Summary of “Arms and the man” by George Bernard Shaw

Summary of “Arms and the man” by
George Bernard Shaw

The play begins in the bedroom of Raina
Petkoff in a Bulgarian town in 1885, during
the Serbo-Bulgarian War. As the play
opens, Catherine Petkoff and her daughter,
Raina, have just heard that the Bulgarians
have scored a tremendous victory in a
cavalry charge led by Raina’s fiancé, Major
Sergius Saranoff, who is in the same
regiment as Raina’s father, Major Paul
Petkoff. Raina is so impressed with the
noble deeds of her fiancé that she fears
that she might never be able to live up to
his nobility. At this very moment, the maid,
Louka, rushes in with the news that the
Serbs are being chased through the streets
and that it is necessary to lock up the
house and all of the windows. Raina
promises to do so later, and Louka leaves.
But as Raina is reading in bed, shots are
heard, there is a noise at the balcony
window, and a bedraggled enemy soldier
with a gun appears and threatens to kill
her if she makes a sound. After the soldier
and Raina exchange some words, Louka
calls from outside the door; she says that
several soldiers want to search the house
and investigate a report that an enemy
Serbian soldier was seen climbing her
balcony. When Raina hears the news, she
turns to the soldier. He says that he is
prepared to die, but he certainly plans to
kill a few Bulgarian soldiers in her bedroom
before he dies. Thus, Raina impetuously
decides to hide him. The soldiers
investigate, find no one, and leave. Raina
then calls the man out from hiding; she
nervously and absentmindedly sits on his
gun, but she learns that it is not loaded;
the soldier carries no cartridges. He
explains that instead of carrying bullets, he
always carries chocolates into battle.
Furthermore, he is not an enemy; he is a
Swiss, a professional soldier hired by
Serbia. Raina gives him the last of her
chocolate creams, which he devours,
maintaining that she has indeed saved his
life. Now that the Bulgarian soldiers are
gone, Raina wants the “chocolate cream
soldier” (as she calls him) to climb back
down the drainpipe, but he refuses to;
whereas he could climb up, he hasn’t the
strength to climb down. When Raina goes
after her mother to help, the “chocolate
cream soldier” crawls into Raina’s bed and
falls instantly asleep. In fact, when they re-
enter, he is sleeping so soundly that they
cannot awaken him.

Characters in ‘Arms and the Man’:

Raina waiting elegantly on her couch
Raina Petkoff is the play’s comedic
heroine. She has a tendency to think too
highly of herself; for instance, proudly
pointing out the family’s ‘library,’ which
consists of a single shelf of battered
books. Her world comes crashing down
when Bluntshcli makes her see that she’s
been living a lie.
Bluntschli is the play’s hero and a Swiss
mercenary who fought for the Serbs. He’s
neither disillusioned with war nor does he
romanticize it, but he is definitely a realist
and considers himself a ‘professional’
soldier. Bluntschli tells Raina, You can
always tell an old soldier by the inside of
his holsters and cartridge boxes. The
young ones carry pistols and cartridges;
the old ones, grub.
Sergius Saranoff is a Bulgarian soldier
engaged to Raina. Everyone in Bulgaria
(including himself) holds Sergius up as a
national hero for his ‘brave’ cavalry charge
that sent the Serbs running. Bluntschli
later reveals, though, that the Serbian
regiment Sergius was charging had the
wrong ammo – otherwise, his whole squad
would’ve died.
Louka and Nicola are the foils to Raina
and Sergius. A foil is a character that
contrasts with others in order to illustrate
certain characteristics. For example,
despite being a servant, Louka takes
charge of herself and doesn’t rely on ideas
of chivalry or servitude to dictate how she
thinks she should be treated. Likewise,
Nicola doesn’t allow feelings of entitlement
to mandate what he thinks his love
deserves; therefore, he’s given up the
claim of engagement he had to Louka to
ensure her happiness and advancement in
the world over his own, asserting that they
were only ever ‘together’ to keep Louka in
a favorable light with the family.

Themes in ‘Arms and the Man’:

Let’s take a look at some of the themes of
Arms and the Man .

Ignorance vs. Knowledge;
Arms and the Man is concerned foremost
with the clash between knowledge and
ignorance, or, otherwise stated, between
realism and romanticism. Raina and her
fiancé Sergius are steeped in the
romanticism of operettas and paperback
novels. Bluntschli uses his superior
knowledge to disabuse Raina of her
military delusions, while the experience of
war itself strips Sergius of the grand ideals
he held. The couple’s idealized vision of
warfare deflates in the face of additional
information.
In the realm of love, the couple’s
pretensions are defeated by the thorough
going pragmatism of their respective new
matches: Bluntschli and Louka. Both the
Swiss Captain and Bulgarian maid confront
their lovers about the gap between their
words and their true selves, exposing their
hypocrisy. When faced with reality, both
Raina and Sergius are able to abandon
their romantic delusions and embrace their honest desires.

The Realities of War
When Catherine and Raina imagine war,
they picture brave and dashing officers
fighting honorable battles. The reality of
war falls far from this romanticized vision.
In the play’s opening scene Bulgarian
soldiers hunt and kill fleeing Serbians in
the streets of a quiet mountain town. Once
Captain Bluntschli, a career soldier,
appears, he becomes an eloquent
messenger for the horrors of war. He
describes conditions of starvation and
exhaustion at the front lines. Moreover,
having been under fire for three days, he
seems to be suffering from some form of
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, jumping
nervously when Raina squeals. What first
appears to be the most glorious moment in
the war, Sergius’ cavalry charge, is
revealed to be an absurd case of dumb
luck. Later in the play Captain Bluntschli
helps Major Petkoff and Sergius coordinate
the return routes of surviving troops so as
to prevent starvation. Since the play
begins in the aftermath of the Serbo-
Bulgarian War, the reader doesn’t
experience any titillating battles, only a
grinding post-war reality where hunger and
death loom in the background. This picture
successfully deflates any romantic notions
the characters or audience may hold.

The Realities of Love
Raina and Sergius are as delusional about
love as they are about war, seeming to
have derived their understanding of
romance primarily from Byronic poetry.
They celebrate each other with formal and
pretentious declarations of “higher love”,
yet clearly feel uncomfortable in one
another’s presence. The couple, with their
good looks, noble blood and idealistic
outlook, seem to be a perfect match, but in
George Bernard Shaw’s world love does
not function as it does in fairy tales.
Instead Raina falls for the practical and
competent Swiss mercenary that crawls
through her bedroom window and Sergius
for the pragmatic and clever household
maid. Love does not adhere to conventions
regarding class or nationality. Moreover,
love is not some abstract expression of
poetic purity. Love in Arms and the Man is
ultimately directed at those who
understand the characters best and who
ground them in reality.

Incompetent Authority
Throughout the play, competence and
power do not align with established
authority. Louka, the insolent but charming
maid, repeatedly flouts social rules. By
violating traditional ideas of authority and
power, she is able to win marriage to a
handsome and wealthy war hero. Her
manipulation of Sergius, who is privileged
both in terms of wealth and gender,
demonstrates that control does not
necessarily derive from social authority.
Likewise, Catherine manipulates her
husband Major Petkoff, withholding
information and shepherding him about.
Major Petkoff, as the oldest wealthy male,
should be the most powerful character
according to contemporary social
hierarchy. Yet Petkoff proves to be a
buffoon; he is, in fact, the character least
able to control outcomes, as he rarely
understands what is unfolding before him.
Class
Class has a large and continuous presence
in Arms and the Man. The Petkoffs’ upper-
class pretensions are portrayed as
ridiculous and consistently played for
laughs. The family’s pride in their so-called
library (a sitting room with a single
bookshelf) becomes a running joke
throughout the play. Shaw praises the
family’s more local and humble roots:
admiring the oriental decorations in Raina’s
bedroom and describing Catherine’s earthy
local beauty. In contrast he condemns and
mocks their attempts to conform to
romantic notions of what nobility means.
Raina’s outdated Viennese fashions and
Catherine’s tea gowns are treated as
ridiculous.
Louka’s struggle demonstrates many of the
effects of class in Bulgarian society. She
feels restricted by her station, which
condemns her to a life where reading
books is considered presumptuous. Using
her wit, Louka manages to escape these
boundaries, achieving equality with the
wealthy Sergius.

Bravery
At the beginning of the play Sergius, like
both Catherine and Raina, imagines bravery
as the will to undertake glorious and
theatrical actions. This belief leads the
young Bulgarian Major to lead a regiment
of cavalry against a line of machine guns.
Despite his dumb luck, the action identifies
him as an incompetent and somewhat
ludicrous figure, halting his advancement
in the ranks. When he returns at the end of
the war Louka challenges his romantic
notions of bravery. Sergius admits that
“carnage is cheap”: anyone can have the
will to inflict violence (45). Louka submits
that the subtle bravery required to live
outside social rules and constraints is
more worthy of praise. At the play’s end
Sergius demonstrates this particular kind
of bravery when he embraces Louka in
front of the others and agrees to marry
her.

Personal Honesty;
It is through personal honesty that all the
play’s major conflicts are resolved. Raina
abandons her indignant posturing and
admits that Sergius exasperates her,
allowing her to pair up with Bluntschli.
Likewise, Sergius overcomes his overly
romantic understanding of the meaning of
love and bravery, opening himself to an
engagement with Louka. It is only when
the couple confronts and accepts their true
desires and feelings that they find
happiness with their ideal partners.
Pretending to share noble love makes both
Raina and Sergius miserable; Raina
fantasizes about shocking her fiancé’s
propriety and Sergius cannot wait for
Raina’s departure so he can complain
about their tiring relationship to a pretty
young maid. In the end, even Bluntschli
embraces his inner romantic self, asking
for the hand of the girl he is smitten with.
Each character gives in to his honest
desires and is rewarded with an optimal
outcome.

Students should read the book for proper
understanding and summarize