Arms and the Man
By
George Bernard Shaw
Play Summary
Act I 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.
Act II begins four months later in the garden of Major Petkoff's house.
The middle-aged servant Nicola is lecturing Louka on the importance of having
proper respect for the upper class, but Louka has too independent a soul to
ever be a "proper" servant. She has higher plans for herself than to
marry someone like Nicola, who, she insists, has the "soul of a
servant." Major Petkoff arrives home from the war, and his wife Catherine
greets him with two bits of information: she suggests that Bulgaria should have
annexed Serbia, and she tells him that she has had an electric bell installed
in the library. Major Sergius Saranoff, Raina's fiancé and leader of the
successful cavalry charge, arrives, and in the course of discussing the end of
the war, he and Major Petkoff recount the now-famous story of how a Swiss
soldier escaped by climbing up a balcony and into the bedroom of a noble
Bulgarian woman. The women are shocked that such a crude story would be told in
front of them. When the Petkoffs go into the house, Raina and Sergius discuss
their love for one another, and Raina romantically declares that the two of
them have found a "higher love."
When Raina goes to get
her hat so that they can go for a walk, Louka comes in, and Sergius asks if she
knows how tiring it is to be involved with a "higher love." Then he
immediately tries to embrace the attractive maid. Since he is being so
blatantly familiar, Louka declares that Miss Raina is no better than she;
Raina, she says, has been having an affair while Sergius was away, but she
refuses to tell Sergius who Raina's lover is, even though Sergius accidently
bruises Louka's arm while trying to wrest a confession from her. When he
apologizes, Louka insists that he kiss her arm, but Sergius refuses and, at
that moment, Raina re-enters. Sergius is then called away, and Catherine
enters. The two ladies discuss how incensed they both are that Sergius related
the tale about the escaping soldier. Raina, however, doesn't care if Sergius
hears about it; she is tired of his stiff propriety. At that moment, Louka
announces the presence of a Swiss officer with a carpetbag, calling for the
lady of the house. His name is Captain Bluntschli. Instantly, they both know he
is the "chocolate cream soldier" who is returning the Major's old coat
that they disguised him in. As they make rapid, desperate plans to send him
away, Major Petkoff hails Bluntschli and greets him warmly as the person who
aided them in the final negotiations of the war; the old Major insists that
Bluntschli must their houseguest until he has to return to Switzerland.
Act III begins shortly after lunch and takes place in the library.
Captain Bluntschli is attending to a large amount of confusing paperwork in a
very efficient manner, while Sergius and Major Petkoff merely observe. Major
Petkoff complains about a favorite old coat being lost, but at that moment
Catherine rings the new library bell, sends Nicola after the coat, and astounds
the Major by thus retrieving his lost coat. When Raina and Bluntschli are left
alone, she compliments him on his looking so handsome now that he is washed and
brushed. Then she assumes a high and noble tone and chides him concerning
certain stories which he has told and the fact that she has had to lie for him.
Bluntschli laughs at her "noble attitude" and says that he is pleased
with her demeanor. Raina is amused; she says that Bluntschli is the first
person to ever see through her pretensions, but she is perplexed that he didn't
feel into the pockets of the old coat which she lent him; she had placed a
photo of herself there with the inscription "To my Chocolate Cream
Soldier." At this moment, a telegram is brought to Bluntschli relating the
death of his father and the necessity of his coming home immediately to make
arrangements for the six hotels that he has inherited. As Raina and Bluntschli
leave the room, Louka comes in wearing her sleeve in a ridiculous fashion so
that her bruise will be obvious. Sergius enters and asks if he can cure it now
with a kiss. Louka questions his true bravery; she wonders if he has the
courage to marry a woman who is socially beneath him, even if he loved the
woman. Sergius asserts that he would, but he is now engaged to a girl so noble
that all such talk is absurd. Louka then lets him know that Bluntschli is his
rival and that Raina will marry the Swiss soldier. Sergius is incensed. He sees
Bluntschli and immediately challenges him to a duel; then he retracts when
Raina comes in and accuses him of making love to Louka merely to spy on her and
Bluntschli. As they are arguing, Bluntschli asks for Louka, who has been
eavesdropping at the door. She is brought in, Sergius apologizes to her, kisses
her hand, and thus they become engaged. Bluntschli asks permission to become a
suitor for Raina's hand, and when he lists all of the possessions which he has
(200 horses, 9600 pairs of sheets, ten thousand knives and forks, etc.),
permission for the marriage is granted, and Bluntschli says that he will return
in two weeks to marry Raina. Succumbing with pleasure, Raina gives a loving
smile to her "chocolate cream soldier."
About Arms and the Man
One of Shaw's aims in this play is to debunk the romantic
heroics of war; he wanted to present a realistic account of war and to remove
all pretensions of nobility from war. It is not, however, an anti-war play;
instead, it is a satire on those attitudes which would glorify war. To create
this satire, Shaw chose as his title the opening lines of Virgil's Aeneid, the
Roman epic which glorifies war and the heroic feats of man in war, and which
begins, "Of arms and the man I sing. . . ."
When the play opens, we
hear about the glorious exploits which were performed by Major Sergius Saranoff
during his daring and magnificent cavalry raid, an event that turned the war
against the Serbs toward victory for the Bulgarians. He thus becomes Raina
Petkoff's ideal hero; yet the more that we learn about this raid, the more we
realize that it was a futile, ridiculous gesture, one that bordered on an utter
suicidal escapade.
In contrast, Captain
Bluntschli's actions in Raina's bedroom strike us, at first, as being the
actions of a coward. (Bluntschli is a Swiss, a professional soldier fighting
for the Serbs.) He climbs up a water pipe and onto a balcony to escape capture,
he threatens a defenseless woman with his gun, he allows her to hide him behind
the curtains, and then he reveals that he carries chocolates rather than
cartridges in his cartridge box because chocolates are more practical on the
battlefield. Yet, as the play progresses, Bluntschli's unheroic actions become
reasonable when we see that he survives, whereas had the war continued,
Sergius' absurd heroic exploits would soon have left him dead.
Throughout the play, Shaw arranged his material so as to
satirize the glories associated with war and to ultimately suggest that
aristocratic pretensions have no place in today's wars, which are won by using
business-like efficiency, such as the practical matters of which Bluntschli is
a master. For example, Bluntschli is able to deal with the business of
dispensing an army to another town with ease, while this was a feat that left
the aristocrats (Majors Petkoff and Saranoff) completely baffled. This early
play by Shaw, therefore, cuts through the noble ideals of war and the
"higher love" that Raina and Sergius claim to share; Arms and
the Man presents a world where the practical man who lives with no
illusions and no poetic views about either love or war is shown to be the
superior creature.
Character List
Captain Bluntschli A professional
soldier from Switzerland who is serving in the Serbian army. He is thirty-four
years old, and he is totally realistic about the stupidity of war.
Raina Petkoff The romantic
idealist of twenty-three who views war in terms of noble and heroic deeds.
Sergius Saranoff The extremely
handsome young Bulgarian officer who leads an attack against the Serbs which
was an overwhelming success.
Major Petkoff The inept,
fifty-year-old father of Raina; he is wealthy by Bulgarian standards, but he is
also unread, uncouth, and incompetent.
Catherine Petkoff Raina's mother; she
looks like and acts like a peasant, but she wears fashionable dressing gowns
and tea gowns all the time in an effort to appear to be a Viennese lady.
Louka The Petkoffs' female servant; she is young and physically
attractive, and she uses her appearance for ambitious preferment.
Nicola A realistic, middle-aged servant who is very practical.
Summary and Analysis
Preface
Unlike Pygmalion or many of
Shaw's other plays, there is no actual, separate preface to this particular
play. However, there was a preface to the original volume of plays which
contains this play and three others: The Pleasant Plays, 1898,
revised in 1921. As Shaw noted elsewhere, a preface seldom or never concerns
the play which is to follow the preface, and this preface is no exception.
Instead, Shaw used this preface to comment upon the new style of drama (or
simply what he calls New Drama), a name applied to dramas such as his or
Ibsen's, plays which were not written to be commercial successes, but to be
intellectual vehicles which would make the audience consider (or think about)
their life — to be intellectually aware of their historical place in
civilization. Shaw refuses to pander himself to popular demands for romantic
(and thus unbelievable and unrealistic) situations. Ultimately, according to
Shaw, the theater should become a place for the airing of ideas and a place
where sham and pretense can be exposed in a way that is delightful to the
audience.
Summary and Analysis Act
I
The play opens at night
in a lady's bedchamber in a small Bulgarian town in 1885, the year of the
Serbo-Bulgarian war. The room is decorated in the worst possible taste, a taste
reflected in the mistress' (Catherine Petkoff's) desire to seem as cultured and
as Viennese as possible. But the room is furnished with only cheap bits of
Viennese things; the other pieces of furniture come from the Turkish Ottoman
Empire, reflecting the long occupation by the Turks of the Balkan peninsula. On
the balcony, standing and staring at the romantic beauty of the night,
"intensely conscious that her own youth and beauty are a part of it,"
is young Raina Petkoff. Just inside, conspicuously visible, is a box of chocolate
creams, which will play an important part later in this act and which will
ultimately become a symbol of the type of war which Shaw will satirize.
Raina's mother, Catherine
Petkoff, is a woman who could easily pass for a splendid specimen of the wife
of a mountain fanner, but is determined to be a Viennese lady. As the play
begins, Catherine is excited over the news that the Bulgarian forces have just
won a splendid battle at Slivnitza against the Serbians, and the "hero of
the hour, the idol of the regiment" who led them to victory is Raina's
fiancé, Sergius Saranoff. She describes how Sergius boldly led a cavalry charge
into the midst of the Serbs, scattering them in all directions. Raina wonders
if such a popular hero will care any longer for her little affections, but she
is nonetheless delighted about the news. She wonders if heroes such as Sergius
esteem such heroic ideas because they have read too much Byron and Pushkin.
Real life, as she knows, is quite different.
They are interrupted by
the entry of Louka, a handsome and proud peasant girl, who announces that the
Serbs have been routed and have scattered throughout the town and that some of
the fugitives have been chased into the neighborhood. Thus, the doors must be
secured since there might be fighting and shooting in the street below. Raina
is annoyed that the fugitives must be killed, but she is immediately corrected
— in war, everyone can be killed. Catherine goes below to fasten up the doors,
and Louka shows Raina how to fasten the shutters if there is any shooting and
then leaves to help bolt the rest of the house.
Left alone, Raina picks
up her fiancé's picture, raises it above her head like a priestess worshipping
it, and calls the portrait her "soul's hero." As she prepares for
bed, shots are suddenly heard in the distance and then some more shots are
heard; these are much nearer. She scrambles out of bed, rapidly blows out the
candles, and immediately darts back into bed. She hears more shots, and then
she hears someone tampering with the shutters from outside; there is a glimmer
of light, and then someone strikes a match and warns her not to try to run
away. Raina is told to light a candle, and after she does so, she is able to
see a man in a Serbian's officer's uniform; he is completely bespattered with
mud and blood, and he warns her that if it becomes necessary, he will shoot her
because if he is caught, he will be killed — and he has no intention of dying.
When they hear a disturbance outside the house, the Serbian officer quickly snatches
Raina's cloak that she is about to use to cover herself; ungentlemanlike, he
keeps it, knowing that she won't want a group of army officers searching her
room when she is clad in only a sheer nightgown. There is more noise
downstairs, and Louka is heard at the door; she says that there is a search
party downstairs, and if Raina doesn't let them in, they will break down the
door. Suddenly the Serbian officer loses his courage; he tells Raina that he is
done for. He will shoot the first man who breaks in and "it will not be
nice." Raina impulsively changes her mind and decides to hide him behind
the curtains. Catherine, Louka, and a Russian officer dressed in a Bulgarian
uniform enter, and after inspecting the balcony and hearing Raina testify that
no one came in, they leave. (Louka, however, notices something behind the
curtain and sees the revolver lying on the ottoman; she says nothing, however.)
Raina slams and locks the door after them.
When the Serbian officer
emerges and offers his thanks, he explains that he is not really a Serbian
officer; he is a professional soldier, a Swiss citizen, in fact, and he now
wishes that he had joined with the Bulgarians rather than with the Serbs. He
asks to stay a minute to collect his thoughts, and Raina agrees, deciding to
sit down also, but as she sits on the ottoman, she sits on the man's pistol,
and she lets out a scream. Raina now realizes what it was that Louka was
staring at, and she is surprised that the others didn't notice it. She is
frightened of the gun, but the soldier tells her there is no need to be — it is
not loaded: he keeps chocolates rather than bullets in his cartridge holder. In
fact, he wishes he had some chocolates now. In mock scorn, Raina goes to the
chest of drawers and returns with a half-eaten box of chocolates, the remainder
of which he immediately devours. Raina is shocked to hear him say that only
foolish young soldiers or else stupid ones like those in charge of the recent
attack on the Serbs at Slivnitza carry bullets; wise and experienced soldiers
carry chocolates. Then he offends her further (and still innocently, of course)
by explaining how unprofessional the cavalry charge against the Serbians was,
and if there had not been a stupid mistake on the part of the Serbs, the Bulgarians
would have been massacred. Then the soldier says that the Bulgarian
"hero," the leader of the troops, acted "like an operatic tenor
. . . shouting his war-cry and charging like Don Quixote at the
windmills." He says that the fellow was the laughingstock of everyone
present: "Of all the fools let loose on a field of battle, that man must
be the very maddest." Only a stupid mistake carried the day for him. Raina
then takes the portrait of Sergius and shows it to the officer, who agrees that
this was indeed the person who was "charging the windmills and imagining
he was doing the finest thing."
Angry at the derogatory remarks about her "heroic"
betrothed, Raina orders the stranger to leave. But he balks; he says that
whereas he could climb up the balcony, he simply can't face the descent. He is
so exhausted that he tells her to simply give out the alarm — he's beaten.
Raina tries to spark some courage in him, but realizes that he is more prudent
than daring. Raina is at a loss; she simply doesn't know what to do with him:
he can't be caught in the Petkoff house, the richest house in Bulgaria and the
only one to have a library and an inside staircase. She then remembers an opera
by Verdi, Ernani, in which a fugitive throws himself on the
mercy of some aristocratic people; she thinks that perhaps this might be the
solution because, according to the opera, the hospitality of a nobleman is
sacred and inviolable. In response, the soldier tells her that his father is a
hospitable man himself; in fact, he owns six hotels in Switzerland. Then
falling asleep, he kisses her hand. Raina panics. She insists that he stay
awake until she can fetch her mother, but before she can get out of the room,
he has crawled into her bed and is asleep in such a trance that when Raina returns
with her mother, they cannot shake him awake. His fatigue is so great that
Raina tells her mother: "The poor darling is worn out. Let him
sleep." This comment arouses Catherine's stern reproach, and the curtain
falls on the first act.
Analysis
In reading a Shavian
play, one should pay attention to Shaw's staging directions at the beginning of
the act. The stage directions here call for the scenery to convey the
impression of cheap Viennese pretentious aristocracy incongruously combined
with good, solid Bulgarian commonplace items. Likewise, since Raina will
ultimately be seen as a person who will often assume a pose for dramatic
effect, the act opens with her being (in Shaw's words) "intensely
conscious of the romantic beauty of the night and of the fact that her own
youth and beauty are part of it." As we find out later, she even listens
at doors and waits until the proper moment to make the most effective, dramatic
entrance.
As noted in the "Introduction" to these notes, the
title of this play is ironic since it comes from the opening line of
Virgil's Aeneid ("Of arms and the man I sing. . .
."), an epic which glorifies war and the hero in battle. Shaw will use the
idea of the hero (Sergius) in war (the Serbo-Bulgarian war) in order to
satirize not merely war itself, but the romantic glorification of war. In
addition to this goal, he will also satirize romantic notions of valor and
courage, affectation and pretense, and most important, misguided idealism. The
dramatic shift that will occur in the play involves two romantic idealists
(Raina and Sergius) who, rejecting their original positions instead of marrying
each other, will each become engaged to a practical realist — Sergius to the
practical and attractive servant, Louka, and Raina to the professional realist,
Captain Bluntschli.
Raina is seen, at first,
as the romantic idealist, but she is also characterized as being a fleeting
realist when she wonders if her idealism and Sergius' idealism might be due
simply to the fact that they have read so much poetry by Byron and other
romantics. Likewise, Raina wants to glory in the noble idealism of the war, but
she is also deeply troubled by its cruelty: "What glory is there in
killing wretched fugitives?" In this early comment, we have her rationale
for her later hiding and, thus, her saving Bluntschli's life.
Before meeting
Bluntschli, Raina seems to want to live according to the romantic idealism to
which she and Sergius aspire. She knows that he has, in effect, placed her on
too high a pedestal, but she does want to make an effort to live "up to
his high standards." For example, after hearing of his heroic feats, she
holds up his photo and "elevates it, like a priestess," vowing never
to be unworthy of him. This vow, however, as we soon see, will not last too
long.
Captain Bluntschli's
arrival through the balcony doors is, in itself, a highly melodramatic and
romantic stage entrance. In fact, almost everything about Act I is contrived —
the lady's bedroom, the concealment of the fugitive behind a curtain, the
threat of a bloody fight, the matter of chocolate creams, and, finally, the
enemy soldier falling asleep in the lady's bed — all of this smacks of
artificiality and is juxtaposed against Captain Bluntschli's realistic
appraisal of war and his matter-of-fact assertion that, from a practical
viewpoint, Sergius' military charge was as foolish as Don Quixote's charge on
the Windmills. And actually, while Raina ridicules Captain Bluntschli for his
cowardice, for his hiding behind a woman's curtains, for his inordinate fear
(he has been under fire for three days and his nerves are "shot to
pieces"), and for his extraordinary desire for chocolate creams, she is
nevertheless attracted to him, and even though she pretends to be offended at
his comments about Sergius, she is secretly happy that her fiancé is not as
perfect as we were earlier led to believe that he was.
At the end of the act,
Raina returns to her artificial pretensions as she tries to impress Bluntschli
with her family's aristocratic aspirations, bragging that her father chose the
only house in the city with an inside stairway, and a library, and,
furthermore, Raina says, she attends the opera every year in Bucharest.
Ironically, it is from romantic operas that Raina derives many of her romantic
ideals, and she uses one of Verdi's romantic operas as her rationale for hiding
this practical Swiss professional soldier. The final irony of the act is that
the professional man of war is sleeping as soundly as a baby in Raina's bed,
with her hovering over him, feeling protective about him.
Summary and Analys is
Act II
Some four months have
passed since the first act, and a peace treaty has just been signed. The
setting for this act is in Major Petkoff's garden. Louka is standing onstage in
a disrespectful attitude, smoking a cigarette and talking to Nicola, a
middle-aged servant who has "the complacency of the servant who values
himself on his rank in servitude." The opening dialogue informs us that
Nicola is engaged to Louka, but that he has reservations about her deportment.
He refuses to marry a person who is "disrespectful" to her superiors;
he plans to open a shop in Sofia, and he thinks that the success of the shop
will depend on the goodwill of his employees, and he knows that if they spread
bad reports about him, his shop will never be successful. When Louka maintains
that she knows secret things about the mistress and the master, Nicola reminds
her that all servants know secrets about their employers, but the secret of
being a good servant is to keep these things secret and to always be discreet;
if servants begin telling secrets, then no one will ever employ them again.
Louka is furious and says that Nicola has "the soul of a servant";
Nicola agrees — "That is," he says, "the secret of success in
service."
Their discussion is
interrupted by the entrance of Major Petkoff, an "insignificant,
unpolished man" who has just returned from the war. He sends Louka into
the house to get his wife and to also bring him some coffee. Catherine comes
out and welcomes her husband, and he tells her that the war is over, the peace
treaty is signed, and all is now peaceful. When he inquires about his wife's
health, she tells him that she has a sore throat. The Major maintains that the
soreness comes "from washing [her] neck every day." He himself does
not believe in these silly modern notions of washing. "It can't be good
for the health; it's not natural. There was an Englishman at Philippopolis who
used to wet himself all over with cold water every morning when he got
up." He maintains that the English climate is so dirty that the English
have to wash, but others don't; his father, for example, lived to be
ninety-eight years old and never had a bath in his entire life.
As Catherine is
explaining to her husband about the installation of an electric bell in the
library, the Major is confused over its use because — in his opinion — if he
wants someone, he will shout for them. At this time, Major Sergius Saranoff
arrives; he is "a tall romantically handsome man" and is the original
of the portrait in Raina's room in the first act. He is roundly congratulated
for his famous charge against the Serbs. Sergius, however, does not appreciate
the compliment, because even though he was successful, he participated in a
maneuver where the Russian consultants failed; thus, he did not accomplish his
great success by the rulebook. "Two Cossack colonels had their regiments
routed on the most correct principles of scientific warfare. [Furthermore,] Two
major-generals got killed strictly according to military etiquette," and
now the two colonels who failed are promoted to generals and he (Sergius) who
succeeded is still a major; therefore, he has resigned.
As Catherine is
protesting that Sergius should not resign — the women, she says, are for him —
Sergius suddenly asks, "Where is Raina?" At that very moment, Raina
enters sweepingly, announcing, "Raina is here." Sergius drops
chivalrously on one knee to kiss her hand. While Raina's father is impressed
with the fact that Raina "always appears at the right moment," her
mother is annoyed because she knows that Raina always listens at doorways in
order to make her entrance at exactly the right moment. Catherine pronounces it
to be "an abominable habit."
Raina then welcomes her father home, and again they discuss
Sergius' military career. Sergius now views war in a very cynical manner;
according to him, there is nothing heroic nor romantic about it.
"Soldiering is the coward's art of attacking mercilessly when you are
strong, and keeping out of harm's way when you are weak. . . . Never fight
[your enemy] on equal terms." Furthermore, he now views soldiering as
having too much of the taint of being a trade business, and he despises trade;
this is, of course, an allusion to Captain Blutschli, who, of course, is in
trade, and it is also a reference to Louka's fiancé, Nicola, who wants to go
into trade. To prove his point, Sergius asks them all to consider the case of
the Swiss officer (Bluntschli) who was able to deal very shrewdly and to make
clever bargains concerning prisoners. As a result, soldiering has been
"reduced to a matter of trading and bartering." He adds that the man
was merely "a commercial traveler in uniform."
Since the subject has
come up, Major Petkoff encourages Sergius to tell the story about the Swiss
officer who climbed into a Bulgarian lady's bedroom in order to escape capture.
Raina, recognizing herself as the woman of the story, pretends to be offended.
Major Petkoff therefore tries to get Sergius to help him with some army
details, and Catherine instructs Sergius to remain with Raina while Catherine
discusses some business with her husband. By this ruse, she is able to leave
the two young people alone.
Alone together, Raina
looks upon Sergius with admiration and worship: "My hero! My king!" —
to which he responds, "My queen!" Raina sees Sergius only in terms of
the knight of olden times who goes forth to fight heroically, guided only by
his lady's love. She believes that the two of them have truly found what she
calls the perfect "higher love." When Louka is heard entering the
house, Raina leaves to get her hat so that they can go for a walk and be alone.
In Louka's presence, Sergius swaggers a bit and then asks Louka if she knows
what "higher love" is. Whatever it is, he says, he finds it
"fatiguing" to keep it up: "one feels the need of some relief
after it." He then embraces Louka, who warns him to be careful, or, at
least, if he won't let her go, he should step back where they cannot be seen.
After she makes a sly comment about the possibility of Raina's spying on them,
Sergius defends Raina and their "higher love," and Louka maintains
that she will never understand "gentlefolk" because while Sergius is
professing love for Raina, he is flirting with her behind Raina's back, and,
furthermore, Raina is doing the same thing. Sergius tries to reprimand Louka
for gossiping so about her mistress, but he is visibly upset and dramatically
strikes his forehead. He insists that Louka tell him who his rival is, but she
will not do so, especially since he has just reprimanded her for talking about
her mistress. She tells him that she never actually saw the man; she only heard
his voice outside Miss Raina's bedroom. But she knows that if the man ever
comes here again, Raina will marry him. Sergius is furious, and he grips her so
tightly that he bruises her arm; he reminds her that because of her gossiping,
she has the "soul of a servant," the same accusation which she made
earlier about Nicola. Louka retaliates by pointing out that Sergius himself is
a liar, and, furthermore, she maintains that she is worth "six of her
[Raina]." As Louka begins to leave, Sergius wants to apologize for hurting
a woman, no matter what the status of that woman is, but Louka will not accept
an apology; she wants more. When Sergius wants to pay her for the injury, Louka
says that she wants him to kiss her bruised arm. Surprised, Sergius refuses,
and Louka majestically picks up the serving pieces and leaves, just as Raina
enters, dressed in the latest fashion of Vienna — of the previous year.
Immediately, Catherine calls down that her husband needs Sergius for a few
minutes to discuss a business matter.
When Sergius is gone,
Catherine enters, and she and Raina express their irritation that "that
Swiss" told the entire story of his night in Raina's bedroom. Raina
maintains that if she had him here now she would "cram him with chocolate
creams." Catherine is frightened that if Sergius finds out the truth about
what happened, the engagement will be broken off. Suddenly, however, Raina
reveals that she would not care, and that, furthermore, she has always wanted
to say something dreadful so as to shock Sergius' propriety, "to
scandalize the five senses out of him." She half-hopes that he will find
out about her "chocolate cream soldier." She then leaves her mother
in a state of shock.
Louka enters and
announces the presence of a Serbian soldier at the door, a soldier who is
asking for the lady of the house; he has sent his card bearing his name,
"Captain Bluntschli," thus giving us for the first time the name of
the "chocolate cream soldier." When Catherine reads the name and
hears that the caller is Swiss, she realizes that he is the "chocolate
cream soldier" and that he is returning the old coat of Major Petkoff's
which they gave him when he left. Catherine gives Louka strict instructions to
make sure that the library door is shut; then, Louka is to send in the captain
and have Nicola bring the visitor's bag to her. When Louka returns with the
captain, Catherine frantically explains that her husband and future son-in-law
are here and that he must leave immediately. Captain Bluntschli agrees
reluctantly and explains that he only wants to take the coat out of his bag,
but Catherine urges him to leave it; she will have his bag sent to him later.
As Bluntschli is writing out his address, Major Petkoff comes in and greets the
captain warmly and enthusiastically. Immediately, Major Petkoff tells the
captain that they are in desperate need of help in working out the details of
sending troops and horses to Philippopolis. Captain Bluntschli immediately
pinpoints the problem, and as they are about to go into the library to explain
the details, Raina enters and bumps into the captain and surprisedly exclaims
loudly: "Oh! the chocolate cream soldier." She immediately regains
her composure and explains that she was cooking a kind of dessert and had made
a chocolate cream soldier for its decoration and that Nicola sat a pile of
plates on it. At that moment, Nicola brings in the captain's bag, saying that
Catherine told him to do so; when Catherine denies it, Major Petkoff thinks
that Nicola must be losing his mind. He reprimands Nicola (for doing what
Nicola has been commanded to do), and at this point Nicola is so confused that
he drops the bag, almost hitting the Major's foot. As the women try to placate
the Major, he, in turn, urges Captain Bluntschli to remain as their houseguest
until he has to return to Switzerland. Even though Catherine has been subtly
suggesting that Captain Bluntschli leave, Bluntschli agrees to remain.
Analysis
Arms and the Man is an early Shavian play,
and in it, Shaw used certain techniques that he was never to use again. In the
first act, for example, the entire act has a farcical note about it and the use
of a screen or a curtain for a character to hide behind was a traditional
technique used only in comedies. The coat episode in the third act is a
contrived bit of farce that amuses the audience, but it cheapens the
intellectual aspect of the drama because it contributes nothing other than its
own farcical element.
In Act II, the structure
of the act is more serious, but it also uses several traditional farcical
elements. For example, there is the use of the exaggerated means whereby
Sergius can deceive Raina while trying to make love with Raina's maid, the
story told in the army camp about the soldier who escapes into a lady's bedroom
(while the ladies of the story have to listen in pretended dismay), the sudden
appearance of the captain and the hasty decisions which the ladies must
undertake, and finally the sudden surprise that occurs when we discover that
Captain Petkoff knows Bluntschli — all of these circumstances are elements of
melodrama or farce.
In the early part of the
act, we see Louka as an ingenious maid who refuses to acknowledge that she has
"the soul of a servant," a fault that she accuses Nicola of having.
Later, however, when Sergius tells her that she possesses the soul of a servant,
his comment stings. We do, however, admire the way that Louka is able to
dismiss Nicola and to manipulate the supposedly superior and aristocratic
Sergius.
When we meet Sergius and
hear of his total disillusionment with war and with "soldiering [which] is
the coward's art of attacking mercilessly when you are strong and keeping out
of the way when you are weak," we are then prepared for the fact that
Sergius will not be a romantic idealist for long. His new views on war should
prepare us for a significant change in his total outlook on life; thus, he will
soon reject Raina's idealistic "higher love" in favor of a more
direct love with the attractive and practical Louka, a maid who says
forthrightly that if Sergius is going to embrace her, then at least they should
stand back where they can't be seen.
With Louka, Sergius can
admit that there are at least six different people occupying himself and then
wonder aloud, "Which of the six is the real man? That's the question that
torments me." We now know that the real Sergius is not the one with whom
Raina has fallen in love, the one with the "higher love." Thus, by
the end of this act, Shaw has set up all of the necessary motives and reasons
for Sergius and Raina to break off their engagement and marry someone else.
Summary and Analysis Act
III
This act shifts to the
Petkoffs' library, a setting which Shaw uses to let us know that this is a very
poor excuse for a library; it consists of only a single room with a single
shelf of old worn-out paper-covered novels; the rest of the room is more like a
sitting room with another ottoman in it, just like the one in Raina's room in
the first act. The room is also fitted with an old kitchen table which serves
as a writing table. At the opening of the act, Bluntschli is busy at work
preparing orders, with a businesslike regularity, for the disposition of the
Bulgarian army. Petkoff is more of a hindrance than a help, for he constantly
interrupts to see if he can be of any help. Finally, his wife tells him to stop
interrupting. Petkoff, in turn, complains that all that he needs to be
comfortable is his favorite old coat, which he can't find. Catherine rings for
Nicola and tells the servant to go to the blue closet and fetch his master's
old coat. Petkoff is so certain that it is not there that he is willing to make
a bet of an expensive piece of jewelry with her. Sergius is about to enter a
bet also, but Nicola suddenly returns with the coat. Petkoff is completely
astonished and perplexed when Nicola announces that it was indeed hanging in
the blue closet.
At this moment,
Bluntschli finishes the last order, gives it to Sergius to take to his
soldiers, and then asks Petkoff to follow to make sure that Sergius doesn't
make a mistake. Petkoff asks his wife to come along because she is good at
giving commands. Left alone with Raina, Bluntschli expresses his astonishment
at an army where "officers send for their wives to keep discipline."
Raina then tells Captain
Bluntschli how much better he looks now that he is clean, and she inquires
about his experiences after he left her bedroom. She lets him know that the
entire story has been told so many times that both her father and her fiancé
are aware of the story, but not the identities of the people involved. In fact,
Raina believes that "if Sergius knew, he would challenge you and kill you
in a duel." Bluntschli says that he hopes that Raina won't tell, but Raina
tells him of her desire to be perfectly open and honest with Sergius. Because
of Bluntschli, Raina says, she has now told two lies — one to the soldiers
looking for him in her room and another one just now about the chocolate
pudding — and she feels terrible about lying; Bluntschli cannot take her
seriously. In fact, he tells her that when "you strike that noble attitude
and speak in that thrilling voice, I admire you; but I find it impossible to
believe a single word you say." At first, Raina is indignant, but then she
is highly amused that Bluntschli has seen through the disguise that she has
used since she was a child: "You know, I've always gone on like
that," she tells him.
When Raina asks him what
he thought of her for giving him a portrait of herself, Bluntschli tells her
that he never received it because he never reached into the pocket of the coat
where Raina had put it. He is not concerned until he learns that Raina
inscribed upon it "To my Chocolate Cream Soldier." In the meantime,
Bluntschli confesses, he pawned the coat, thinking that was the safest place
for it. Raina is furious, and she accuses him of having a "shopkeeping
mind." At this point, they are interrupted by Louka, who brings Bluntschli
some letters and telegrams, which inform him that his father has died and that
Bluntschli has inherited several hotels which he will have to manage. He must
leave immediately. Alarmed, Raina follows him out.
Nicola enters and sees
Louka with her sleeve rolled up so as to expose her bruised arm, and he
reprimands her. Then they argue over the duties and obligations of being a
servant. Louka says that she absolutely refuses to act like a servant, and
Nicola answers that he is quite willing to release her from their engagement if
she can better herself. Then, he would have another customer for his shop, one
who would bring him good business. When Sergius enters, Nicola leaves immediately,
and Sergius, noticing the bruise on Louka's arm, asks if he can cure it now by
kissing it. Louka reminds him of his place and of hers. She wonders aloud if
Sergius is a brave man and if poor people are any less brave than wealthy
people. Sergius answers that in war any man can have courage: "the courage
to rage and [to] kill is cheap." Louka then asks if Sergius has true
courage; that is, would he dare to marry someone whom he loved if that person
was socially beneath him? She asserts that she thinks that Sergius would
"be afraid of what other people would say," and thus he would never
have the courage to marry beneath him. Sergius contradicts her until Louka
tells him that Raina will never marry him, that Raina is going to marry the Swiss
soldier. As she turns to go, Sergius grabs her and holds her firmly; as he
threatens her and questions the truth of her accusation, she wonders if anyone
would believe the fact that she is now in his arms. He releases her with the
assertion that if he ever touches her again, it will be as her fiancé.
As Louka leaves,
Bluntschli enters and is immediately told by Sergius where he is to be on the
following morning; they will duel on horseback and with sabres. Bluntschli
maintains that as the challenged party, it is his privilege to choose the
weapons, and he plans to have a machine gun. But when Bluntschli sees that
Sergius is serious, he agrees to meet him with a sabre, but he refuses to fight
on horseback because it is too dangerous. Raina enters then, in time to hear
their last arrangements. Bluntschli explains that he is an expert with the
sword and that he will see to it that neither of them are hurt; afterward, he
will leave immediately for Switzerland and no one will ever hear of the
incident. Sergius then accuses Bluntschli of receiving favors from Raina which
he (Sergius) has never enjoyed — that is, she received Bluntschli in her
bedroom. Bluntschli points out that she did so "with a pistol at her head.
. . . I'd have blown out her brains if she'd uttered a cry." Sergius
cannot accept the story that there is nothing between the two because if it
were true, then Captain Bluntschli would not have come back to the Petkoff
house. He could have sent the coat; he came only to see Raina.
When Sergius makes
further accusations, Raina reminds him that she saw him and Louka in each
other's arms, and she now understands about their relationship. Sergius
realizes that his and Raina's engagement is over, and he therefore cancels the
duel with Bluntschli, who is pleased to get out of it since he didn't want to
fight in the first place. Raina, however, is furious, and she tells Bluntschli
that Sergius had Louka spy on them and that Sergius rewarded Louka by making
love to her. As they continue to argue, Bluntschli tries to get Sergius to stop
because he is losing the argument. Suddenly, Bluntschli asks where Louka is.
Raina maintains that she is listening at the door, and as Sergius stoutly
denies such a thing, Raina goes to the door and drags Louka inside; she was, in
fact, eavesdropping. Louka is not ashamed; she says that her love is at stake
and that her feelings for Sergius are stronger than Raina's feelings for the
"chocolate cream soldier."
At this point, Major
Petkoff enters in short sleeves; his old coat is being mended. When Nicola
enters with it, Raina helps him on with the coat and deftly removes the
inscribed portrait from the coat pocket. Thus, when her father reaches for the
photograph to ask Raina the meaning of a photograph of her with the
inscription: "Raina, to her Chocolate Cream Soldier: A Souvenir," the
photo is missing! Major Petkoff is confused and asks Sergius if he is the
"chocolate cream soldier." The Major responds indignantly that he is
not. Then Bluntschli explains that he is the "chocolate cream soldier"
and that Raina saved his life. Petkoff is further confused when Raina points
out that Louka is the true object of Sergius' affections, despite the fact that
Louka is engaged to Nicola, who denies this and says that he is hoping for
Louka's good recommendation when he opens his shop.
Suddenly Louka feels as
though she is being bartered, and she demands an apology; when Sergius kisses
her hand in apology, she reminds him that his touch now makes her his
"affianced wife," and even though Sergius had forgotten his earlier
statement, he still holds true to his word and claims Louka for his own. At
this moment, Catherine enters and is shocked to find Louka and Sergius
together. Louka explains that Raina is fond only of Bluntschli, and before
Raina can answer, Bluntschli explains that such a young and beautiful girl as
Raina could not be in love with a thirty-four-year-old soldier who is an
incurable romantic; the only reason he came back, he says, was not to return
the coat but to get just one more glance at Raina, but he fears that she is no
more than seventeen years old. Raina then tells Bluntschli that he is indeed
foolishly romantic if he thinks that she, a twenty-three-year-old woman, is a
seventeen-year-old girl. At this point, Bluntschli asks permission to be a
suitor for Raina's hand. When he is reminded that Sergius comes from an old
family which kept at least twenty horses, Bluntschli begins to enumerate all of
the possessions (including two hundred horses) which he owns; he fails,
however, to mention that his possessions are connected with the hotel business
that he has just inherited. His list of possessions is so impressive that it is
agreed that he shall indeed marry Raina, who is delighted with her
"chocolate cream soldier." As Bluntschli leaves, with the promise of
being back in two weeks, Sergius looks in wonder and comments, "What a
man! Is he a man!"
Analysis
After the farcical bit
about the discovery of the old coat in the blue closet, which perplexes Major
Petkoff, Shaw then gets down to the resolution of the drama, which involves the
revealing of Raina's, Sergius', and Bluntschli's true natures.
First, in Bluntschli's
interview with Raina, we see him as the practical man who will not let Raina
assume any of her poses; he will laugh at all of the poses that she assumes.
Captain Bluntschli, while being charmed and captivated by Raina, refuses to
take her poses seriously; that is, he delights in her posturing, but he is not
deceived by them: "When you strike that noble attitude and speak in that thrilling
voice, I admire you; but I find it impossible to believe a single word you
say." Thus, Bluntschli forces Raina to reveal her true nature, and she is
delighted that someone has seen through her guise and has allowed her to come
down off her pedestal. We were earlier prepared for this revelation when she
told her mother that she would like to shock Sergius; already, we have seen
that she finds "higher love" to be something of a strain on her.
Thus, it is ultimately a relief for her to discard all of her artificial poses
and finally become herself.
Likewise, Bluntschli
changes. While he will not tolerate posturing, yet, since he is such a
plainspoken man, we are surprised to discover that beneath his exterior, he has
a romantic soul — that is, he came back with the Major's coat only to have one
more glimpse of Raina, with whom he is infatuated. Therefore, as the practical
man is seen to change, so also does Sergius, whom we saw very early in the
second act confess to being tired of playing this game of the ideal of the
"higher love." He is immensely relieved not to have to be the
over-idealized, noble object of Raina's love; he found trying to live up to her
expectations tiresome. After discovering that there is no nobility or heroics
connected with war, he is delighted to discover that Raina's heroics are not
for him; as a result, he turns to the more basic but yet attractive Louka.
The resolution of the
drama is brought about by the simple technique of having all of the characters
recognize their basic nature and yield to it. Consequently, the ending of this
comedy is similar to most classic comedies — that is, after a mix-up or confusion
between the lovers, everyone is paired with the proper person finally.
Character Analys is
Raina Petkoff
Raina is one of Shaw's most delightful heroines from his early
plays. In the opening scenes of the play, she is presented as being a
romantically idealistic person in love with the noble ideal of war and love;
yet, she is also aware that she is playing a game, that she is a poseuse who
enjoys making dramatic entrances (her mother is aware that Raina listens at
doors in order to know when to make an effective entrance), and she is very
quixotic in her views on love and war.
Whenever Raina strikes a
pose, she is fully aware "of the fact that her own youth and beauty are
part of it." When she accuses Bluntschli of being "incapable of
gratitude" and "incapable of any noble sentiments," she is also
amused, and she is later delighted that he sees through her "noble
attitude" and her pretensions. In fact, her attraction for Bluntschli is
partly due to the fact that she can step down off the pedestal which she must
be upon, metaphorically, whenever she is in Sergius' presence. She shocks her
mother when she says that she would like to shock Sergius' propriety since he
is such a "stuffed shirt." Yet, at first, she is filled with
undefined ideals. She admires Sergius' victories, but she is also genuinely
troubled by the reports of the suffering and slaughter that accompany the war.
She does respond immediately to the plight of the Serbian soldier (Captain
Bluntschli), even though just a few moments earlier, she was delighting in
Sergius' victory over the Serbs. And when there is the possibility of an actual
slaughter taking place in her room (the Swiss soldier vowed to kill rather than
be killed — even though we later discover that this was a bluff since he had no
bullets), she impetuously decides to hide him and help him escape. When
Bluntschli ridicules Sergius' quixotic cavalry charge, she pretends to be
offended, but she is secretly glad that her intended is not
"perfect."
Of Raina, Shaw wrote in
an essay entitled "A Dramatic Realist to his Critics":
The heroine [Raina] has
been classified by critics as a minx, a liar, and a poseuse; I have nothing to
do with that: the only moral question for me is, does she do good or harm? If
you admit that she does good, that she generously saves a man's life and wisely
extricates herself from a false position with another man, then you may
classify her as you please — brave, generous and affectionate; or artful,
dangerous, faithless — it is all one to me. . . .
Raina, then, is perhaps a combination of all the above
qualities. She is romantic, for example, when she remembers an opera
(Verdi's Ernani) in which a member of the aristocracy shelters an
enemy; thus, she shelters Bluntschli, since it is "chivalrous" to
protect him. She does possess exalted ideals, but she is also pleased to step
down from her pedestal and enjoy life directly; finally, in spite of her
aristocratic background, she marries a person with "the soul of a hotel
keeper."
Character Analys is
Captain Bluntschli
Captain Bluntschli is a
thirty-four-year-old realist who sees through the absurd romanticism of war.
Furthermore, unlike the aristocratic volunteers who are untrained, amateurish
idealists, Captain Bluntschli is a professional soldier, trained in waging a
war in a highly efficient, businesslike manner. These methods allow Sergius to
refer to his ability to wage a war as being low-class commercialism, devoid of
any honor and nobility. Bluntschli would agree with this appraisal since he
sees nothing romantic about the violent and senseless slaughter of human
beings, even though it is his profession.
Being a professional soldier, he adopts a practical and wise
view (his name is a combination of Blunt, plus the ending,
which in Swiss means "sweet" or "endearing" or
"lovable"). Given the choice of being killed or saving his life by
climbing up a balcony and into a lady's bedroom, he chooses unheroically not to
be killed. Practically, he knows that a dead professional soldier is of no
value to anyone; thus, he saves his life by the most expedient method available
— he hides in a lady's bedchamber. Likewise, given the choice of killing
someone or of not going hungry, he chooses to eat rather than to kill; thus, he
carries chocolates rather than cartridges, a highly unromantic but very
practical thing to do.
When Bluntschli first
hears of Sergius' cavalry charge and refuses to view Sergius' actions in any
way except as a foolhardy display of false heroics, he reveals his complete
practicality and subjects himself to Raina's charge that he is "incapable
of appreciating honor and courage." Yet, his questioning of Sergius'
actions causes Raina to question Sergius' qualities.
Bluntschli does possess
some qualities which cause Raina to exchange the "noble and heroic"
Sergius in favor of him. Raina's perfect honesty, in fact, allows her to relax
and to come down from her pedestal. Bluntschli's fondness for chocolates in the
midst of war is appealingly incongruous. His docility, combined with his
efficiency, endears him to others, especially the entire Petkoff family, and,
finally, he reveals to the established group that he is an incurable romantic.
He explains that he could have sent the old coat back, but that he wanted to
return it personally so that he could have one more glimpse of the entrancing
Raina. Thus, he wins her for his "affianced wife."
Character Analys is
Sergius Saranoff
Sergius is the epitome of
what every romantic hero should be: He is dashing, swashbuckling, devastatingly
handsome, idealistic, wealthy, aristocratic, brave, and the acclaimed hero of a
recent crushing victory in a recent cavalry raid which he led. He is possessed
of only the loftiest and most noble ideals concerning war, romance, and chivalry,
and he represents the quintessence of what a noble Bulgarian aristocrat should
be. Yet Sergius is more than this. He is an aristocrat, but he is a Byronic
type who has certain ideals, and he is likely to become thoroughly
disillusioned when these ideals fail. For example, Sergius did go to war filled
with high ideals, and he did lead a heroic and courageous cavalry attack;
later, however, he discovered that wars are not conducted by bravery and
courage; they are more often waged and won better by efficient and practical
planning than they are won by glorious and chivalric deeds. For Sergius, then,
war is only fit for sons of hotel keepers, who have something of the tradesman
about them. For that reason, Sergius has resigned from the army in complete disillusionment.
After having become
cynical about soldiering, Sergius becomes skeptical about his relationship with
Raina. After all, as he tells Louka, it is rather tiresome having to live up to
Raina's "ideal of the higher love." It was he, however, who placed
Raina on a pedestal so high, in fact, that he was blinded to any possible fault
she might have. When Louka reveals all of Raina's faults — Raina lies, she
pretends, and she has entertained another man in her bedroom — Sergius then
feels free to cast his affections where they normally lead him — into marriage
with the attractive Louka.
George Bernard Shaw Biography
It is with good reason that Archibald Henderson, official
biographer of his subject, entitled his work George Bernard Shaw: Man
of the Century. Well before his death at the age of ninety-four, this
famous dramatist and critic had become an institution. Among the literate, no
set of initials were more widely known than G.B.S. Born on July 26, 1856, in
Dublin, Ireland, Shaw survived until November 2, 1950. His ninetieth birthday
in 1946 was the occasion for an international celebration, the grand old man
being presented with afestschrift entitled GBS 90 to
which many distinguished writers contributed. A London publishing firm bought
space in the Times to voice its greetings:
GBS
Hail to thee, blithe
spirit!
Shaw was the third child
and only son in a family which he once described as "shabby but
genteel." His father, George Carr Shaw, was employed as a civil servant
and later became a not too successful merchant. Shaw remembered especially his
father's "alcoholic antics"; the old man was a remorseful yet
unregenerate drinker. It was from his father that Shaw inherited his superb
comic gift. Lucinda Gurley Shaw, the mother, was a gifted singer and music
teacher; she led her son to develop a passion for music, particularly operatic
music. At an early age he had memorized, among others, the works of Mozart,
whose fine workmanship he never ceased to admire. Somewhat later, he taught
himself to play the piano — in the Shavian manner.
One of the maxims in The Revolutionist's Handbook, appended
to Man and Superman, reads: "He who can does. He who
can't teaches." Shaw, who was to insist that all art should be didactic,
viewed himself as a kind of teacher, yet he himself had little respect for
schoolmasters and formal education. First, his uncle, the Reverend George
Carroll, tutored him. Then, at the age of ten, he became a pupil at Wesleyan
Connexional School in Dublin and later attended two other schools for short
periods of time. He hated them all and declared that he had learned absolutely
nothing. But Shaw possessed certain qualities which are not always developed in
the classroom — for example, an inquisitive mind and a boundless capacity for
independent study.
Once asked about his
early education, he replied: "I can remember no time at which a page of
print was not intelligible to me and can only suppose I was born
literate." He went on to add that by the age of ten he had saturated
himself in the works of Shakespeare and also in the Bible.
A depleted family
exchequer led Shaw to accept employment as a clerk in a Land Agency when he was
sixteen. He was unhappy and, determined to become a professional writer, he
resigned after five years of service and joined his mother, who was then
teaching music in London. The year was 1876. During the next three years he
allowed his mother to support him, and he concentrated largely on trying to
support himself as an author. No less than five novels came from his pen between
the years 1879 and 1883, but it was soon evident that Shaw's genius would never
be revealed as a novelist.
In 1879, Shaw was induced
to accept employment in a firm promoting the new Edison telephone, his duties
being those of a right-of-way agent. He detested the task of interviewing
residents in the East End of London and endeavoring to get their permission for
the installation of telephone poles and equipment. A few months of such work
was enough for him. In his own words, this was the last time he "sinned
against his nature" by seeking to earn an honest living.
The year 1879 had greater significance for Shaw. He joined the
Zetetical Society, a debating club, the members of which held lengthy
discussions on such subjects as economics, science, and religion. Soon he found
himself in demand as a speaker and a regular participant at public meetings. At
one such meeting held in September, 1882, he listened spellbound to Henry
George, an apostle of Land Nationalization and the Single Tax. Shaw credits the
American lecturer and author with having roused his interest in economics and
social theory; previously, he had concerned himself chiefly with the conflict
between science and religion. When Shaw was told that no one could do justice
to George's theories without being familiar with the theories of Karl Marx,
Shaw promptly read a French translation of Das Kapital, no English
translation being then available. He was immediately converted to socialism.
The year 1884 is also a notable one in the life of Bernard Shaw
(as he preferred to be called). After reading a tract entitled Why Are
the Many Poor? and learning that it was published by the Fabian
Society, he appeared at the society's next meeting. The intellectual temper of
this group, which included such distinguished men as Havelock Ellis,
immediately attracted him. He was accepted as a member on September 5 and was elected
to the Executive Committee in January. Among the debaters at the Zetetical
Society was Sidney Webb, a man whom Shaw recognized as his "natural
complement." He easily persuaded Webb to become a Fabian. The two, along
with the gifted Mrs. Webb, became the pillars of the society which preached the
gospel of constitutional and evolutionary socialism. Shaw's views, voiced in
public parks and meeting halls, are expounded at length in The
Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (1928); many of his
ideas also find a place in his dramas.
In the next stage of his career, Shaw emerged as a literary,
music, and art critic. Largely because of the influence of William Archer, the
distinguished dramatic critic now best remembered as the editor and translator
of Ibsen, Shaw became a member of the reviewing staff of the Pall Mall
Gazette in 1885. Earlier, he had ghostwritten some music reviews for
G. L. Lee, with whom his mother had long been associated as a singer and as a
music teacher. But this new assignment provided him with his first real
experience as a critic. Not long thereafter, and again through the assistance
of William Archer, Shaw added to these duties those of an art critic on the
widely influential World. Archer insisted that Shaw knew very little
about art but realized that Shaw thought that he did, which was what mattered.
As for Shaw, he blandly explained that the way to learn about art was to look
at pictures; he had begun doing so years earlier in the Dublin National
Gallery.
Shaw's close association with William Archer was paramount in
his championing the dramas of Henrik Ibsen as a new, highly original dramatist
whose works represented a complete break with the popular theater of the day.
"When Ibsen came from Norway," Shaw was to write, "with his
characters who thought and discussed as well as acted, the theatrical heaven
rolled up like a scroll." Whereas the general public, nurtured on
"well-made" romantic and melodramatic plays, denounced Ibsen as a
"muck-ferreting dog," Shaw recognized that Ibsen was a great ethical
philosopher and a social critic, a role which recommended itself to Shaw
himself. On July 18, 1890, Shaw read a paper on Ibsen at a meeting of the
Fabian Society. Amplified, this became The Quintessence of Ibsen (1891).
Sometimes called The Quintessence of Shaw, it sets forth the
author's profoundest views on the function of the dramatist, who, Shaw
believed, should concern himself foremost with how his characters react to
various social forces and who should concern himself further with a new
morality based upon an examination and challenge of conventional mores.
In view of what Shaw had written about Ibsen (and about himself)
and because of Shaw's dedicated activities as a socialist exhorter, The
Widowers' Rouses, his first play, may be called characteristic.
Structurally, it represents no departure from the tradition of the well-made
play; that is, the action is plotted so that the key situation is exposed in
the second act, and the third act is devoted to its resolution. But
thematically, the play was revolutionary in England. It dealt with the evils of
slum-landlordism, a subject hardly calculated to regale the typical Victorian
audience. Produced at J. T. Grein's Independent Theatre in London, it became a
sensation because of its "daring" theme, but it was never a
theatrical success. Shaw, however, was not at all discouraged. The furor
delighted him. No one knew better than he the value of attracting attention. He
was already at work on The Philanderer, an amusing but rather
slight comedy of manners.
In 1894, Shaw's Arms and the Man enjoyed a good
run at the Avenue Theatre from April 21 to July 7, and it has been revived from
time to time to this very day. At last, the real Shaw had emerged — the
dramatist who united irrepressible gaiety and complete seriousness of purpose.
The play has been described as "a satire on the prevailing bravura
style," and it sets forth the "view of romance as the great heresy to
be swept from art and life."
In the same year, Shaw wrote Mrs. Warren's
Profession, which became a cause celebre. Shaw
himself grouped it with his so-called "Unpleasant Plays." Dealing
with the economic causes of prostitution and the conflict between the
prostitute mother and her daughter, it created a tumult which was kept alive
for several years on both sides of the Atlantic. It may well be argued that in
this play Shaw was far more the polemist than the artist, but the play still
has its place among the provocative dramas of ideas.
The indefatigable Shaw was already at work on his first
unquestionably superior play, Candida. First produced in 1895,
it has been popular ever since and has found its place in anthologies.
Notable for effective
character portrayal and the adroit use of inversions, it tells how Candida and
the Reverend Morrell, widely in public demand as an advanced thinker, reached
an honest and sound basis for a lasting marriage.
While working with the
Fabians, Shaw met the personable Charlotte Payne-Townshend, an Irish heiress
deeply concerned with the many problems of social justice. He was immediately
attracted to her. After she had helped him through a long illness, the two were
married in 1898, and she became his modest but capable critic and assistant
throughout the years of their marriage.
During this period there was no surcease of playwriting on
Shaw's part. He completed You Never Can Tell, The Man of Destiny, and The
Devil's Disciple. This last play, an inverted Victorian-type melodrama
first acted in the United States, was an immediate success, financially and
otherwise. By the turn of the century, Shaw had written Caesar and
Cleopatra and The Admirable Bashville. He was now the
acknowledged major force in the new drama of the twentieth century.
The year 1903 is especially memorable for the completion and
publication of Man and Superman. It was first acted (without
the Don Juan in Hell intermezzo which constitutes Act III) in 1905. Then, some
twenty-three other plays were added to the Shavian canon as the century
advanced toward the halfway mark. Best known among these are Major
Barbara (1905), Androcles and the Lion (1912), Pygmalion(1912), Heartbreak
House (1916), Back to Methuselah (1921), and Saint
Joan (1923). During the years 1930-32, the Ayot St. Lawrence Edition
of his collected plays was published. Shaw's literary pre-eminence had found
worldwide recognition. He refused, however, to accept either a knighthood or
the Order of Merit offered by the Crown, but in 1926 he did accept the Nobel
Prize for Literature. It was quite typical of him to state that the award was
given to him by a grateful public because he had not published anything during
that year.
Shaw persistently rejected offers from filmmakers. According to
one story, when importuned by Samuel Goldwyn, the well-known Hollywood
producer, he replied: 'The difficulty, Mr. Goldwyn, is that you are an artist
and I am a business man." Later, however, the ardor and ability of Gabriel
Pascal impressed him, and he agreed to prepare the scenario of Pygmalion for
production. The film, released in 1938, was a notable success. Major
Barbara and Androcles and the Lion followed, and the
Irish-born dramatist had now won a much larger audience. My Fair
Lady, a musical adapted from Pygmalion, opened in New
Haven, Connecticut, on February 4, 1956, starring Rex Harrison and Julie
Andrews, and it was and remains a spectacular success. A film version won an
Academy Award in 1964 as Best Picture.
Discussing Macbeth, Shaw once wrote: "I
want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I
live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no 'brief candle' for me. It
is a sort of splendid torch, which I have got hold of for the moment; and I
want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future
generations." Life indeed was a bright torch which burned long for Bernard
Shaw. Almost to the very end, when he was bedridden with a broken hip, he lived
up to his credo. He was ninety-two years old in 1949, when Buoyant
Billions was produced at the Malvern Festival. In the same year his
highly readable Sixteen Self Sketches was published. He was
planning the writing of still another play when he died on November 2, 1950.
Study HelpEssay Questions
1. What is the source and irony of the title of
this play?
2. While Shaw uses many elements of farce, this
is still called a "drama of ideas." Discuss Shaw's use of farce to
demonstrate some of his ideas.
3. What is meant by the subtitle "An
Anti-Romantic Comedy"?
4. Which character best serves as Shaw's
spokesman?
5. Shaw rejected romanticism and embraced realism. How
realistic is Arms and the Man? How much of it is
"unrealistic"?
6. How does Sergius' view of war differ from
Bluntschli's?
7. Other than being used for his farcical
actions, how does Nicola function in the drama?
8. Is Louka's entrapment of Sergius believable?
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