms and the Man’ is nicknamed as ‘Chocolate Cream Soldier’ by Raina Petkoff.

Pursued by enemy Bulgarian soldiers Bluntschli entered into the Bed-chamber of Raina at midnight. When Raina was afraid of his gun, he said that it is not loaded because he used to take chocolates to the battle-field instead of cartridges. Although Raina scoffed at his cowardice, her maternal instinct saved his life from the pursuers and gave him some chocolates to eat. Raina thought that Bluntschli was not a real soldier, but a mere Chocolate Cream Soldier who needed to be nurtured as a child.

7. Discuss the source of the title of the play ‘Arms and the Man’?

Barnard Shaw borrowed the title of his play ‘Arms and the Man’ from Dryden’s translation of the opening words of Virgil’s famous epic, ‘The Aeneid’: “Arms and the Man I sing” (‘Arma Viramque Cano’). Virgil celebrated the glory of war and the valour of the warriors in his epic, but Shaw caricatures war in his play. He explores that after the lapse of about three hundred years from the time of Virgil, in a world dominated by machines soldiers have no room to show their heroism.

8. Relate the difference between Nicola and Louka.

Nicola and Louka are both servants in the house of Petkoff in the play ‘Arms and the Man’, but they are poles apart from each other. While Nicola is loyal, faithful, humble and practical, Louca is witty, ambitious, proud and dishonest. Louka has no loyalty to her employers for she discloses Raina’s secret to Sergius, and flirts with him. She often rebukes Nicola saying that he has the heart of a servant. 

9. Point out the difference between Bluntschli and Sergius.

Bernard Shaw in his play ‘Arms and the Man’ sets the mercenary soldier Bluntschli against the romantic soldier Sergius. While Bluntschli is practical, straightforward and frank, Sergius is artificial, dubious and mechanical. Bluntschli flees the battlefield because he had no ammunition, but Sergius, engulfed in romantic illusions, leads the Cavalry Charge against a battery of machine guns to show his courage. Again, Sergius shows ‘higher love’ to Raina free from carnal desires, but flirts with the maid-servant Louka secretly. But Bluntschli expresses his love for Raina only when Sergius withdraws himself as her suitor and he is told that Raina is a mature lady of 23. Bluntschli’s superiority to Sergius in intelligence is shown when he solves the problem of the regiments while Sergius remains perplexed. 

10. Relate Shaw’s attitude towards love as depicted in ‘Arms and the Man’.

Shaw believed that “love is not a romance but a reality”. In ‘Arms and the Man’ he tries to establish the fact. Sergius and Raina talk about ‘higher love’ free from carnal desires, but Sergius’ airy romance for Raina vanishes when he flirts with Louka because of the latter’s rationality. Reality also prevails over the romantic disposition of Raina when she meets the highly practical, Bluntschli.

11. What, according to Bluntschli, is the difference between an old and a new soldier?

Bluntschli is a highly practical man who opines that old and new soldiers can be recognized from the contents of their pistols. New soldiers are enthusiastic and hence, they carry cartridges along with their pistols, but the old soldiers carry food and chocolates because from their experience they learn the importance of food in the battlefield. 

12. How does Raina define ‘higher love’? How does Sergius reciprocate?

Raina is a romantic girl with a romantic view of life who defines ‘higher love’ as a condition of the mind of a person when he or she could do nothing base or even think so. According to her, Sergius and she have established the ‘higher love’.

Sergius reciprocates this ‘higher love’ by saying that Raina has inspired him in everything. He has gone through the war “like a knight in a tournament with his lady looking down at him”. But in reality he soon gets tired of this airy romance and starts flirting with the maid-servant, Louka.

13. What was the effect of Sergius’ winning the battle and the Russian officers’ losing the same?

Sergius won the battle in a wrong way. He led the Cavalry Charge against the battery of machine guns to show his heroism. Therefore, he was not promoted and the disillusioned Sergius resigned. The Russian generals, on the other hand, had their all regiment routed but since they followed the correct principle of scientific warfare they were promoted. 

14. What is Sergius’ opinion about soldiering and the secret of successful fighting?

Sergius had a romantic view about war who led his Cavalry Charge against a battery of machine guns. Although he won victory since the enemy had no ammunition Sergius was not promoted because he followed wrong method. He was so disgusted that he had sent his resignation, saying: “Soldiering…is the coward’s art of attacking mercilessly when you are strong, and keeping out of harm’s way when you are strong”. 

15. Comment on the role of Raina’s photograph. 

Raina put her photograph in the pocket of her father’s coat as a souvenir and offered the coat to Bluntschli so that he can take his journey safely in disguise. When he returned the coat and the photograph was about to fall in the hand of her father, Raina skillfully takes it out by helping her father to put on the coat. She placed it before Bluntschli who cleverly covered it with paper before the eyes of Sergius. This hide and seek indicates Raina’s dawning love for Bluntschli.

16. Who is the Swiss officer who humbugged Petkoff and Sergius, and how?

The Swiss officer is Captain Bluntschli who fought for the Serbs against the Bulgarians and fled from the battlefield and took refuge in Raina’s bedroom. 

He humbugged Major Petkoff and Major Sergius (Raina’s father and her fiancé respectively) of Bulgarian army by a negotiation with the exchange of two hundred worn-out heroes for fifty able-bodied soldiers. Petkoff suffers from a sense of great defeat as he felt that the horses he received were “not even eatable”.

17. “What a man! Is he a man?” –What is the significance of the line?

Bernard Shaw’s play ‘Arms and the Man’ concludes with these words of Sergius which refer to Bluntschli. Bluntschli is the true mouthpiece of Shaw in whom he combines practical wit, unorthodoxy, humour and self-awareness. Shaw directs his crusade against romantic illusions associated with human life, especially with war and love, through the activities of Bluntschli. Sergius who is but a vain man is so surprises by the genius of Bluntschli that he utters such words. 

18. How does Shaw show the master-servant relationship in ‘Arms and the Man’?

Shaw is a dispassionate analyst who believed that servants are born into poor class and that they must work for the rich in order to survive, but they should not consider themselves inferior. In ‘Arms and the Man’ while Nicola accepts humble subjugation to his work with the hope that his master will help him in the future, Louka is intelligent, ambitious and haughty. Louka often asserts her human rights, does not hesitate even to disgrace her mistress for the sake of her own advantage. She scolds Nicola by saying that he has the heart of a servant. 

19. Why does Louka say that she is not ashamed of eavesdropping?

Louka, the maid-servant of the Petkoffs eavesdrops when a conversation was going on between Sergius, Raina and Bluntschli. She is caught red-handed by Sergius who drags her in and asks Bluntschli to judge her. Bluntschli refuses it to say that Sergius himself was once caught eavesdropping outside a tent when there was a mutiny brewing, and his life was at stake. Taking the opportunity Louka replied that her love for Sergius is at stake and hence, she is not ashamed of eavesdropping. 

20. How far is ‘Arms and the Man’ an anti-romantic comedy?

In ‘Arms and the Man’ Bernard Shaw directs his crusade against the romantic illusions associated with war and marriage. He demolishes the romantic notion that war is a romantic game fought by heroes, and that marriage is the union of a handsome man and a beautiful woman in lifelong companionship. While on the one hand he shows that in a world dominated by machines man has nothing to show his ‘heroism’ in war, on the other he shows how ‘higher love’ or worshipping one’s beloved soon becomes fatiguing. It is through the sudden arrival of Bluntschli into the life of Raina, the romantic girl, whose romantic world is shattered by the rationalist Bluntschli, that Shaw establishes his notion. The play may well be said to be an anti-romantic comedy.