ACT 2 WK BK NO 10 PGS 133 TO 135

ACT 2 WK BK NO 10 PGS 133 TO 135

(i)                  Catherine tells Sergius that everyone is mad about him because Sergius was the hero of the battle at Slivnitza, having led his country too victory over their enemies – the Serbians. In that battle Sergius had personally led the charge and shown the mettle of Bulgarian soldiers by defying their Russian officers.

(ii)                Sergius had seen that the Bulgarians at Slivntza seemed to be no challenge to the Serbians, as the Bulgarians had cavalry regiments while the Serbians had artillery regiments ranged against them. Seeing the unequal status, the Russian officers had held back the Bulgarian forces. Sergius, however, took matters into his own hands and defying the Russian officers personally led his regiment into an attack against the Serbian artillery positions. The tactic seemed to have paid off as the Bulgarian cavalry regiment defeated the Serbian artillery regiment. The Serbian artillery regiment was not able to fire even a single shot at the cavalry regiment. The Bulgarian cavalry regiment had routed the Serbian regiment and sent them fleeing. The victory of the Bulgarians in that battle brought the Serbians to negotiating table.

(iii)               By saying that “it was the cradle and grave of my military reputation”, Sergius means that his role in the Bulgarian victory at Slivnitza brought him fame for having brought his country to victory, but since he had won the battle in an unconventional manner, his fellow soldiers far from thinking him great thought he was unfit as an officer and thus he was not rewarded with promotion in rank.

(iv)              Sergius says that he won the battle the wrong way because strategy in war means ensuring that before taking on the enemy one’s forces have a reasonable chance of victory. In the battle at Slivnitza, Sergius action seemed suicidal as normally a cavalry regiment would have been blown into pieces long before they even reached the artillery regiment lines. Thus it seemed that Sergius had taken a wrong military decision even though his action won h battle.

(v)                We have only Catherine’s and Raina’s accounts of Sergius earlier in the play. In those accounts, it seems that Sergius had an heroic and romantic view of war and battle, very similar to the sentiments expressed by Catherine. Such views would include that fighting and putting one’s life on the line for one’s country was the patriotic thing to do.

       However, here, it seems that Sergius’ romantic view of soldership and battle have been dashed and that he is disillusioned about army life. In his opinion people are promoted in the army because of favouritism – e.g. colonels who lost their battles being promoted and he having won a battle not being promoted.

(vi)              This extract highlights the theme of idealisation of war particularly from the expressed opinions of Catherine especially in her praise of Sergius in the opening lines of the quotation.

       However, the reality and disillusionment is expressed by Sergius.