Sunday 28 February 2016

WK BK PG 69 TO 71

13 (i) : It was Raina who had sarcastically when returning The man's revolver to him, asked him to take it and protect himself from her !
            Raina had spoken sarcastically as she sees that the man definitely does not meet her expectations of who a true soldier should be. In this case, when raina had sat on the pistol and had let out a shriek, the Man "shied like a frightened horse to the other side of the room". He comes across to her as a soldier with no courage who is easily frightened and she begins to feel more at ease and not scared of his intrusion of this stranger into her room.

(ii) : The man says that the revolver is of no use to him because it is not loaded and that he has no ammunition for it. He did not seem to have any use for it even when he was in a combat role as even then he didn't carry ammunition to use it but only chocolate !
         Earlier in the play when he had entered Raina's room, he had threatened Raina with the revolver warning her that if she gave his presence away he would fire the revolver and shoot her ! In so doing he bought himself some relief and a hiding place from the pursuing Bulgarian mob and soldiers.

(iii) : The man says that he prefers to carry chocolates instead of ammunition into the battlefield because he (surprisingly for a soldier) does not see the use of ammunition when at war. To him chocolates are more useful. I presume he means that when it comes to saving oneself, keeping oneself from starving on the battlefield is a priority for him. It seems that more experienced soldiers know that one can die more surely of starvation than being killed by the enemy on a battlefield !
         His explanation tells us that at war the soldier's basic needs are often not met and that soldiers had better look out for themselves at least as much as they look to perform their duty on the battlefield. In fact, according to him, more experienced soldiers ensure that they carry enough food int battle rather than enough ammunition, leaving it to the younger soldiers to carry that for them !

(iv) : Raina calls the Man a school boy for filling his pockets with chocolates, which to her is a very childish thing to do and totally soldierly like. In so doing, Raina shows her disgust for him for being so soldierly like,
         It tells us that Raina is a realist - she cannot understand how a soldier can carry out his duty if he does not carry ammunition and does not feel that carrying ammunition into war is of any use. However, Raina is being shocked by the man into realizing that there is an unromantic side to war, where soldiers are hungry and often go without food and that soldiers also need to realistically look after their own well being.

(v) : Raina's ideals of manhood have been developed by her upbringing in her family. She has been given to understand that any man of any real worth must be a soldier (as her father and fiance are). She is also been educated to believe that true soldiers are patriotic and self sacrificing and chivalrous - thus she and her mother are full of praise of Sergius whose action in battel has been portrayed so heroically by Catherine.
        Raina gets offended as it is absurd to her that there could be any true soldier who is not patriotic and not fired by a zeal to kill his enemies (and thus goes into battle fully prepared to meet and crush his enemy - with guns, ammunition, etc.). She is offended because if she were to accept what the man was telling her about soldiers, she might have to rethink the pride she has in her father being a major in the army and her fiance being the hero of the war !.

(vi) : I agree that the man is a realist but I believe that he is overstating the behaviour of soldiers. to emphasize that war and soldiership is not the romantic dream which Raina seems to have . I agree that soldiers to face the situation when food supplies cannot get to them because of heavy fighting and that because such circumstances are so common, soldiers to carry chocolate. But he overstates the case by saying that they carry no ammunition and that ammunition is of no use.
        Raina has romantic notions of war and soldiers. The man does shock her by revealing to her that there are sides to war - like soldiers facing starvation on the battlefield which she has to get to acknowledge. But Raina is so "outraged" because she as yet needs to understand that the man is exaggerating to make a point.

Thursday 25 February 2016

WK BK PG 67 TO 69

12.(i) : 'The Man' tells Raina not to hate him because he is very grateful and indebted to her for saving his life by not giving him up, she seemed to him like and angel sent to deliver him at the time when he faced almost certain death. He thus wanted her to understand that he was not her enemy nor the enemy of her country and that he did not have anything against the Bulgarian people and that he was not her and her country's enemy.

(ii) : The Man says that he joined the Serbian army because he was a "professional soldier" - a mercenary. He thus was willing to fight for any army which would pay for his services. The Serbians were the first army that had come his way and hired him and thus he had joined their army.
         It tells us that The Man looks at soldiering in a very new way. He sees it as a profession just like any other profession and that he will give his services to those who pay him for it. He thus has an anti-romantic character, not seeing war in the old romantic way as a patriot fighting for love of his country. Because of his way of thinking is so new, those who are unused to such thinking may consider him as a person without patriotic feelings or respect for human life.

(iii) : The Man wants Raina to be generous as she is a;ready satisfied because her country had defeated the Serbians in the battle at Slivnitza completely "Beaten us hollow".
          Raina proclaims that she has been generous because she has indeed been very generous, even to the point of risking being taken as a traitor to her own country for giving refuge and hiding the enemy soldier. She has done this in spite of the soldier having threatened to kill her and had taken her mantle for some time as futher protection against her giving away his presence.

(iv) : The Man describes Raina hiding him and not revealing him from the soldiers of her own army, putting herself and her reputation at risk in doing so as being noble and heroic.
          The man says that he is not saved as as he realises that only one group of Bulgarians pursuing the fleeing Serbian soldiers has passed. He believes that "in fits and starts" other groups also pursuing the same persons will also be a threat to him and would require him to find some means of saving himself.

(v) : By saying "this particular rush will soon pass through", the Man means that this mob of blood thirsty, aggressive and noisy Bulgarians seeking out fleeing enemy Serbian soldiers would, now that they have not found the person they were looking for, leave and go ahead in search of other such fugitives.

(vi) The Man needs to take a chance to leave Raina's house before someone else insists that they indeed did see a Serbian fugitive climb into the Petkoff's house and they do come and make a more thorough search of the house and find him. He wants to sneak out of the house in the gap between two search parties. He wants to get into safety by leaving Raina's house, but he requests her to rest for a few moments before he does so.




WK BK PG 66 TO 67

11 (i) : 'The Man' is referring to his not been found hiding behind the curtain in Raina's room by the Russian officer whom Raina's mother, Catherine had invited to check Raina's room as there had been a suspicion that an enemy Serb who was on the run had climbed up the pipe of the house entered the room. So many things could have happened - like the officer might have wanted to check the room more thoroughly, or the bullets which had been fired during the time the officer had come might have struck 'The Man' through the curtain, etc., etc.
             Thus 'The Man' had come very close to being found and thus he refers to his not being found as "a narrow shave".

(ii) : The Man thanks Raina, because Raina had hid him behind the curtain. She had made sure that the Russian officer did not look behind the curtain, by standing directly in front of it and she did not flinch when the firing took place and shattered a pane of glass just next to where The man was hiding. raina had also strongly denied the claim that any fugitive had entered her room and stated that she was sure that no fugitive could have got into her room as she had not been to bed. All this behaviour had convinced the Russian officer that those who had claimed to see a fugitive climbing up the pipe into the room were only imagining and he left the room in a sort time.

(iii) : 'The Man' wished that he had joined the Bulgarian army because he wanted to express how thankful he was to Raina for saving him and in so saying that he should have joined the Bulgarian army he convey the sense that if Raina is an example of the Bulgarian people he would like to be in association with such fine human beings.
         The "other one" is the opposing army - the Serbian army which 'The Man' had joined because they were the first to ask for his services.

(iv) : Raina claims that the man is Austrian because the Man is wearing the uniform of a Serbian officer and if he is not Serbian she believes that he would surely be Austrian as the Austrians were allied to the Serbians in the was against the Bulgarians.

(v) : raina says that she hates the Austrians because, she clams that the Austrians had mislead the Serbians and instigated them to  age a war and rob the Bulgarians of their freedom. She also hated the Austrians because the Austrians were helping the Serbians in their war against by the Bulgarians by leading the Serbian army as their officers.

(vi) : The reality which this extract portrays about the act of soldiering is that mercenaries fight wars as professional soldiers for the sake of money and sometimes they could be fighting against really kind and good people, whom they might regret fighting against when they get to know them.In addition, it tells us that nations like Austria, fight proxy wars against other nations to further their own advantage. 

Tuesday 23 February 2016

WK BK PGS 90 TO 91

24 (i): The speaker in this context is 'The Man' - the Swiss mercenary who had joined the Serbian army and who was in the artillery regiment that had been defeated by Sergius' cavalry regiment in the battle at Slivnitza. He had after that battle with others in his regiment fled through the Dragoman Pass and had come to the town in which the Petkoff's lived. Looking for refuge he had cli,bed up the pipe into the bedroom of Raina, who had given him refuge up to this time.
             Raina, the daughter of Major Paul and Catherine Petkoff into whose room 'The man' had entered had now told him that he had to leave as she was doing the "soldierly thing".
             Raina had told the Man to leave whereas before she had given him refuge and hidden him from her country's soldier and their Russian officer and even thus far from her mother, because 'The Man' had spoken of badly about her fiance Sergius, the officer who had led his cavalry regiment and attacked and defeated the Srerbian artillery regiment. 'The Man' had called Sergius a "fool", compared him to Don Quixote and noted that the manner in which he had acted wads unprofessional revealing a total lack of knowledge of the art of war. These opinions of the person to whom she was shortly to be married, had offended her and she decided to change her compassionate manner in which she had received him to a "professional" manner. Thus, she had asked him to leave as he was the enemy of her country.

(ii) : The speaker explained his change of attitude to Raina, saying that he had come up the pipe in fear for his life when he was being chased by the bloodthirsty Bulgarian mob and soldiers who were shooting and chasing the fleeing Serbian soldiers. Thus, the fear had given him the energy he now doesn't have. After being made to feel so welcome by Raina who had not only saved him but even given him her last three remaining chocolate creams, his fear had passed and now the fatigue he felt after being two days without sleep had nearly overcome him. Thus he was afraid of going down the pipe.

(iii) : 'The Man' says that he gives up and is beaten because he is so tired that if he attempted to go down the pipe he would not have energy either to go down the pipe or to keep running to save his life from the Bulgarian mob and soldiers who would once again be after him. He thus preferred that Raina give the alarm and that he surrenders to the Bulgarian army.
           However, he also says this to win over Raina. By saying these words he admits that she had played a master stroke in challenging him to leave. She had thus beaten him in this exchange of words. 'The Man' is shrewd enough to know that he has already begun to win over Raina's heart and that she will not give enough - an attitude revealed when she says "but I will go out to the balcony and see if it is safe for you to climb down into the street".

(iv) : I think that the speaker's act of giving up both justifies and does not justify Raina's statement earlier in the lay that he is unchivalrous.
         Earlier in the play, Raina had said that 'The Man' was unchivalrous as unlike courageous soldiers he had said that he was afraid to die. By giving up rather than putting up a fight and being killed in battle the man could be considered unchivalrous. However, the Man had also said that if he was captured the Bulgarians would treat him shamefully and he did not want that - thus he knows that he is in for rough treatment and still he is willing to face it - this shows that he is chivalrous !

(v) : Raina had been relating to 'The Man' in an ideal way. She had set aside the realistic (normal) way most people would have reacted (as did her mother - when Raina had said that she did not understand why people should kill wretched fugitives - her mother had replied that if the tables were turned the Serbs would do the same to the Bulgarians). She has decided to give an enemy refuge because she had seen the romantic play Ernani in which a nobleman gives refuge to his enemy. When Raina finds that the person whom she had saved is not so sensitive to her feelings nor respectful of the Bulgarian officer (who was also to be soon to be married to her) who had defeated his regiment in battle, she is shaken out of her idealism for a very short while and decides to deal in a "professional" (realistic) manner with 'The Man' by demanding that he leaves the safety of her room immediately.
       We sense that her realism is also activated by her realisation that she has to get rid of the fugitive before other people realise that she had betrayed her country by hiding him from her country soldiers. Thus she exclaims shortly after this quotation "But what am I to do with you ?"






EK BK PG 88 TO 89

23 (i) : raina calls the Man her enemy because he was a mercenary fighting for the Serboiand against the Bulgarians. Raina was a Bulgarian. The Man had forced himself into her room and while raina had hid him from the Rusian officer and the Bulgarians soldiers who had come to look for him, she was not angry and hurt that he had spoken poorly of her future husband, even comparing his (Sergius') action at the battle of Slivnitza to Don Quixote charging the windmills.

(ii) : The "good" Raina had done was to give the Man her remaining chocolate creams when he saidf that he was hungry. She had given the Man refuge in her room when he had forcibly entered and threatened her. She had hid him from the Russian officer, the Bulgarian soldiers and her mother when they had come to see if an enemy soldier had taken refuge in her bedroom.
         It tells us that Raina is an exceptionally brave woman. She is not easily made afraid, even when a soldier points a gun at her ! It also tells us that she is compassionate : she had been informed that some of the defeated Serb soldiers were fleeing for their lives through the town and thus when the Man sought refuge in her room she gave him that security, which shows her compassion.

(iii) : The man describes as "unsoldierly" her giving in to his wish to eact some cholcolates. raina gave The Man the last three of her chocolate creams. It was "unsoldierly" for The Man - a professional soldier to be longing for chocolate rather than victory over his enemies. It was "unsoldierly" for Raina who would now like to act as a "professional soldier" to have given him chocolate creams when she should have handed him over to the members of her country's army who cam,e looking for him.
         It was 'angelic" because in Raina giving him the chocolate creams she had brought a moment of kindness to the distressful experience he had had especially when his regiment was routed in the Battle at Silvnitza, but also his distasteful life in the army - experiences of which he had been narrating to Raina.

(iv) : Raina says "now I will do the soldierly thing" in response to The Man claiming that sergius had acte unprofessionally in the way he had won the battle at Slivnitza. Raina had been offended that The Man after he had benefited from her hospitality so greatly had ridiculed her finance. She had taken the decision not to act in response to her feelings of compassion for his situation and to send him out of her room and home to face his enemies.

(v) : Raina had said earlier that her future husband showed "sheer ignorance of the art of war" and had acted in an unprofessional manner by leading his cavalry regiment against the Serbian artillery regiment. He had said that "Of all the fools let loose on a field of battle, that man must have been the very maddest". He compared Sergius to Don Quixote.All this had offended Raina who had been completely convinced that Sergius had shown heroic courage by risking his life and leading his regiment to victory.

(vi) : The two contrary statements tell us that Raina is caught between her feelings of compassion for a defeated soldierly seeking refuge with her or otherwise facing certain capture and possibly death and her duty to her nation and to her fiance in turning over the enemy soldier. She is also caught between her fascination with this man who soes not seek to romanticise himself to her and her conviction so shortly before that Sergius was indeed the right person for her to get married to.