CLASS 12 LIT : ARMS AND THE MAN : QS

On the 5th May '14, at the Literature class we continued looking at the answer to one of the essay type questions given to you for the 1st card test.

In an attempt to help you understand how an answer is to be written I have been giving you a draft answer.

Today we went through a few more paragraphs.

Please look at the paragraphs below before our next class.

Act 2 of the play Arms and The Man brings to a climax the action of the drama. Elaborate.

Act 1 of the play, Arms and The Man, introduced us to the main characters and the themes of the play. Shaw has described the play as an ‘An Anti-Romantic Comedy’ and, thus, we were also introduced to the romance in the play. We were introduced to the desire of a seemingly ‘perfect’ couple : Raina and Sergius, who intended to get married and were only waiting for the inconvenience of a war with Serbia to realize their dreams ! Catherine and Paul Petkoff, the parents of Raina, were only too delighted that their only daughter had been engaged to a dashingly handsome military major. They would soon be joined in matrimony, an act which would enhance the Petkoff’s standing in Bulgarian society. In the sub-plot Nicola and Louka were also intent on getting married, as soon as their employment in this prominent household would secure them enough funds to set up their own business and get the right clientele. They, too, though especially Nicola, were looking forward to a bright, more prosperous and independent future.

A minor inconvenience seemed to occur in Act 1 when a fugitive from the defeated Serbian army took refuge in Raina’s room. Raina seemed, in the interaction, to have met the man who matched her own intellect and with whom she could have a real rather than an idealistic relationship. However, with the exit of ‘The Man’ after the end of Act 1, Catherine, and probably her daughter, presumed that that was the last they had seen of the ‘The Man’ and that the episode, and all its implications, was put behind them. They might have considered that they could well pick up the strings of their lives which had been temporarily twisted. Nicola and Louka were equipped with a secret which would ensure that Catherine and Raina would treat them with additional respect.

However, Act 2, truly brings to a climax the action of the drama. The expected outcomes that the characters were so sure would occur seem doomed to failure. Nicola and Louka seem to be very incompatible. Nicola is a pragmatist who has calculated his every move to securing his objective. Louka accuses him of having “no spirit” and having “the soul of a servant” she protests “you’ll never put the soul of a servant into me.” We have no doubt that the truly ‘modern’ Louka, who in performing the work of a servant (with an attitude !) does not confuse her job with her status as a human person.

Sergius astounds both Catherine and Paul Petkoff when he announces his resignation from the army. In one stroke he cuts down one of the pillars of their conviction that he would be the ideal husband for their daughter. Even the hero worship on Catherine’s part : “You look superb !”, “Everybody here is mad about you” and “The women are on your side; they will see that justice is done you” cannot get him to change his decision. He begins to echo very similar sentiments about war and soldiering to ‘The Man’ in Act 1 : “soldiering is the coward’s act of attacking mercilessly when you are strong….”

But the real crisis occurs after Raina has joined Sergius and her parents in the garden and Sergius and Paul Petkoff share with the women their experience of a truly interesting “Swiss fellow”. Catherine and Raina are immediately apprehensive and Raina enquires “Are there many Swiss officers in the Serbian army ?”. She would like to be doubly sure that and asks again, “What was he like ?”. However when Sergius tells the whole story “quite a romance” noting that “The young lady was enchanted” and that “The old lady was equally fascinated” ! Catherine and Raina are left with no doubt that what they had thought was their secret was known and known to the two very persons from whom they would like to keep that information furthest away.