Arms and the Man

Synopsis

Arms and the Man is a comedy play written by George Bernard Shaw, an Irish dramatist and a Nobel Prize literate. Apart from scripting more than sixty plays to his credit, he also contributed to the literary world through essays, novels and short stories. Notable among his numerous writings are Widowers' Houses, The Irrational Knot, Immaturity, The Impossibilities of Anarchism and How He Lied to Her Husband.

This play is set on Serbo-Bulgarian War and explores the futility of war in a comedic fashion. Raina Petkoff, a Bulgarian woman and daughter of Major Paul Petkoff is engaged with a war hero Sergius Saranoff.  One night Captain Bluntschli, a Serbian soldier enters Raina’s bedroom in an attempt to escape from Bulgarian army’s search. Raina protects him against the search, and the chat between them about war changes Raina’s views on War.

The war reaches a ceasefire and Raina find herself tiresome with Petkoff and attracted towards Bluntschli. She keeps her portrait in Bluntschli’s coat inscribed with the words "To my chocolate-cream soldier".   Bluntschli is receives news about his father’s death and goes for the funeral.  Raina’s maid Louka tells Petkoff that, Raina protected the Serbian soldier and fall in love with him.  Petkoff breaks the engagement with Raina and proposes to marry Louka.  Bluntschli returns and engaged with Raina.

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