WK BK PG 69 TO 71

13 (i) : It was Raina who had sarcastically when returning The man's revolver to him, asked him to take it and protect himself from her !
            Raina had spoken sarcastically as she sees that the man definitely does not meet her expectations of who a true soldier should be. In this case, when raina had sat on the pistol and had let out a shriek, the Man "shied like a frightened horse to the other side of the room". He comes across to her as a soldier with no courage who is easily frightened and she begins to feel more at ease and not scared of his intrusion of this stranger into her room.

(ii) : The man says that the revolver is of no use to him because it is not loaded and that he has no ammunition for it. He did not seem to have any use for it even when he was in a combat role as even then he didn't carry ammunition to use it but only chocolate !
         Earlier in the play when he had entered Raina's room, he had threatened Raina with the revolver warning her that if she gave his presence away he would fire the revolver and shoot her ! In so doing he bought himself some relief and a hiding place from the pursuing Bulgarian mob and soldiers.

(iii) : The man says that he prefers to carry chocolates instead of ammunition into the battlefield because he (surprisingly for a soldier) does not see the use of ammunition when at war. To him chocolates are more useful. I presume he means that when it comes to saving oneself, keeping oneself from starving on the battlefield is a priority for him. It seems that more experienced soldiers know that one can die more surely of starvation than being killed by the enemy on a battlefield !
         His explanation tells us that at war the soldier's basic needs are often not met and that soldiers had better look out for themselves at least as much as they look to perform their duty on the battlefield. In fact, according to him, more experienced soldiers ensure that they carry enough food int battle rather than enough ammunition, leaving it to the younger soldiers to carry that for them !

(iv) : Raina calls the Man a school boy for filling his pockets with chocolates, which to her is a very childish thing to do and totally soldierly like. In so doing, Raina shows her disgust for him for being so soldierly like,
         It tells us that Raina is a realist - she cannot understand how a soldier can carry out his duty if he does not carry ammunition and does not feel that carrying ammunition into war is of any use. However, Raina is being shocked by the man into realizing that there is an unromantic side to war, where soldiers are hungry and often go without food and that soldiers also need to realistically look after their own well being.

(v) : Raina's ideals of manhood have been developed by her upbringing in her family. She has been given to understand that any man of any real worth must be a soldier (as her father and fiance are). She is also been educated to believe that true soldiers are patriotic and self sacrificing and chivalrous - thus she and her mother are full of praise of Sergius whose action in battel has been portrayed so heroically by Catherine.
        Raina gets offended as it is absurd to her that there could be any true soldier who is not patriotic and not fired by a zeal to kill his enemies (and thus goes into battle fully prepared to meet and crush his enemy - with guns, ammunition, etc.). She is offended because if she were to accept what the man was telling her about soldiers, she might have to rethink the pride she has in her father being a major in the army and her fiance being the hero of the war !.

(vi) : I agree that the man is a realist but I believe that he is overstating the behaviour of soldiers. to emphasize that war and soldiership is not the romantic dream which Raina seems to have . I agree that soldiers to face the situation when food supplies cannot get to them because of heavy fighting and that because such circumstances are so common, soldiers to carry chocolate. But he overstates the case by saying that they carry no ammunition and that ammunition is of no use.
        Raina has romantic notions of war and soldiers. The man does shock her by revealing to her that there are sides to war - like soldiers facing starvation on the battlefield which she has to get to acknowledge. But Raina is so "outraged" because she as yet needs to understand that the man is exaggerating to make a point.

WK BK PG 67 TO 69

12.(i) : 'The Man' tells Raina not to hate him because he is very grateful and indebted to her for saving his life by not giving him up, she seemed to him like and angel sent to deliver him at the time when he faced almost certain death. He thus wanted her to understand that he was not her enemy nor the enemy of her country and that he did not have anything against the Bulgarian people and that he was not her and her country's enemy.

(ii) : The Man says that he joined the Serbian army because he was a "professional soldier" - a mercenary. He thus was willing to fight for any army which would pay for his services. The Serbians were the first army that had come his way and hired him and thus he had joined their army.
         It tells us that The Man looks at soldiering in a very new way. He sees it as a profession just like any other profession and that he will give his services to those who pay him for it. He thus has an anti-romantic character, not seeing war in the old romantic way as a patriot fighting for love of his country. Because of his way of thinking is so new, those who are unused to such thinking may consider him as a person without patriotic feelings or respect for human life.

(iii) : The Man wants Raina to be generous as she is a;ready satisfied because her country had defeated the Serbians in the battle at Slivnitza completely "Beaten us hollow".
          Raina proclaims that she has been generous because she has indeed been very generous, even to the point of risking being taken as a traitor to her own country for giving refuge and hiding the enemy soldier. She has done this in spite of the soldier having threatened to kill her and had taken her mantle for some time as futher protection against her giving away his presence.

(iv) : The Man describes Raina hiding him and not revealing him from the soldiers of her own army, putting herself and her reputation at risk in doing so as being noble and heroic.
          The man says that he is not saved as as he realises that only one group of Bulgarians pursuing the fleeing Serbian soldiers has passed. He believes that "in fits and starts" other groups also pursuing the same persons will also be a threat to him and would require him to find some means of saving himself.

(v) : By saying "this particular rush will soon pass through", the Man means that this mob of blood thirsty, aggressive and noisy Bulgarians seeking out fleeing enemy Serbian soldiers would, now that they have not found the person they were looking for, leave and go ahead in search of other such fugitives.

(vi) The Man needs to take a chance to leave Raina's house before someone else insists that they indeed did see a Serbian fugitive climb into the Petkoff's house and they do come and make a more thorough search of the house and find him. He wants to sneak out of the house in the gap between two search parties. He wants to get into safety by leaving Raina's house, but he requests her to rest for a few moments before he does so.

WK BK PG 66 TO 67

11 (i) : 'The Man' is referring to his not been found hiding behind the curtain in Raina's room by the Russian officer whom Raina's mother, Catherine had invited to check Raina's room as there had been a suspicion that an enemy Serb who was on the run had climbed up the pipe of the house entered the room. So many things could have happened - like the officer might have wanted to check the room more thoroughly, or the bullets which had been fired during the time the officer had come might have struck 'The Man' through the curtain, etc., etc.
             Thus 'The Man' had come very close to being found and thus he refers to his not being found as "a narrow shave".

(ii) : The Man thanks Raina, because Raina had hid him behind the curtain. She had made sure that the Russian officer did not look behind the curtain, by standing directly in front of it and she did not flinch when the firing took place and shattered a pane of glass just next to where The man was hiding. raina had also strongly denied the claim that any fugitive had entered her room and stated that she was sure that no fugitive could have got into her room as she had not been to bed. All this behaviour had convinced the Russian officer that those who had claimed to see a fugitive climbing up the pipe into the room were only imagining and he left the room in a sort time.

(iii) : 'The Man' wished that he had joined the Bulgarian army because he wanted to express how thankful he was to Raina for saving him and in so saying that he should have joined the Bulgarian army he convey the sense that if Raina is an example of the Bulgarian people he would like to be in association with such fine human beings.
         The "other one" is the opposing army - the Serbian army which 'The Man' had joined because they were the first to ask for his services.

(iv) : Raina claims that the man is Austrian because the Man is wearing the uniform of a Serbian officer and if he is not Serbian she believes that he would surely be Austrian as the Austrians were allied to the Serbians in the was against the Bulgarians.

(v) : raina says that she hates the Austrians because, she clams that the Austrians had mislead the Serbians and instigated them to  age a war and rob the Bulgarians of their freedom. She also hated the Austrians because the Austrians were helping the Serbians in their war against by the Bulgarians by leading the Serbian army as their officers.

(vi) : The reality which this extract portrays about the act of soldiering is that mercenaries fight wars as professional soldiers for the sake of money and sometimes they could be fighting against really kind and good people, whom they might regret fighting against when they get to know them.In addition, it tells us that nations like Austria, fight proxy wars against other nations to further their own advantage. 

WK BK PGS 90 TO 91

24 (i): The speaker in this context is 'The Man' - the Swiss mercenary who had joined the Serbian army and who was in the artillery regiment that had been defeated by Sergius' cavalry regiment in the battle at Slivnitza. He had after that battle with others in his regiment fled through the Dragoman Pass and had come to the town in which the Petkoff's lived. Looking for refuge he had cli,bed up the pipe into the bedroom of Raina, who had given him refuge up to this time.
             Raina, the daughter of Major Paul and Catherine Petkoff into whose room 'The man' had entered had now told him that he had to leave as she was doing the "soldierly thing".
             Raina had told the Man to leave whereas before she had given him refuge and hidden him from her country's soldier and their Russian officer and even thus far from her mother, because 'The Man' had spoken of badly about her fiance Sergius, the officer who had led his cavalry regiment and attacked and defeated the Srerbian artillery regiment. 'The Man' had called Sergius a "fool", compared him to Don Quixote and noted that the manner in which he had acted wads unprofessional revealing a total lack of knowledge of the art of war. These opinions of the person to whom she was shortly to be married, had offended her and she decided to change her compassionate manner in which she had received him to a "professional" manner. Thus, she had asked him to leave as he was the enemy of her country.

(ii) : The speaker explained his change of attitude to Raina, saying that he had come up the pipe in fear for his life when he was being chased by the bloodthirsty Bulgarian mob and soldiers who were shooting and chasing the fleeing Serbian soldiers. Thus, the fear had given him the energy he now doesn't have. After being made to feel so welcome by Raina who had not only saved him but even given him her last three remaining chocolate creams, his fear had passed and now the fatigue he felt after being two days without sleep had nearly overcome him. Thus he was afraid of going down the pipe.

(iii) : 'The Man' says that he gives up and is beaten because he is so tired that if he attempted to go down the pipe he would not have energy either to go down the pipe or to keep running to save his life from the Bulgarian mob and soldiers who would once again be after him. He thus preferred that Raina give the alarm and that he surrenders to the Bulgarian army.
           However, he also says this to win over Raina. By saying these words he admits that she had played a master stroke in challenging him to leave. She had thus beaten him in this exchange of words. 'The Man' is shrewd enough to know that he has already begun to win over Raina's heart and that she will not give enough - an attitude revealed when she says "but I will go out to the balcony and see if it is safe for you to climb down into the street".

(iv) : I think that the speaker's act of giving up both justifies and does not justify Raina's statement earlier in the lay that he is unchivalrous.
         Earlier in the play, Raina had said that 'The Man' was unchivalrous as unlike courageous soldiers he had said that he was afraid to die. By giving up rather than putting up a fight and being killed in battle the man could be considered unchivalrous. However, the Man had also said that if he was captured the Bulgarians would treat him shamefully and he did not want that - thus he knows that he is in for rough treatment and still he is willing to face it - this shows that he is chivalrous !

(v) : Raina had been relating to 'The Man' in an ideal way. She had set aside the realistic (normal) way most people would have reacted (as did her mother - when Raina had said that she did not understand why people should kill wretched fugitives - her mother had replied that if the tables were turned the Serbs would do the same to the Bulgarians). She has decided to give an enemy refuge because she had seen the romantic play Ernani in which a nobleman gives refuge to his enemy. When Raina finds that the person whom she had saved is not so sensitive to her feelings nor respectful of the Bulgarian officer (who was also to be soon to be married to her) who had defeated his regiment in battle, she is shaken out of her idealism for a very short while and decides to deal in a "professional" (realistic) manner with 'The Man' by demanding that he leaves the safety of her room immediately.
       We sense that her realism is also activated by her realisation that she has to get rid of the fugitive before other people realise that she had betrayed her country by hiding him from her country soldiers. Thus she exclaims shortly after this quotation "But what am I to do with you ?"

EK BK PG 88 TO 89

23 (i) : raina calls the Man her enemy because he was a mercenary fighting for the Serboiand against the Bulgarians. Raina was a Bulgarian. The Man had forced himself into her room and while raina had hid him from the Rusian officer and the Bulgarians soldiers who had come to look for him, she was not angry and hurt that he had spoken poorly of her future husband, even comparing his (Sergius') action at the battle of Slivnitza to Don Quixote charging the windmills.

(ii) : The "good" Raina had done was to give the Man her remaining chocolate creams when he saidf that he was hungry. She had given the Man refuge in her room when he had forcibly entered and threatened her. She had hid him from the Russian officer, the Bulgarian soldiers and her mother when they had come to see if an enemy soldier had taken refuge in her bedroom.
         It tells us that Raina is an exceptionally brave woman. She is not easily made afraid, even when a soldier points a gun at her ! It also tells us that she is compassionate : she had been informed that some of the defeated Serb soldiers were fleeing for their lives through the town and thus when the Man sought refuge in her room she gave him that security, which shows her compassion.

(iii) : The man describes as "unsoldierly" her giving in to his wish to eact some cholcolates. raina gave The Man the last three of her chocolate creams. It was "unsoldierly" for The Man - a professional soldier to be longing for chocolate rather than victory over his enemies. It was "unsoldierly" for Raina who would now like to act as a "professional soldier" to have given him chocolate creams when she should have handed him over to the members of her country's army who cam,e looking for him.
         It was 'angelic" because in Raina giving him the chocolate creams she had brought a moment of kindness to the distressful experience he had had especially when his regiment was routed in the Battle at Silvnitza, but also his distasteful life in the army - experiences of which he had been narrating to Raina.

(iv) : Raina says "now I will do the soldierly thing" in response to The Man claiming that sergius had acte unprofessionally in the way he had won the battle at Slivnitza. Raina had been offended that The Man after he had benefited from her hospitality so greatly had ridiculed her finance. She had taken the decision not to act in response to her feelings of compassion for his situation and to send him out of her room and home to face his enemies.

(v) : Raina had said earlier that her future husband showed "sheer ignorance of the art of war" and had acted in an unprofessional manner by leading his cavalry regiment against the Serbian artillery regiment. He had said that "Of all the fools let loose on a field of battle, that man must have been the very maddest". He compared Sergius to Don Quixote.All this had offended Raina who had been completely convinced that Sergius had shown heroic courage by risking his life and leading his regiment to victory.

(vi) : The two contrary statements tell us that Raina is caught between her feelings of compassion for a defeated soldierly seeking refuge with her or otherwise facing certain capture and possibly death and her duty to her nation and to her fiance in turning over the enemy soldier. She is also caught between her fascination with this man who soes not seek to romanticise himself to her and her conviction so shortly before that Sergius was indeed the right person for her to get married to.

XII CHARACTER SKETCH OF RAINA

Character sketch of Raina Petkoff.

In this character sketch we will not only consider the character of Raina, but the evolution of her character in the play and we will also note the strategic role Raina plays in Arms and the Man.

Raina under her parent's influence

Raina seems to be the only child of Major Paul Petkoff and Catherine, Raina tells us that her family is the richest and best known family in Bulgaria and that her father holds the highest position assigned to a Bulgarian in their national army. Her parents underscore "Raina's position" as a member of "the richest and most important families in the country" and that she is "accustomed to a very comfortable establishment". Paul is amazed when he returns from the war to hear from Raina that she has been cooking. The mantle of furs that Raina has is "worth, on a moderate estimate, about three times of the furniture of her room" which tells us that Raina is doted upon by her parents. Catherine in her interaction with Raina still treats her as a child, in fact she even uses that word for her on one occasion - wondering why Raina is not in bed; directing that she will not keep the windows open for fear that she will fall of to sleep and leave them open ! Paul loves the way her daughter always appears at the most appropriate moment and poses for them - like when Sergius arrives. Catherine has chosen the man (Sergius Saranoff) Raina will get married to and she has been betrothed to him even though she has doubts about him !

Raina's romantic nature
Under Catherine's tutelage, Raina has read the poems of the romantic poets Byron and Pushkin and has been taken to the opera at Bucharest. Raina notes the influence these have had on her when she says "perhaps we only had our heroic ideas" because of the listed influences.

Raina confesses to Bluntschli when he has "found her out" - that that "noble attitude" and "thrilling voice" which she with which she has "gone on" since childhood and with which she duped everyone - her nurse, parents and Sergius. We see that most vividly in her put on of "higher love" to Sergius, which Sergius is honest enough to admit is "very tiring to keep up for any length of time" - and that one needs some "relief" from such artificial behavior.

Catherine has chosen Sergius as the future husband for her daughter because they both come from the same class in society; Sergius is an "extremely handsome" man and he is an officer in the Bulgarian army. Raina's imagination has been fired by the obviously exaggerated version of events at Slivnitza as narrated to her by Catherine and Sergius immediately becomes Raina's "soul's hero".

When Sergius and Raina meet they use such words as "hero", "king", "queen" and "saint" to describe each other.

Raina is initially as fanatically patriotic as Catherine is. She argues and defends Sergius from 'the Man' who calls him a fool and compares his action to Don Quixote slashing at the windmills. She claims to only have given refuge to 'The Man' because she and her mother have the "notion" that a guest is sacred" and to that end she narrates an incident of  the noble in the opera of Ernani.

She is a compassionate person and is genuinely troubled with the reports of suffering and slaughter which accompany war - she notes "I wish our people were not so cruel. What glory is there in killing wretched fugitives?"

Raina's shrewd, daring and practical nature

However, Shaw has portrayed Raina in a very rounder manner - revealing the contradictions that exist in the personality of any real person.

Even though she can be romantic, she is also innately very down to earth , perceptive and realistic. Her sixth sense has cautioned her not to follow her mother's direction in immediately agreeing to the arrangement for marriage with Sergius. Her knowledge of life is revealed when she says "Real life is seldom like that ! Indeed never as far as I knew it then" She is referring to the reservation she felt even when in the romantic embrace of Sergius, warning her that infatuation is only the first step in a relationship and that one must be realistic to note that the one is infatuated by is not a perfect human being.

She also mentions that "Our heroic ideals. I sometimes used to doubt whether they anything but dreams". Obviously, Raina has been viewing life and has the good sense to note that the fiction of romances either in literary form or on the stage need to be tempered with the experience of reality.

Even the "noble attitude" and "thrilling voice" which she has put on, has been a conscious action - she is surprised when Bluntschli dares to challenge her. She has shrewdly learnt how to charm all those around her - especially the significant men in her life - her father and Sergius and puts on a show in front of them which sweeps them off their feet. However, she shows her disdain for them - for such men who are not intelligent enough to see through her disguise - she says of her father "poor father - as if he could help himself". Of Sergius she says "I always feel a longing to do or say something dreadful to him - to shock his propriety - to scandalise the five senses out of him" and she boldly tells her mother that she is so enamoured with Segius that she should marry him !!!!! She is attracted to Bluntschli because he knows her for who she is and matches her intelligence with his wit - witnessed in their exchange especially in the first two acts.

She is also very self aware. Early in the play we are told that she is fully aware that "her own youth and beauty are part of" the wonderful natural view she beholds. It is this self awareness which is the root of her strength of character.- - her ability to engage the world on her terms, while lesser mortals (all the characters except Bluntschli and maybe Nicola) believe that they are manipulating her !

She is bold and brave, standing up to the intruder even before she is told that that the gun he holds to her has no bullets. She dares 'The Man' "You will shoot me. How do you know that I am afraid to die?' She does not flinch as she stands guard in front of the curtain concealing 'The Man' and a bullet shatters the window pane next to her. In Act 3 she boldly confronts Sergius with his duplicity and unfaithfulness. Even when at the very end of the play when her father and mother are more than willing to have her married to Bluntschli when they realise that he is so wealthy - she days "I am not here to be sold to the highest bidder." She proves that she is truly the modern woman who chooses to marry for the sake of love alone - not a love dripping with emotion, but the a love grounded on a true knowledge of herself and her prospective husband.

About Raina, Shaw himself remarked in the essay "A Dramatic realist to his critics" about Raina "....she does good : that she generously saves a mans life and wisely extricates herself from a false position with another man......brave generous and affectionate....."

ARMS AND THE MAN COMIC ELEMENTS

“Arms and the Man” is not merely a farce but a true comedy. The purpose of a comedy is to ridicule and expose human or social folly or weakness and to drive that folly out of courts. Though there is ample of farcical, loud laughter in the play, but the laughter has a serous purpose and this differentiates the play from a mere farce. Shaw laughs, but his laughter has a serious purpose. Besides provoking mirth he also provokes thoughts.

Shaw is one of the greatest humorists in English literature the other humourist are Shakespeare and Dickens. However, Shaw’s is different from both Shakespeare and Dickens as his humour arises from the difference between instinctive conduct, or social institutions and social codes of conduct. This is Shaw’s contribution to the art of comedy.

“Arms and the Man” is rich in humour. There is enough of humour of characterin the play. Major Petkoff, Catherine Petkoff, Sergius and Captain Bluntschli are all humorous as in their thoughts, words and actions they are below the normal level. Catherine Petkoff’s pride in the electric bell, in two staircases and library is the rich sources of humour. The confusion of Catherine amuses us, as Bluntschli decides to stay with them as their guest while Catherine wants him to go away, at once, to avoid a disclosure of their sheltering Bluntschli. There is much fun and humour in the play, with Bluntschli’s carving for chocolate creams and shying like a frightened horse and nervous like a mouse. He creates loud laughter when he judges Raina to be a “school-girl of seventeen”, or when he lists the various items of his enormous wealth.

Nor is humour of situation lacking in the play. There is the very first scene in the bedroom of Raina. The humour arises from the conflict of the natural conduct of Bluntschli with the conventional conduct of Raina. He is an intruder, a fugitive and an enemy, whereas Raina is the daughter of one of the most influential man in Bulgaria. It is expected that he would be perturbed, while she would remain self-possessed. But the contrary happens. The instinctive Bluntschli, is self-possessed, while the lady, who has nothing but romance, is perturbed. Finally, the intruder converts the lady to her own point of view. Numerous other examples of the humour of situation may be easily cited from the play.

Shaw’s humour often verges on the farcical. The coat-episode, the photograph-episode, and the chocolate-cream episode are all sources of farcical humour. Shaw’s habit of deflating big names or giving people nicknames is another source of broad humour in his plays. Raina nicknames Bluntschli as, “chocolate-cream soldier”, because he loves to eat chocolates. 

“The higher love of Raina and Sergius, the military heroism of Sergius, the servility of Nicola and
his looking a fool and taking all the blame on himself are overdone and verge on the farcical”.

Shavian wit, too, are scattered all up and down the play. As Goad puts it: 

“Shaw revels in puns paradoxes, retorts and repartees”.

He has great skill in of saying fine sparkling things. Sometimes, Shaw’s wit is light and innocent, and at other times it has rapier-like thrust and is sharp and biting. When Petkoff returns from the front, Catherine proudly tells him that she has got fitted an electric bell in their home, because civilized people do not shout for their servants. At this Petkoff resorts,

“Civilized people do not hang out their washing to dry where visitors can see it so you would better have all that part somewhere else.”

But it is Petkoff, who gets the worst of it for Catherine silences him with her clever repartee, 

“I do not think really civilized people notice such things”.

When Sergius asks Louka,

“If you were in love with me, would you spy out of windows on me”,

Louka wittily replies,

“Well you see, Sir, Since you are half a dozen gentleman all at once, I shall have a great deal to look after”,

And Sergius is obliged to praise her, 

“Witty as well as pretty”.

Louka’s wit is sharp and biting when she retorts to Sergius,

“whatever clay I made of, you are made of the same”.

In Arms and the Man, Shaw’s intentions are comic and through the use of bathos or anti-climax he attains his intention. Sergius and Raina become comic figures, as the hollowness of their romantic love, and their romantic attitudes and poses are exposed and the essential inner self is revealed. Both come down to the level of Louka and Bluntschli.

Shaw shows that war is not heroic, but something horrible and brutal; soldiers are not heroes but fools and cowards, who fight only because they are bound to fight. Sergius’ heroic victory appears in a comic light, when it is discovered that he could win only because that Serbian gunmen had the wrong ammunition with them. 

“…he ought to be courtmartialled for it.… He and his regiment simply committed suicide – only the pistol missed fire.”

Sergius makes love to Louka soon after ‘the higher love scene’. Similarly, Raina wishes to scandalize Sergius, and half wishes that he should find out about her having sheltered in her bedroom her chocolate-cream soldier.

Thus Shaw has demonstrated the folly of romantic ideals of love and war, his purpose in writing the plays. He has provided ample of fun and humour for his readers and audience, but he has also achieved his serious purpose.