WK BK PGS 62 TO 64

9 (i) : The "idea" the Man is talking about is the idea as to how to ensure that made so scared that she will not reveal his position to either the people in the house or to the Bulgarian people and soldiers who are after the Serb fugitives. He decides that the best idea is not to threaten Raina with being killed but by working on her sense of modesty that she will not wish to see strange and bloodthirsty men see her in her "undress" in only her night gown - he realises that Raina is most vulnerable in this way.
         He calls the idea "good" because Raina may be patriotic enough to risk being shot and killed but she would surely fear seeing drunken and bloodthirsty men in the vulnerable position of being dressed only in her night gown.

(ii) : The man considers the cloak a better weapon than the revolver because Raina would surely feel more vulnerable in her being not suitably dressed to have strange, drunken and bloodthirsty men enter her room. It would probably work more effectively on Raina from keeping her from revealing his presence in her room.
         Just after he makes this decision 'The Man' reveals that anyhow his revolver had no bullets so in reality it was no deterrent. Later Louka enters and describes the crowd at the door as "so wild and drunk and furious" and even Catherine, ensures that only the Russian officer who knew Sergius would enter her daughter's bedroom when she was in such a state of undress.

(iii) : Raina says that "it is not the weapon of a gentleman" because she believes in the romantic notion of the chivalry men who rely on recognised weapons of defense against an enemy and would never exploit the vulnerability of a woman to secure their safety. This is what the  man seems to be doing by making her his defence.

(iv) : Raina thinks very poorly of the man in this extract. She believes that he is ungentlemanly.
         Raina has the romantic notion of how men should relate to women. Raina expects a higher degree of chivalry from a soldier. But 'The Man' is everything she thinks a soldier should not be : he is scared of dying; he threatens a woman with a gun and now he uses her vulnerability as his defence.

(v) : The reason for the "sharp fusillade in the street" was that the Bulgarian soldiers had probably seen a fleeing Serb soldier and had fired at him with the purpose of killing him.
        The effect this has on the man is that he realises that death for him could come very soon as his pursuers are very close ("the chill of immanent death"), and he lowers his tone of voice and he becomes even more concerned for his safety and thus wishes to ensure that he is not handed over by Raina, and so he attempts to make her save him having her fear for her own safety.

(vi) : Only the the Russian officer leading the :blackguards" is allowed into Raina's room by Raina's mother and she and Louka are only allowed in after "the man' hands Raina her cloak back as the "blackguards" had come to the house and were in danger of breaking into her room if Riana did not open up. Raina had, however, by that time hidden 'The Man' and had thrown the cloak on the ottoman in an act to convince those who had entered that she had been roused from her sleep.

ACT 1 NO 22 PGS 86 TO 88

22 (i) : ‘The Man’ apologises to Raina as all this time he had been making a joke of the leader of the Bulgarian cavalry regiment who had charged his artillery regiment. He had compared that leader to Don Quixote, he had said that “of all the fools let loose on a field of battle, that man must be the very maddest”. He had said this not knowing that that cavalry regiment leader was Raina’s fiancé. He had not meant to offend her after she had been so kind to him and thus is really sad and offered his apology with true remorse.

                     

(ii) : ‘The Man’ comically tries to take back what he had said about the leader of the Bulgarian cavalry regiment. He tries to say that his perception of the events must have been wrong and that that leader, since he must have been obviously greater than he seemed to have shown himself to be – as such a wonderful person like Raina would surely be marrying someone as wonderful as she was.

(iii) : :”get wind of” is a phrase means to have heard an unconfirmed report – a rumour.

          ‘The Man’ tries to explain Sergius’ behaviour by saying that having found out what no one else had, that the artillery regiment before them could not fire on them because they did not have the right ammunition (- the “cartridge business’ – the artillery regiment had been supplied with the wrong cartridges and could not be resupplied for at least another ten minutes). He was thus not leading his cavalry regiment on a suicidal mission but striking the enemy when they were in a weak position.

(iv) : ‘The Man’ is referring to the cavalry charge against the Serbian artillery regiment, which to everyone seemed a suicidal mission.

           “it” would have been a “safe job” if Sergius had known that the Serbian artillery regiment did not have the right ammunition and thus could not fire a shot in defence. If Sergius had known this he would have known that his regiment would not be destroyed before they reached their enemy.

(v) : To Raina, if the leader of the Bulgarian cavalry regiment which defeated ‘The Man’s’ artillery regiment (Sergius) had only attacked because he knew there would be no resistance and no chance of defeat, he would be a “pretender” because it made it seem that he was doing the daring thing whereas he knew it was “a safe job”. She calls him (the leader of the cavalry regiment) a “coward” because cowards only attack a weaker enemy and never take up an equal fight or a challenge.  

        In so saying the above, Raina shows that ‘The Man’ has only made his description of her fiancé more offensive to her.

(vi) : Raina accuses ‘The Man’ of not daring having offended her before she saved him from the Bulgarian soldiers and the blood thirsty Bulgarians came searching for him in her house. She says so because she means to tell him that if he had been so offensive before she would have given him up.

         The comment has no implication on the man’s character. ‘The Man’ had been very forthright I saying what he had truly thought of the leader of the Bulgarian cavalry regiment which had attacked his artillery regiment. He also seemed to act quite chivalrously by trying to excuse the man when he knew how significant he was to Raina.

ACT 1 WK BK NO 10 PGS 64 TO 66

10. (i) : By using the phrase “find out”, ‘The Man’ means to say that he will confront the Bulgarian soldiers and crowd in pursuit of him. ‘The Man’ had previously said that he would fight “like a demon” and he promised that her pretty room would be spoilt with the blood of war. Thus he wishes to say that the first person who comes will find that he is not going to be an easy victim he will fight until he dies as he will not be taken as their prisoner to be humiliated by them.

(ii) : ‘The Man’ Tells Raina to keep out of the way because he does not wish to have her hurt when it comes to a confrontation involving guns and swords between him the Bulgarian soldiers and others who come into the room.

(iii) : According to ‘The Man’ his defence against the pursuing Bulgarian soldiers and bloodthirsty pursuing crowd as he is only one person and he believes that even though he will put up a resistance, because he is only one, he will be easily defeated.

         It will not be “nice” because they will be fighting with swords (“sabres”). He had told Raina that “they” will “slaughter” him “like a pig”, he has warned her that her nice room will be spoilt.

(iv) : Raina wants to save ‘The Man’ for two reasons, firstly, she has been educated and brought up in the romantic ways of doing things and as she will explain later to ‘The Man’, to her, her guest is sacred, even if the guest is an enemy soldier.

        Another reason is that Raina has already been “enchanted” by ‘The Man’ , though she does not say as much now, but later in the report we hear from Sergius we come to know this. Also at the end of this first Act, Raina will call ‘The Man’, “the poor darling” revealing her affection for him. In addition Louka tells Sergius that she knows the real way eople act when they truly love each other and that Raina will marry ‘The Man’ when he return “whether he likes it or not !”

(v) : ‘The Man’ feels that “there is just half a chance” of his being saved if Raina “keeps her mind” meaning that if she does not get nervous when the soldiers enter the room and unwittingly give up the place where she has hidden him.

(vi) : Before Raina decides that she will save him, ‘The Man’ believes that he has been found out and defeated, because just before this passage ‘The Man’ has said that there was no use of his trying to force her to give him refuge as Louka was outside the door pleading with Raina to open the door or the soldiers would break it down. He also knew that being only one against so many he would be slaughtered like a pig because he would die defending himself. Thus he knows that his whereabouts have been located and that this will be his last but fateful stand.

WK BK PGS 196 TO 198

9 (i) : Bluntschli tells Raina that he admires her when she puts on that noble and attitude and thrilling voice and would have everyone believe that she is perfect. He admires her attempt to try and convince him and others that she is a very perfect person.

(ii) : Bluntschli says that he finds it impossible to believe any single word which Raina says because instinctually, he feels that she is putting on a show and not speaking the truth about herself. He also feels that she is not  telling the truth because he cannot believe, from his own experience, that she could have told so few lies in her life.

(iii): Raina couldn't believe Bluntschli's remarks about her because everyone else - from her nurse to her parents to Sergius, were totally taken in by her "noble attitude" and "thrilling voice". She was not used to someone not being bluffed by her pretense.

(iv) : Raina pretends to be offended at the remark made by Bluntschli that he finds it impossible to believe a single word she says. She is not so offended because in this extract itself, she suddenly changes her manner and asks him how he found her out, which means she knew what she was doing and was only trying her luck.

(v) : Bluntschli finds about Raina that she puts on a behaviour before people which is not her true self. She does this because she believes that she has to impress people and pretend that she is a perfect person. She believes that she must actually try and be the romantic, perfect person.
        Bluntschli finds her out by his instinct - his gut feeling that she is putting on a show and his "experience of the world" - his experience of people and how they behave.

(vi) : This extracts highlights the contract between romance an realism because Raina has been putting on a show all her life, pretending to be a perfect person (as only true in the romance stories). All those who had been around her had been letting her carry on with such a charade and they might even have been cultivating such behaviour in her. However, Bluntschli is Shaw's modern man who cuts through the farce of romance and believes that people should be straightforward and honest about themselves. Bluntschli has rubbished Raina's ideals of war and now he rubbishes her pretence to be a perfect lady.

XII WK BK PGS 194 TO 196

8. (i) : Bluntschli and Raina are talking about the claim that Raina had only two lies in her entire life. Raina had pretended offence that Bluntschli should have forgotten how she had told those two lies only for his sake. Bluntschli had explained that how as a soldier his forgetfulness should be understood. Raina had relied that if what Bluntschli had said was true, soldiers would become incapable of faith and gratitude.
          Bluntschli had then responded asking Raina whether she liked gratitude. He had remarked that "If pity is akin to love, gratitude is akin to the other thing".

   (ii) : Raina says that Bluntschli is incapable of any noble sentiment because Bluntschli had compared gratitude as being "akin" to "the other thing" - that is the opposite of love - hate. He had expressed a dislike of gratitude. He had said that soldiers take for granted that their lives will be saved in all sorts of ways by all sorts of people and thus don't necessarily express gratitude. He had been explaining his own forgetfulness of Raina having saved him twice,

(iii) : By telling Bluntschli that "even animals are grateful", Raina wishes to tell him that gratitude is intrinsic to every living creature. She was expressing her disgust at him claiming and seeming to be so ungrateful.

(iv) : According to Raina, Bluntschli has a very poor opinion of women because she claimed that he was not surprised to hear her lie. She presumed that Bluntschli thought it was an act she did without hurt to her conscience every day. She had wanted to note that in the matter of honesty women were more honest than men and that it was wrong for him to presume that women told lies at will.

(v) : Bluntschli does not believe Raina's words regarding lies because because he  knows that it is not possible for Raina to have only told two lies in her whole life and by saying so she is only pretending to be be a very proper person. He also does not believe her because he has told many more lies in his life.

(vi) : Yes, I agree with Bluntschli's statement that he is quite a straight-forward person because he readily admits that he tells a lot of lies. He also openly challenges Raina about her having told only two lies in her whole life.

WK BK PGS 84 TO 86

21.(i) Don Quixote is the name chosen by the character (Alonso Quixano) in the Spanish novel by Cervantes who decides to revive chivalry, undo wrongs and bring justice to the world. The name is associated with a person who has lost touch with the reality of the world and lives in a disillusioned manner.
          The speaker is 'The Man' - the Serbian soldier who was fleeing from the Bulgarian army and people and who had sought refuge in Raina's room. He was actually a Swiss mercenary, fighting for the Serbs. Later we learn that his name is Bluntschli. He is referring to the leader of the Bulgarian cavalry regiment who led his regiment in their charge against the Serbian artillery regiment at the battle at Slivnitza. He is referring to Sergius Saranoff.
          'The Man' calls Sergius, Don Quixote as he considers, Sergius' action of leading his cavalry regiment against an artillery regiment suicidal and mad, as the odds in the cavalry regiment succeeding in their attack were absolutely zero.

(ii) : The so-called Don Quixote had in a rush of patriotic zeal and national pride risked his won life and life of his entire regiment in the attack against the Serbian artillery regiment. The risk and daring paid off and the Serbian guns did not fire and the Serbian positions were overcome, their army routed and the Bulgarians won the battle and the war. Thus, the Don Quixote thought he had done the cleverest thing in the world because his foolhardy act surprisingly paid off.
        The action tells us that either the leader who is called Don Quixote was actually very daring and patriotic or he was a fool or a madman.

(iii) : The speaker thinks that the leader of the Bulgarian cavalry regiment which attacked the Serbian artillery regiment should be court-martialled because he had risked the certain death of his entire regiment in an attack which normally should have resulted in all their deaths. An army commander is not expected in normal situations to lead his troops in a suicidal mission.
          The speaker calls the leader of the Bulgarian cavalry regiment the maddest because it was nonsensical to pit a cavalry regiment against an artillery regiment as the artillery regiment would blast them to pieces before they had came any where near to being able to harm the members of the artillery regiment.

(iv) : 'he' and his regiment had defied the orders of their superiors, the leader had led his regiment himself into the charge against an artillery regiment which would certainly kill them much befoe they reached the artillery enemy positions. Thus, as death was certain for them it is called a suicidal mission.
         No actual pistol missed fire. The man who is narrating the events means to say that the Serbian artillery regiment couldn't, as expected, against the advancing cavalry regiment as they had the wrong ammunition for their guns. Thus they could not fire their guns.

(v) : Later on in the play Sergius, the so-called Don Quixote, says that he defeated the Serbs the wrong way, that is not according to military etiquette, when his army commanders were losing the battle by using all the right tactics of war.

(vi): The speaker seems to be a person with the traditional military person's mind. He does not understand that patriotism and daring can win the day. The so-called Don Quixote was daring and patriotic and lucky but if the artillery had fired his regiment would have been wiped out and he would have been proved to be the very maddest person ever set into battle.

WK BK PGS 82 TO 84

20.(i) : 'The Man', the soldier who was being the blue uniform of the Serbian army, who had been in the Serbian artillery regiment which had been defeated by Sergius' cavalry regiment at the battle at Slivnitza. He had sought refuge by climbing a pipe into Raina's room. Raina had just kept him hidden when the Russian officer and the Bulgarian crowd had come in search for him. This is the man who is speaking. Later we come to know that this man is a Swiss mercenary and that his name is Bluntschli.
            He is describing the reason why his artillery regiment had been defeated by the Bulgarian cavalry regiment when the cavalry regiment should have been blown to pieces long before they came anywhere near the artillery regiment.
            He is describing it to Raina, and is trying to explain to her that the leader of the regiment was not a hero but a fool.

(ii) : The sergeant is described to have been "white as a sheet" to try and convey how scared the sergeant was with the knowledge that the artillery regiment which he led was totally defenseless against the artillery regiment and that their death was near.

(iii) : The speaker says that he never felt so sick in all his life because having heard that his artillery regiment had the wrong ammunition and that they were totally defenseless against the approaching cavalry regiment the thought of his near death made him feel sick, like he had never felt in his life before, as he probably had never come so near to his own death.

(iv) : That the speaker had carried only chocolates and no cartridges tells us that the speaker was not very keen on soldiership and more keen in keeping himself well fed. Raina had said previously that such action proved that he was childish, like a school boy. However, it may also show that the man was practical enough to know that in battle one has to be prepared for the unexpected and to take care to live as long as one could.

(v) : By saying "they just cut us to bits", the speaker means to say that they (the Serbian artillery regiment at Slivnitza) was completely defeated "routed" and "scattered".

(vi) : The speaker is called "the chocolate cream soldier" later in play by Raina. He is called a "chocolate cream soldier" because he only carried chocolates into war and not cartridges and he loved chocolates very much, which is proved when he told Raina that he would love to have some and he had greedily eaten the last three chocolate creams which Raina had offered him.