A few weeks back I read Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man. I bought the book earlier this year. I didn't have the time to read it then, and whenever I had time on my hand I wasn't ready to devote it to a play. I thought it would be too sentimental. I was wrong. Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man is one of the best pieces of literature I have read in recent times. I haven't read many but I recognize a gem when I come across one. After finishing it in a day I searched about it. Arms and the Man is one of Shaw's first commercially successful plays. It's hilarious and thought-provoking.
I had read Shaw only once before, it was Pygmalion. It's one of his later plays that brought him the Nobel Prize for Literature. The play, Arms and the Man, was first performed in 1894. It's a story about war and romance written against the backdrop of the Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885-'86. The story's female protagonist is a young woman named Raina who is the daughter of a Bulgarian Colonel named Paul Petkoff. Colonel Petkoff is fighting the Serbs at the war front. Raina is betrothed to Major Sergius, a dashing young Major in the Bulgarian Army and is fighting alongside his future father-in-law at the Serbo-Bulgarian border. Raina and her mother, Catherine Petkoff (the Colonel's wife), adores their men for their martial spirit and courage. They are as taken by the ballads of manly heroism in the battlefield like everybody else. They hate the Serbs as if they were the devils. On the night of Battle of Slivnitsa, word arrives that the Bulgarian Army has vanquished the Serbs and the enemy is on the run. Raina's fiance, Major Sergius, is the hero of the cavalry charge that routed the enemy. Raina and Catherine Petkoff are elated about this news and are waiting for the return of their heroes. Raina is warned that the enemy is being pursued through the city, thus she should close her blinds and windows and doors before she gets to bed. Raina does as she is asked but an hour or so later she has an uninvited guest standing inside her boudoir. She is afraid and her fears come true. The man in the ragged clothing is an enemy soldier who just escaped the Bulgarians from Slivnitsa. Although she is scared, Raina holds her wits as the soldier starts explaining himself. He tells Raina that he isn't a Serb but a Swiss mercenary (later, he reveals himself as Captain Bluntschli) fighting for the Serbs in the war. Contrary to her expectations of a gentlemanly soldier, Bluntschli is a man who is on the run for his life and doesn't feel any shame in inconveniencing a young woman to save his life. He doesn't risk capture because capture means death and there isn't any glory in it for him. Instead of arms, he keeps chocolate in his holster. Although she disliked him at the start, Raina gradually gets infatuated with him. When a Bulgarian soldier comes to check her boudoir for an escaped enemy Raina protects the captain. Later, she reveals to her mother about the soldier and they send him off to his destination discreetly in the morning but not before Raina slips in her photograph in her father's coat that they lend the Swiss. On the back of the photograph, Raina wrote, 'Raina, to her Chocolate Cream Soldier: a souvenir'. This is the end of the first Act. In the second Act, the Colonel and the Major return on the same day, and so does Captain Bluntschli, to return the coat. The whole comedy begins from there onwards.
The characters of Louka, the servant girl of Petkoff household, and Bluntschli are the only ones who see the injustice and the meaninglessness of a worldview that sends young men willingly to their death and young women to idly waste away their lives in adoration of heroes and blind submission to authority. Louka and Bluntschli are realistic yet characters of conviction. The character of Major Sergius is a pleasant surprise because he turns out to be someone whose mind is open to reason and love. Raina and Catherine hold him up as the epitome of manliness and courage but when Major Sergius speaks up he is honest about the fear he felt and disillusioned with an Army who wouldn't promote him. A man of such dashing and courage, he finds his equal in the servant girl Louka, who is as strong and stubborn as any soldier. She is willing to lead Major Sergius' advances only because she loves him and unlike Raina, Sergius is passionate about her. In the end, Major Sergius breaks off his engagement with Raina and proposes to Louka, to which she agrees. Captain Bluntschli proposes Raina and she agrees because finally, she finds the man who treats her as a woman, and not a figure of ideal love. Petkoffs are shocked but eventually give in before the determined young couples. The fact that Captain Bluntschli is the heir to a millionaire Swiss hotelier does its bit in convincing the Petkoffs that this may be for the better.
The play is a satirical take on the norms of a society that glorifies war and violence in the name of the nation and chivalry. These people mistake servitude for order and hero-worship for love. But the reality of the war, its cruelty and blood lust, tears down the pretentiousness of a civilization that's squeamish about customs, mores and protocol. Behind the veil of civilization is violence and war that knows no reason or love, it doesn't even have a sense of humanity. Shaw's characters, especially the young couples, break off from this suffocating moulds of social expectations and find in each other love and recognition. It's a simple and uplifting story about war and love and human lives caught in between the two.
I had read Shaw only once before, it was Pygmalion. It's one of his later plays that brought him the Nobel Prize for Literature. The play, Arms and the Man, was first performed in 1894. It's a story about war and romance written against the backdrop of the Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885-'86. The story's female protagonist is a young woman named Raina who is the daughter of a Bulgarian Colonel named Paul Petkoff. Colonel Petkoff is fighting the Serbs at the war front. Raina is betrothed to Major Sergius, a dashing young Major in the Bulgarian Army and is fighting alongside his future father-in-law at the Serbo-Bulgarian border. Raina and her mother, Catherine Petkoff (the Colonel's wife), adores their men for their martial spirit and courage. They are as taken by the ballads of manly heroism in the battlefield like everybody else. They hate the Serbs as if they were the devils. On the night of Battle of Slivnitsa, word arrives that the Bulgarian Army has vanquished the Serbs and the enemy is on the run. Raina's fiance, Major Sergius, is the hero of the cavalry charge that routed the enemy. Raina and Catherine Petkoff are elated about this news and are waiting for the return of their heroes. Raina is warned that the enemy is being pursued through the city, thus she should close her blinds and windows and doors before she gets to bed. Raina does as she is asked but an hour or so later she has an uninvited guest standing inside her boudoir. She is afraid and her fears come true. The man in the ragged clothing is an enemy soldier who just escaped the Bulgarians from Slivnitsa. Although she is scared, Raina holds her wits as the soldier starts explaining himself. He tells Raina that he isn't a Serb but a Swiss mercenary (later, he reveals himself as Captain Bluntschli) fighting for the Serbs in the war. Contrary to her expectations of a gentlemanly soldier, Bluntschli is a man who is on the run for his life and doesn't feel any shame in inconveniencing a young woman to save his life. He doesn't risk capture because capture means death and there isn't any glory in it for him. Instead of arms, he keeps chocolate in his holster. Although she disliked him at the start, Raina gradually gets infatuated with him. When a Bulgarian soldier comes to check her boudoir for an escaped enemy Raina protects the captain. Later, she reveals to her mother about the soldier and they send him off to his destination discreetly in the morning but not before Raina slips in her photograph in her father's coat that they lend the Swiss. On the back of the photograph, Raina wrote, 'Raina, to her Chocolate Cream Soldier: a souvenir'. This is the end of the first Act. In the second Act, the Colonel and the Major return on the same day, and so does Captain Bluntschli, to return the coat. The whole comedy begins from there onwards.
The characters of Louka, the servant girl of Petkoff household, and Bluntschli are the only ones who see the injustice and the meaninglessness of a worldview that sends young men willingly to their death and young women to idly waste away their lives in adoration of heroes and blind submission to authority. Louka and Bluntschli are realistic yet characters of conviction. The character of Major Sergius is a pleasant surprise because he turns out to be someone whose mind is open to reason and love. Raina and Catherine hold him up as the epitome of manliness and courage but when Major Sergius speaks up he is honest about the fear he felt and disillusioned with an Army who wouldn't promote him. A man of such dashing and courage, he finds his equal in the servant girl Louka, who is as strong and stubborn as any soldier. She is willing to lead Major Sergius' advances only because she loves him and unlike Raina, Sergius is passionate about her. In the end, Major Sergius breaks off his engagement with Raina and proposes to Louka, to which she agrees. Captain Bluntschli proposes Raina and she agrees because finally, she finds the man who treats her as a woman, and not a figure of ideal love. Petkoffs are shocked but eventually give in before the determined young couples. The fact that Captain Bluntschli is the heir to a millionaire Swiss hotelier does its bit in convincing the Petkoffs that this may be for the better.
The play is a satirical take on the norms of a society that glorifies war and violence in the name of the nation and chivalry. These people mistake servitude for order and hero-worship for love. But the reality of the war, its cruelty and blood lust, tears down the pretentiousness of a civilization that's squeamish about customs, mores and protocol. Behind the veil of civilization is violence and war that knows no reason or love, it doesn't even have a sense of humanity. Shaw's characters, especially the young couples, break off from this suffocating moulds of social expectations and find in each other love and recognition. It's a simple and uplifting story about war and love and human lives caught in between the two.
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