Arms and the Man: An Anti-Romantic Comedy PDF

# How far is Arms and the Man an antiromantic comedy? ## Romanticism - Romances have been popular throughout literary history. - The term "romantic" refers to the flowering fancies on bravery, honour, duty, and love. - Raina's dreamy world and Sergius's knightly bravery exemplify romantic ideals....

# How far is Arms and the Man an antiromantic comedy? ## Romanticism - Romances have been popular throughout literary history. - The term "romantic" refers to the flowering fancies on bravery, honour, duty, and love. - Raina's dreamy world and Sergius's knightly bravery exemplify romantic ideals. - Bluntschli, the realistic genius of the Swiss fugitive, shatters these romanticized ideals. - This is Shaw's iconoclastic purpose, making the play an anti-romantic work. ## Shaw's Purpose - Shaw makes us laugh, but there's a serious intention to make us think. - He shows how people ruin their lives through romantic ideals. - The intellectual downsizes the knightly brave Sergius, his irrational cavalry against the Serbian machine-guns is nothing more than a quixotic nonsense. ## Turning Point - Raina begins to act rationally: she lies to save Bluntschli. - These acts go against accepted societal values. - She seems a liar and unpatriotic. - However, Sergius keeps up his unrealistic persona. He expects Raina to not look at other men. He despises himself for being attracted to other women. - He marries Louka because of a pledge made in a moment of excitement, showcasing the heavy cost of romantic ideals. ## Shaw's Definition of Romantic - Shaw believes that one ought to see the world as it really is. - Unrealistic ideals distort one's view of life. - Therefore "romantic" in the play refers not to love, but to larger than life, idealistic, heroic, and importantly, unrealistic and escapist ideals. ## Romantic View - The play mocks the romantic views of love: both Raina and Sergius claim to champion their higher love. Raina calls Sergius "my soul's hero." Sergius ranks Raina as the source of his inspiration. - But Sergius is revealed as a hypocrite to romantic morals when he flirts with Louka. Raina also sends her portrait secretly to Bluntschli. ## The Unrealistic Breed - Nicola, the manservant, represents the unrealistic breed. He expects Raina not to look at other men and despises himself for being attracted to other women. He marries Louka because of a pledge made in a moment of excitement. - This shows the heavy cost of romantic ideals. ## Anti-romantic Intentions - Shaw's anti-romantic intentions are clear through the militancy of realism. - The overuse of reality is seen when a fugitive soldier demands chocolates or when a military search fails to notice a pistol lying in their very eye. But an ignorant maid servant, Louka, notices it promptly. - Shaw makes the play much more vocal by changing its subtitle from "a romantic comedy" to "an anti-romantic comedy." ## Discussion and Action - The subjects on which the discussions are based are love, war, and marriage, all explored through action. - The first act arranges a discussion between the realistic (Blunstchli) and the romantic (Raina). - This is a discussion with great psychological interest. ## The Entrance of Bluntschli - Shaw employs the "stock" situation of Bluntschli entering Raina’s bedchamber at night. - Fiction explodes into intensifying dramatic effect. Raina first hears shots and blows out the candle, leaving her room dark, except for the starlight seen through the slits at the top of the shutters. From there the audience sees a silhouette of a man in the window space. Then the shutters close and the audience hears a voice panting. - Raina cries out and the voice warns her. The man is caked with blood and snow on his badly torn military clothes. ## The Metdramatic Thrills - The melodramatic thrills subside and the dramatist settles to discussion. The next action of the military search plays with the contention which runs until Bluntschli becomes Raina's "poor darling" through this sharp witted discussions. - There is no need for action when ideas are as interesting. ## Nicola and Louka - Shaw uses Nicola and [Louka](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louka) to represent contrasting character types. Nicola is a materialistic manservant employed in the Petkoffs for a decade, but he has romantic convictions. Louka is a hot-tempered, proud, and idealistic girl, expert at the falsity of romantic posturing. She knows how to make use of the idealism of others. - Nicola warns Louka that if she quarrels with the Petkoffs, he will not marry her, because he needs the family’s business when he opens his shop in [Sophia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia,_Bulgaria). - Louka mocks Nicola and accuses him of having the soul of a servant. - Nicola is more clever and manages to trick her into revealing what she knows about Raina and Bluntschli. ## Blunstchli - Bluntschli calls Nicola the “ablest man” he has met in Bulgaria. - However, Louka is a medium for the playwright's social commentary. She seems to be breaking social conventions. - Her marriage with Sergius provides an examination of aristocratic ideals, specifically how the brave spirit of the peasantry can be intertwined with the aristocratic ideals. Ultimately, the audience should see that the "ablest man" in Bulgaria does not win in the end. ## Raina and Louka - Shaw presents Raina as a silver spoon lady marked in bookish ideals. - Louka is a peasant, but she manipulates the idealism of others. - Raina is romantic, her idealized attitudes are systematized from social conditioning, but she has doubts. - Louka is a realist, she views love as a means to climb the social ladder and does not wear rose-colored glasses. ## The Coat - The coat is a key device in the play. It serves to: - Hide Bluntschli’s blood-splattered clothes when he escapes from Major Petkoff’s house. - Surface romance. When Blunstchli returns to the Petkoff’s house, and he brings the coat back, the audience discovers a new side to the practical captain. - Discover soldierly intelligence. Major Petkoff has been searching for his coat. Catherine tells him that it is in the closet, but he doesn’t believe her because he has already searched the closet himself. Nicola brings him the coat and says that it is in the closet, confusing him. - Derive a new woman. Raina puts a picture of herself, inscribed to the chocolate cream soldier, in the coat pocket. She is upset when she discovers that Blunstchli did not find it. Her attempts to retrieve it and her panicked reactions show the audience she is transforming into a new woman, capable of unethical deeds. - Carry out the conclusion. When Raina’s father discovers the picture and starts questioning her about it, he is trying to dismiss the incident by saying that she's too young to have acted too seriously. But Raina throws the picture in his face, demonstrating a new level of strength and revealing her attachment to Blunstchli. - Each time the coat appears, it heightens the tension and propels the play's dramatic narrative. # Conclusion - The coat is a successful device that encourages both laughter and at the same time gives energy to the plot. - Shaw's dialogue, influenced by [G.B Shaw](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw), raises serious issues about moral conduct and life.