ACT 2 WK BK NO 5 PGS 123 TO 125

ACT 2 WK BK NO 5 PGS 123 TO 125

(i)                  Catherine is talking about the surprise of seeing her husband Paul who is a major in the Bulgarian army back home from the war. She is both surprised that he has returned home so soon after the war ended and that he is home so early in the day – she has had to shorten her morning toilet and rush oout to meet him.

(ii)                That Catherine asks whether her husband has been served some fresh coffee tells us that she is a caring wife – as we have been told before in the play – her “house keeping iinstincts” are very strong.

(iii)               The war Major Petkoff is talking about is the recent war the Bulgarians have been fighting against the Serbians, which ended with the Serbians being defeated at the Battle at Slivnitza. Major Petkoff was fighting on the Bulgarian side and he was the Bulgarian with the highest rank in the army – the higher officers being Russians as the officers on the Serbian side were Austrian.

(iv)              The treaty being referred to was the treaty signed by the Bulgarians and Serbians through their officers the Russians and Austrians respectively at Bucharest, following the defeat of the Serbian army at Sivnitza. The treaty had been signed three days previous to Paul sharing the information with Catherine.

      According to Paul Petkoff the war between the two countries was thus over and a decree fot the Bulgarian army to demobilise had been issues.

       Under pressure from his wife, Paul states that the treaty was an honourable one and that while the treaty declared “peace” it did not mean that the two countries would have “friendly relations”.

(v)                Instead of signing a peace treaty Catherine would have hoped that following on their victory, the Bulgarians had capitalised on their advantage and annexed Serbia and made Prince Alexander of Bulgaria, Emperor of the Balkans.

         This tells us that Catherine is a strong and passionate personality. She is strongly patriotic. She does not give up her enmity easily.