Catherine
refers to ‘The Man’ as a “brute” and Raina refers to him as “the poor darling”
Explain why each calls him so and explain why they have such different opinions
of him.
Catherine refers to 'The Man' whom she sees sleeping soundly on Raina's bed as "the brute". She calls him a brute for many reasons.
She calls him a brute because he is dressed in the uniform of a Serbian officer and Catherine is a very patriotic Bulgarian citizen. We know that Catherine is strongly patriotic from her description of Serbs as "wretched" when she was describing their defeat in the battle at Slivnitza. She had also proclaimed the Bulgarians superior to the Serbs, Austrians and Russians when she declared to Raina "The Serbs have Austrian officers who are just as clever as the Russians; but we have beaten them in every battle for all that".
She also calls him a brute as he is filthy and he has even slept with his boots on Raina's lovely bed. We had been given a description of how soiled 'The man' and his uniform were by Shaw. He notes that 'The man' is "in a deplorable plight, bespattered with mud and blood and snow". We have also been told in the stage directions that 'The Man' had laid down on the bed "at full length; lifts his boots into the bed".Catherine, who definitely cared about her daughter so much - giving her a mantle which on a "moderate estimate" was worth "about three times the furniture of the room" would take great exception to her beloved daughter's bed been so dirtied.
Catherine would also have called 'The Man' a "brute" because she was scandalized that a strange man should be sleeping in her unmarried daughter's bed. Catherine, was not only as scandalized as any mother would have been in the circumstances, but Catherine was also very keen than the arrangement for Raina to be married to Sergius would take place and she did not want any scandal to break that arrangement. She was thus even more enraged on seeing 'The Man' lying on the bed.
Raina, on the other hand had begun to pity 'The Man' more and more and thus she had called him "the poor darling". She calls him "poor" because she pitied him.
She had seen how hungry 'The man' had been as he had "ravenously" "gobbled" up the last three chocolate creams which she had.
He was so nervous that he was easily scared - when Raina cried out in shock at having sat on a revolver, 'The Man' had "shied away like a frightened horse" and he had asked her not to make any sudden movements like snatching the empty box of chocolate creams from him as he was "all nerves" beacuse he had not slept in three days.
The experience of being on the battle front had so emotionally weakened him that he had told her that she would see him cry if she only scolded him !
She had seen that he was so exhausted that he could hardly stand and keep his eyes open, even when she commanded him to do before calling for her mother to inform her of his presence.
We have thus seen that she feels very sorry for his pathetic condition.
However, Raina also uses the word "darling:" which reveals that her affections for him has also grown. We have already noted that Raina's affections had been obvious when she first said "I'll help you. I'll save you" and she "drags him" towards the window to save him from the first mob who came to the house. But later she expresses her affections even more strongly to him when firing signals another group of pursuers and she says "I'll save you. Oh, how can you be so indifferent! You want me to save you, don't you?".
Catherine refers to 'The Man' whom she sees sleeping soundly on Raina's bed as "the brute". She calls him a brute for many reasons.
She calls him a brute because he is dressed in the uniform of a Serbian officer and Catherine is a very patriotic Bulgarian citizen. We know that Catherine is strongly patriotic from her description of Serbs as "wretched" when she was describing their defeat in the battle at Slivnitza. She had also proclaimed the Bulgarians superior to the Serbs, Austrians and Russians when she declared to Raina "The Serbs have Austrian officers who are just as clever as the Russians; but we have beaten them in every battle for all that".
She also calls him a brute as he is filthy and he has even slept with his boots on Raina's lovely bed. We had been given a description of how soiled 'The man' and his uniform were by Shaw. He notes that 'The man' is "in a deplorable plight, bespattered with mud and blood and snow". We have also been told in the stage directions that 'The Man' had laid down on the bed "at full length; lifts his boots into the bed".Catherine, who definitely cared about her daughter so much - giving her a mantle which on a "moderate estimate" was worth "about three times the furniture of the room" would take great exception to her beloved daughter's bed been so dirtied.
Catherine would also have called 'The Man' a "brute" because she was scandalized that a strange man should be sleeping in her unmarried daughter's bed. Catherine, was not only as scandalized as any mother would have been in the circumstances, but Catherine was also very keen than the arrangement for Raina to be married to Sergius would take place and she did not want any scandal to break that arrangement. She was thus even more enraged on seeing 'The Man' lying on the bed.
Raina, on the other hand had begun to pity 'The Man' more and more and thus she had called him "the poor darling". She calls him "poor" because she pitied him.
She had seen how hungry 'The man' had been as he had "ravenously" "gobbled" up the last three chocolate creams which she had.
He was so nervous that he was easily scared - when Raina cried out in shock at having sat on a revolver, 'The Man' had "shied away like a frightened horse" and he had asked her not to make any sudden movements like snatching the empty box of chocolate creams from him as he was "all nerves" beacuse he had not slept in three days.
The experience of being on the battle front had so emotionally weakened him that he had told her that she would see him cry if she only scolded him !
She had seen that he was so exhausted that he could hardly stand and keep his eyes open, even when she commanded him to do before calling for her mother to inform her of his presence.
We have thus seen that she feels very sorry for his pathetic condition.
However, Raina also uses the word "darling:" which reveals that her affections for him has also grown. We have already noted that Raina's affections had been obvious when she first said "I'll help you. I'll save you" and she "drags him" towards the window to save him from the first mob who came to the house. But later she expresses her affections even more strongly to him when firing signals another group of pursuers and she says "I'll save you. Oh, how can you be so indifferent! You want me to save you, don't you?".
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