Mar 28, 2012 11:03 AM
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Book- Arms And The Man.
Author- George Bernard Shaw
In 11th grade, we had "Arms and the Man" as our Elective English book of drama. throughout the year, we went laughing whenever we read the book. Shaw, amazingly, had written the play so that we can be amused and, at the same time, face the reality.
Shaw calls "Arms and the Man" an anti-romantic comedy, where he, with comedy, brings about the terror, losses, & waste caused by the wars, he brings out the futility of war. he laughs, but even in his laughter, there's seriousness. However, the story, starts on a romantic note, where the heroine of the play Raina stands in her balcony, praising the beauty of the night and that of the snowy Balkans. Suddenly the romance is shattered by the roaring of machine guns, fugitives running inside the city, being followed by the Bulgarians.
Bulgaria had been raging a war against Serbia, where the Bulgarians emerged victorious. Bulgarian general Sergius had led a cavalry charge against the Serbs carrying machine guns, but since the Serbs didn't have bullets in their guns, they lost! Sergius had been engaged to Major Petkoff's daughter Raina. When Raina & her mother Catherine gets learns about the victory of their new hero Sergius, they start worshiping him. They were in an illusionary world where they used to glorify war, because being women, they didn't face the horror of war.
When Raina closes her windows to sleep peacefully, she gets a visitor. He is a Swiss who was in the Serbian army, & in order to save himself from the Bulgarians, has climbed to Raina's room.
He is a complete disillusionment to heroism. He is an anti-hero & made of ordinary flesh & blood. He, in every way, shatters the concept of heroism for Raina. He does everything necessary to protect himself- takes her cloak so that she wouldn't let Bulgarians in her room in her state of undress, asks for chocolate because he was very hungry. He was a very practical man and liked to keep chocolate cream instead of cartridges. He tells Raina about how mad & unprofessional Sergius had acted by leading a cavalry change against enemies with machine guns & also tells her the reason for their defeat. When he saw that Raina was hurt because of his comments regarding Sergius, he also tries to soothe her. Finally, after a lot of fights & arguments, Raina saved The man from the Bulgarians. She had also given him a cloak to save himself & run away to safety.
the next morning, Major Petkoff & Sergius return from the battle field. They are being congratulated heartily for their madness. Later on when Sergius & Raina decide to go for lunch together, Raina leaves him in the garden, to get ready.
That is when Sergius's true self is revealed. He flirts with their arrogant maid servant Louka and even promises to marry her. Then we get to know the name of The man to be Bluntschli, who was almost the king of Switzerland. He had come to Raina's place to return back their cloak & take a glance at Raina. Catherine wanted him to go away very soon, but Petkoff comes to the garden & finds Bluntschli standing. He greets him & asks him to stay for lunch because Bulgaria had signed a peace treaty with Serbia and they knew each other well. Sergius seemed to be a little jealous of Bluntschli's practicality & capabilities. Eventually Sergius & Petkoff get to know about the night when Raina had given shelter to Bluntschli in her bedroom. They even get to know about the bond of love which they had developed.
Raina had also come to know about Sergius making love with Louka behind Raina's back. Sergius, as promised, decided to marry Louka. Bluntschli, suddenly stands up in the middle of a lively conversation, looks at his watch, & tell everyone that he had work to do & since Raina was 22 years old, he would marry her. Like a typical anti-romantic hero does not make any romantic proposal to marry Raina, but acts business like and goes away with the promise to return after some days.
This book is a must read, if you like comedy.
