Arms and the Man: Theme Analysis Tweet 0 inShare 20 40 60 80 100 Average Overall Rating: 4.5 Total Votes: 1258 The Reality of War The play opens with a romantic view of war held by the Bulgarians, especially the young Raina and Sergius. They will learn from experience and their lessons from Bluntschli that war is not glorious. Raina and Sergius have learned their ideas of war from books. They speak of knights and ladies and the combat of honor between equals. Sergius says that war is like a “tournament” (Act II, p. 31). His idea of leading the victorious cavalry charge was a mistake from the point of view of modern warfare, for horses cannot override cannon and guns. Sergius resigns from the regiment, disillusioned that the other soldiers do not take him seriously. He refuses to play the modern game of war; it is for a “tradesman,” he complains (Act II, p. 29). Catherine Petkoff is even more locked into an old-fashioned conception of war and patriotism. She is upset when peace is declared and asks her husband if he couldn’t have “annexed Serbia and made Prince Alexander Emperor of the Balkans” (Act II, p. 24). Major Petkoff explains they would have had to subdue Austria first (the allies of the Serbs). Catherine has no idea what war is or what it costs. Her ideas are as flimsy as Raina’s. The two women are excited as they hear about the victory at Slivnitza and that Sergius is a hero. Catherine wants to worship Sergius and tries to persuade her husband about his promotion. Major Petkoff remarks that Sergius will not be promoted because everyone knows he is rash and incompetent. Bluntschli tries to shock Raina into reality by reminding her that if the Bulgarians find him in her room, they will butcher him before her eyes. There will be blood everywhere. He appeals to the mother in her by asking for a place to sleep and food to eat. He admits he is frightened for he has had no sleep in three days. At this point, she heroically makes an effort to save him. The Bulgarians are shown as naïve about war. Major Petkoff admits that neither the Bulgarians nor Serbs knew anything about war until their officers (the Austrians for the Serbs, and the Russians for the Bulgarians) taught them. Petkoff says, “there’d have been no war without them” (Act II, p. 29). Russia and Austria were considered Great Powers, more advanced and powerful countries that exerted a political influence on lesser powers. They jumped into the border dispute between Serbia and Bulgaria because they were worried about the balance of power. The Serbs and Bulgarians had once been friends. Neither were experienced with modern warfare. As a professional soldier, the Swiss mercenary, Bluntschli, is the last word to his Bulgarian friends on the sober reality of war. He describes the soldier’s point of view of how to stay alive by carrying more food than ammunition, and by avoiding the front lines. He beats Major Petkoff at horsetrading. Bluntschli is scorned at first because of his middle-class notions of war, but his practical knowledge of how to move troops and keep them supplied is soon appreciated by Sergius and Petkoff. Bluntschli as a Swiss Republican has modern democratic ideas that contrast sharply to the older feudal ideas of aristocracy held by the Bulgarians. They are used to a society of privilege and class stratification. They are impressed, however, by Bluntschli’s modern power, knowledge and wealth. Unlike them, he holds no lingering feuds after the war, but is more interested in managing his hotels. Business can be a force of economic stability across national boundaries, more powerful than war. He is ready to sign on Nicola, a former enemy, as one of his managers. The Ideal vs. The Real Raina lives in a make-believe world, and she is aware of it, though she believes it is a more noble world than the one other people live in: “the world is really a glorious world for women who can see its glory and men who can act its romance” (Act I, p. 4). She and S
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 17:27:01 +0000
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