Bluntschli’s character. Compare the character of the Bluntschli with that of Sergius.

One of the most notable contributions of Shaw to the modern drama lies in the exceptional variety and vividness of his characters that he provides. In Arms and the Man, Shaw presents Bluntschli and Sergius, the protagonists who stand as a contrast antipodal related to each other. Bluntschli is projected as superior to Sergius in point of the realistic approach to life and Sergius is only a ridiculous foil to the professional competence of Bluntschli.

As soldiers, the two are poles asunder. Sergius looks upon war through the mist of romance and like Othello and Tamburlaine war is a thing of glory, an opportunity for displaying heroism to him.  He is a ridiculous figure, but finally in the end he learnt to his bitter cost, the supreme lesson that “soldiering is the coward’s art of attacking mercilessly when one strong and keeping out of harm’s way when one is weak.” Thus Sergius is presented as a sentimental fool holding the illusory aspects of life as reality.

Bluntschli, on the other hand is a character who from the first appearance on the stage manifests himself to the most un-soldierly soldier. To him war is no amusement, not a thing to gloat over but a necessary evil and he does not rush into the mouth of cannon for bubble reputation but is guided by the instinct of self- preservation like all other men. He frankly admits that he carries chocolates as ration in place of bullets. He quickly gobbles up some chocolates which Raina offers him, licking the remains from his fingers and thus becomes Raina’s “chocolate cream soldier”.

 As lovers too, Bluntschli and Sergius are anti- thetical. Sergius is the embodiment of the romantically tender and faithful love while Bluntschli is too practical. Sergius considers himself to be the “apostle of higher love” as he calls him. Whereas Bluntschli is a realist in love and throughout the play the un- romantic Bluntschli makes no such pretensions to love and appears to be too prosaic in all spheres of life.

Thus the common sense of Bluntschli of Bluntschli of Bluntschli outdoes and outshines Sergius both in love and war and proves the epitome of the complete human being , an architect of a new message about Arms and the Man.    

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George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man as an anti – romantic comedy / Shaw’s attitude to war and love

A self- confessed anti –romantic, Bernard Shaw gives his play Arms and the Man a subtitle – an anti –romantic comedy in three acts and in his Preface he explains that an anti-romantic comedy binds itself to reality and does not gives scope to imagination and idealism. Bernard Shaw, a leading exponent of Ibsenian realism, eschewed the English romantic dramas based on emotion and sentiment .In Arms and the Man Shaw is a romantic comedist, but an unrelenting campaigner of ideas, caustic and revolutionary; and here he deliberately makes such a blooming caricature of both love and war that the play ultimately becomes a banter on what is romantic.

Arms and the Man shows Shaw’s iconoclasm.  He ridicules the concept imbibed in Iliad, Odyssey and Beowulf who considered war as “a big picnic”. Consecrated with horror- to him, recklessness is often confused with heroism. Shaw’s mouthpiece for criticizing the romantic notion of war is Bluntschli, a Swiss officer in the army. Even as a person, he represents the opposite of what Raina, an incorrigibly fashionable lady, believes that every soldier should be a war hero .But soon Bluntschli comes as a bolt from the blue and his undeluded statement knocks the bottom out of her romanticism .Bluntschli is in every inch a soldier and takes soldiering as a profession and not a sacred mission. To him war is not a thing to gloat over, and he does not rush into the mouth of cannon for bubble reputation; but he is guided by a realistic instinct of self- preservation.

The romantic figure of the apparently heroic soldier Sergius is mercilessly satirized by Shaw . Bluntschli scoffs at Sergius’s cavalry charge by comparing him to Don Quixote charging the windmills as he knew a whole regiment of cavalry on the battery of machine guns and the only reason for the entire regiment not being shot down is that the enemies were provided with wrong ammunitions. This description makes Sergius   a figure of fun and ridicule. And with this Raina is converted to a realist.

Raina has similarly an idealized and romantic concept, not only about war but also about love. Initially she felt hallucinated by the romance of “higher love” and recognized Sergius to be her “soul’s hero” but when Sergius feels attracted by the sexual appeal of Louka and makes advances to her behind Louka’s back , the epitome of her romantic love  shatters to pieces.

This acted as an eye – opener to Raina. So long as she was putting up a mask of romantic love- she does not feel frustrated; instead she learns that people should not be guided by sheer romance. Hence her admiration for Bluntschli ripens into love, because it is only Bluntschli who can find out the real character beneath the romantic mask.

Arms and the Man is thus, a successful experiment experiment in a species of drama. It is a serious comedy with an anti- romantic attitude towards life and Shaw’s real motive is “ to expose the emptiness of romantic view of love and war” is fulfilled .    

      

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