Arms and the man: A pleasant play

George Bernard Shaw's ARMS AND THE MAN (original production: 1894) continues to entertain audiences a century later. Considered one of his "Pleasant" plays by the author (one might say, Comedies) this amusing
parody on War and Love is set in distant Bulgaria in the 1880's. Throughout the piece we witness curious interpersonal relations between the daughter of the household and her handsome officer and a gentleman
fiancé. But the small cast engages in almost farcical surprise developments: there's a saucy maid with upper-class pretensions,

and a dignified fellow servant with her best interests at heart. Raina's parents are the prototype for modern sitcoms, with their behind-the back finagling and opposing motivations.

As if the war between Bulgarians and Serbians were insufficient to provide dramatic chaos, Shaw introduces a literary wild card (THE MAN)
into this volatile mix: one Swiss mercenary named Bluntschli. As a fugitive from a ferocious calvary charge, the desperate man makes a nocturnal entrance into the heroine's bedroom, fleeing immediate death by climbing up a drain pipe--begging pathetic sanctuary from the
impressionable young woman. Should she hide and protect him--an enemy of her country, or turn him in? What begins as a potentially serious situation gradually devolves into delightful comedy and ends in romantic farce.

Shaw's sardonic wit mercilessly spotlights the manly art of war, false appearances (bravery, courtliness, obedience, social pretension), plus marital attempts to hoodwink the gullible spouse. Women's hearts seem fickle, while only the Man remains true to his original feelings. Despite the subtle themes of the hopelessness of being In Service and the superficial reputations of soldiers and maidens, this play offers moments of humor interspersed with wonderful opportunities for Stage Business. Regardless of the verisimilitude of the denouement women readers should take up arms to defend their men--no matter their rank. In the end it is Women's arms which prove stronger than Men's.

One of the most important times,if not the most important,in English literature history was the 19th. century when a plethora of genres of fiction writing were flourishing with gay colours. Victorian literature was perceiving society and its swelling decay from various perspectives,stretching from Charles Dickens's depiction of destitutes and middle-class people to George Eliot's rustic illustration and even as far as Anthony Trollope's revelation of the dark end of the parliamentary tunnel. But a major fraction of the myriad distinguished novelists employed humour and comedy to focus on the social unstability and on conventions and traditionalism. Be it Jane Austen in "Pride and Prejudice" or Oscar Wilde in "The Importance of Being Ernest",humour always plays a distinct role in taming reality and simultaneously mocking it when other means of attack prove futile.

George Bernand Shaw might not be the most serious of prechers of the application of comedy to prove a grave point but in this drama,"Arms and the Man",by the late Victorian playwright,there's a vivid usage of sardonic humour and playful comedy to convey the futility and harm of old-fashioned social analysis. The theme is effectively that of war and love---and by extension marriage---and a combination of both. "Arms and the Man" is a short play of three acts that endeavours to decipher te compatibility between love and war and to portray how these apparently diametrically opposite truths of life are interwoven with each other.

The action takes place in Bulgaria in 1885 against a backdrop of war between bulgarian forces and Serbian and Austrian coalition army. Raina Petkoff is the young,beautiful and dreamy daughter of the Bulgarian Major Petkoff and is engaged to Major Serguis Saranoff who is out in the battles. She is standing on the balcony of their house near the Dragoman Pass and is conjuring up heroic images of her lover and seems to feel the "romance" of war and heroism herself. But then an enemy soldier,Captain Bluntschli,takes refuge in her room and this is what makes the whole drama happen. Bluntschli and Raina at first exchange certain comments of sceptism towards each other between them but then Raina's sympathy and compassion overcome her nad she protects him from his enemies. Next morning she and her mother Catherine see him off but consequences of sheltering an enemy soldier are not to be waved off so easily.

As the play shifts from one act to another,so does the focus;from war to love and then to the amusing connection between them. Raina's "hero" Serguis comes back from the war with the aura of heroism and gallantry and victory firmly round his head,and so does her father,Major Petkoff. And from this act onwards other characters of the play,namely the servant maid Louka and the manservant Nicola---who's actually engaged to Louka---are called into action and the plao now commences to branch out. the numerous dimensions of human nature are poignantly penned down into words and the characters's masks are exposed and each one of them is stripped down into imperfect and susceptible individuals. Serguis is proven to be a flirt andfar from a contented happy model of a soldier;Major Petkoff is discerned to be a man allof of anything beyond the battlegrounds,a man who cannot translate his nous on the military front to daily household activities;Louka and Nicola bring valuable import of snobbish humility of servants in to the story;and even Captain Bluntschli,who makes a dramatic and eventually crucial entry into the plot again,is transgressed from a mere "professional" Swiss soldiers to one who shatters the veil that society,and the individual in the realm,wares.

"Arms and the Man" then is both an amusing and thought-provoking play that retains its relevance even today,more than a century after it was first conceived. George Bernard shaw mocks at the popular theories on war and love and coalesces a military satire with a taunt on love and family structure. The play is replete with brilliant dialogue,flashing wit,buoyant humour and bitter sarcasms which reach their acme in this statement of Captain Bluntschli to Serguis:"I'm a professional soldier:I fight when i have to,and am very glad to get out of it when I haven't to. You're only an amateur;you think fighting's an amusement". Indeed as a Swiss hotel-keeper's son,Bluntschli had no reason whatsoever to get involved in war and it's in this absurdity that Shaw questions patritic sentiments. Shaw explores the whole concept of war and military both from the victors as well as the vanquished's angles and in the end shows that the feelings surfacing in both the camps aren't different at all.

The precision of language,piecing and biting mockery on the common notions of life are entangled with a gentle assurance of the gradual movement of the story towards a fairytale gratification. The end where all charactes are rendered happy and lovers change and love shifts is what underlines the essence of this drama as a comedy. First published in 1894,"Arms and the Man" is also remarkable for its explicit treatment of sexuality which was either denied or shyly elucidated in early Victorian literature and in this feature George Bernard Shaw paves te way for other writers to make their respective marks. This is a play that sustains its image of possessing a universal appeal and of the hopelessness of misconceptions of the basics of life and is apt in this modern day culture when the concepts of war and patriotism and love and marriage have taken massive blows. George Bernard Shaw's "Arms and the Man" would maintain its ambition and relevance as long as there're things like love and war.

Comedies are often stuck with the unfortunate reputation of having little real depth. Arms and the Man, however, is one of those comedies that proves that notion to be false. Shaw's play is quite the masterpiece of comedic drama, combining an utterly entertaining plot with true philosophical depth.

On the plot level, Arms and the Man is a successful, and somewhat unique, romantic comedy. The young, melodramatic, and rather superficial Raina comes from a military family deeply involved in a war, her fiancé and her father both being officers. She is surprised, though, one night by the arrival of an enemy soldier. She rescues him, knowing that she'll have to keep the episode a secret from her family forever, and the soldier eventually leaves. Of course, once the war is over, that soldier comes back, forcing each of the primary characters to reevaluate their values and their relationships.


It's really quite surprising how Shaw layers meaning within the somewhat standard comedic plot. Shaw manages to comment philosophically on class constructs, on the absurdity of war, and even on the nature of love. And, of course, he does so quite wittily and within a satisfying plot. A lot of times, Arms and the Man is thought of as one of Shaw's lesser plays, but that's really not accurate. There is so much here to think about that I think a lot of people miss. Arms and the Man is truly a masterpiece of comedic theater and is definitely one of Shaw's very finest works.

The book I am going to talk about is the book Arms and the Man By Bernard Shaw. I really did not like this book because it was hard for me to understand. The reason I didn't like it was because it was challenging for me. The English was hard to understand. I liked how the writer wrote the book and I would probably look for another one of his books. This book was more like an opera with out music. If I could have and known to I probably would not have this enthusiastic about the book. One reason I picked the book was because it was dealing with war and I thought it would have been cool to read about war, but when I got more in to the book it was really not about war it was more about a love at war. If you're an older audience it would be a good book, or if you're looking for a good love-war story.

First staged in 1894, ARMS AND THE MAN might best described as a comic opera without music. The story concerns Raina Petkoff, a young woman given to melodramatic displays of emotion who has recently seen both her husband and her would-be husband off to war. She is most disconcerted to find an enemy solider hiding in her bedroom following a decisive battle--but fancying herself in the role of romantic heroine, she elects to help him escape. Trouble is, he comes back.

This is in some ways among the least of Shaw's work. Still, the nonesensical situations, witty dialogue, and delicious ironies of the situation make for a memorable package, a package which Shaw ties up in ribbons of ideas about the illusions of romance, the realities of love, and the practicalities of war and peace. The result is a delightful confection with unexpected depth, and the combination has caused ARMS AND THE MAN to be among Shaw's most often revived works. Not among Shaw's great masterpieces, but worthy reading all the same.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer