ACT 1 WK BK NO 29 PGS 100 TO 102

ACT 1 WK BK NO 29 PGS 100 TO 102

(i)                  : Raina has seen the scene she refers to when she saw the opera of Ernani which she had either seen at Bucharest where she mentions she used to spend a month during the opera season. But she also mentions Vienna – so she might have seen the opera in that city.

        Raina tells ‘The Man’ about her seeing this scene and that she used to frequent Bucharest and Vienna each year, to impress upon ‘The Man’ that she and her mother and her family were more cultured than the rest of the Bulgarian population. She wants to impress upon ‘The Man’ that she is not the type of person like the ordinary blood thirsty Bulagrians who would kill him when they saw his Serbian uniform.

(ii ) : According to Raina, Ernani was trying to escape from his enemies like ‘The Man’ was doing. Ernani had sought refuge in the castle of his bitterest enemy a Castilian noble. Even though Ernani and the Castilian nobleman were the bitterest of enemies the old Castilian nobleman gave Ernani refuge and safety because it didn’t matter to the old Castilian nobleman who asked him refuge, once someone came for refuge to his home, the person whoseoever it might be would be give protection and safety. Thus Raina is comparing ‘The Man’ to Ernani and the old Castilian nobleman to herself.

(iii)               : The notion that ‘The Man’ is talking about is the notion acted out by the old Castilian nobleman in the opera of Ernani. The notion that one is expected to welcome anyone in need and especially one who is danger of losing one’s life. The noble notion is that the person who gives refuge guarantees the person’s safety.

         Raina has this notion. Her mother, Catherine, goes along with Raina, though I would think, less willingly and they disguise ‘The Man’ hiding his Serbian uniform under the coat of the master of the house and so ensuring ‘The Man’s’ safety from those who might want to kill him.

(iv)              : Raina suggests to ‘The Man’ that rather threatening her with his pistol, he had only to beg for their hospitality and her mother and herself would have given it to him. She says that he would have been as safe as if he had been in his own father’s house.

(v)                : I believe that Raina saves the man more because she is attracted to him rather than because of her hospitality because ‘The Man’, who is a very perceptive person told the story of his escape to Sergius and Paul and in Sergius account of the story he had mentioned that the two women who had given him refuge were both “enchanted” by ‘The Man’. But Raina has been so educated in Romantic ways that she probably feels some obligation to save this soldier who is in such “deplorable plight”

(vi)              Later ‘The Man’ informs Raina and her parents that he is so rich that they comare his circumstances to that of a King – they humourously refer to him as the “king of Switzerland”. He also tells them that he has the rank of an officer and the “standing of a gentleman”, besides having won four medals for outstanding service.