House of Notes

Arms and the Man:   Major Themes The themes of “Arms and the Man” are love and war and these two themes have been welded into a single whole with great skill. Shaw has shown that it is the romance of war that leads to the romance of love. His treatment of these two themes is characterized by realism. The contrast between realism and idealism is constantly stressed, and this results in a number of entertaining situations. As the play opens, we are introduced to Raina, a pretty, young lady with romantic views of love and war, the result of her reading Byron and Pushkin. She stands on the balcony of her bedroom admiring the beauty of the night, and dreaming of her fiancée, Sergius, who is out on the front fighting the Serbs. Soon her mother enters the room to inform her that Sergius has become the hero as a result of his splendid victory in the battle. On his own initiative ignoring the orders of his Russian commander, he made a heroic charge on the artillery of the Serbs

The Realism of Shaw in the play In Bluntschli, Shaw has presented a realistic portrait of an average soldier, who is ready to fight when he must and is gland to escape when he can. Shaw has shown that a soldier is an ordinary creature of flesh and blood, who suffers from hunger and fatigue, and who is roused to action only by danger. In short, as Sergius puts it, war is a trade like any other trade; it is the coward's art of attacking the enemy when one gets him at a disadvantage, and of avoiding to fight him on equal terms. Of course, war is to be fought when absolutely necessary, but there should be no glorification of war. War is a brutal affair, and we should not sing songs of it. The cruelty and horror of war one highlighted through the relation of the horrible death of the twelve soldiers burnt alive in a farmhouse. In this way idealistic notions of war are punctured. Both Sergius and Raina are disillusioned in their romantic or idealistic notions of war; they

Arms and the Man: Wit and Humour “Arms and the Man” is not merely a farce but a true comedy . The purpose of a comedy is to ridicule and expose human or social folly or weakness and to drive that folly out of courts. Though there is ample of farcical, loud laughter in the play, but the laughter has a serous purpose and this differentiates the play from a mere farce. Shaw laughs, but his laughter has a serious purpose. Besides provoking mirth he also provokes thoughts. Shaw is one of the greatest humorists in English literature the other humourist are Shakespeare and Dickens. However, Shaw’s is different from both Shakespeare and Dickens as his humour arises from the difference between instinctive conduct, or social institutions and social codes of conduct. This is Shaw’s contribution to the art of comedy. “Arms and the Man” is rich in humour. There is enough of humour of character in the play. Major Petkoff, Catherine Petkoff, Sergius and Captain Bluntschli are all h