ACT 1 WK BK NO 27 PG 95 TO 97
(i)
: In this extract, Raina tells ‘The Man’ her
family name : they are the Petkoff’s. She adds that her family are the richest
and the best known family in Bulgaria. She also informs him at the end of the
quote that her father is a Major in the Bulgarian army - the highest position given too any Bulgarian
in their national army.
It suggests that Raina is proud of who she is and to which family she
belongs to. It also shows that Raina is using her family name and status to try
and impress upon the stranger that she is someone extraordinary.
(ii)
: Raina says that ‘The Man’ is pretending to know
the Petkoff’s because when she mentioned the name – he was taken completely by
surprise and had said (before this quotation) ; “A pet what?” – showing that as
he was a foreigner he did not know the name and fame of the family to which she
belonged.
(iii)
‘The Man’ asks forgiveness from Raina because he
did not want to hurt her feelings – she had just decided to save him for the
second time and he did not want to annoy her as he had done previously when he
had spoken negatively of Sergius. In saying “A et what?” he had even
unwittingly, made a joke about her family name. He thus asks forgiveness.
(iv)
According to Raina, if she scolded ‘The Man’ he
would cry. ‘The Man’ and Raina had had a similar conversation before and the
man had told Raina that he was easily moved to tears, telling her that his
regiment used to make fun of him.
This tells us that man in spite of being a soldier is a very sensitive
person. It may also mean that he is pretending to be so in order to gain the
sympathy of Raina – in which case he is very clever and knows how to win a
lady’s heart.
(v)
: Her father : Paul Petkoff has achieved his
position of Major in the Bulgarian army because he is the head of the richest
and most famous family in the country and not for his skills as a soldier.
Later in Act 2 in the introduction given to him by Bernard Shaw it is mentioned
he is greatly pleased with the military rank “which the war has thrust upon him
as a man of consequence in the town”. This means that probably in the recent
war with the Serbs he was raised to that military rank because he was a
respected Bulgarian citizen. The higher military ranks were given to Russian
officers who apparently knew more about soldering.
(vi)
From what we know of ‘The Man’ up to this part
of the play, the man is a poor soldier fleeing for his life from his enemy
soldier, he is trapped in enemy territory and needs to fear the blood thirsty
mobs who hate him. Thus he he is in a desperate predicament as Shaw pointed out
to us when he introduced ‘The Man’ when he entered Raina’s room. Later however,
we find that he is a person of great wealth and Paul Petkoff is keen that his
daughter is given to a person of such outstanding wealth. However, at this
moment of the play, the Petkoff’s are incomparably in a more fortuitous
position than ‘The Man’.
When
Raina decides to marry Bluntschli, she clearly states that she fell in love
with her chocolate cream soldier and not with the “Emperor of Switzerland”. In
addition when it comes to practical matters of organisation and military
matters Shaw shows Bluntschli to be an extremely able man even when Sergius and
Paul have no idea of his wealth. That Shaw shows that ability and social status
have no connection.
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