Arms and the Man: Anti-Romantic or Realistic Play

All over his career, Shaw waged a war against romantic and idealistic notions of life, against
shams and hypocrisy, and this war began with Arms and the Man. He has aptly called Arms
and the Man an anti-romantic comedy in which he has exposed the hollowness of the romantic
ideas of love and war. The play is anti-romantic because in it Shaw has attacked the romantic
idealization of life; and it is a comedy because in it he has exposed and ridiculed the hollowness
of romantic love and the heroic ideals of war. By Romanticism Shaw means all that is not based
on fact and reality; all shams and false conventions are romantic for they are not based on facts.
Their futility and absurd nature can be easily confirmed. Shaw laughs but his laughter has a
serious intention. He is both witty and thought-provoking.
The play opens on a note of romance. Raina is a romantic girl who stands on her balcony
enjoying the beauty of the night and the snowy Balkans. She is betrothed to Sergius a, Byronic
hero, who has gone to war like knights of the Middle Ages. He makes a heroic cavalry charge
and wins a splendid victory. He becomes the hero and is adored and worshipped by Raina. On
his return home, we get a scene of higher and romantic love with Raina calling him her hero
and her king and he addressing her as his Queen and saying that he could win the heroic
victory only because she inspired him.
Both Raina and Sergius live in a world of romance. In the beginning of the play Shaw shows
how Raina doubt their romantic ideas. They are derived from the reading of Byron and Pushkin
and the seeing of romantic play. That is why their romance is soon shattered through its very first
contact with reality. Bluntschli represents solid reality. Through him Shaw places the relevant
facts and arguments before Raina and her idealistic notions of war are soon shattered. Firstly, she
is bluntly told that Sergius is a fool and block head, that he and his regiment nearly committed
suicide, only the pistol miss fire.
Of all the fools ever let loose on a field of battle, that man must be the very
maddest. He and his regiment simply committed suicide only the pistol missed fire.
Secondly, she is told that food is more important in war than ammunition, that it is the duty of a
soldier to live as long as he can.
All of them, dear lady, all of them, believe me. It is our duty to live as long as we can.
He also tells her that with their end in view a soldier should run away from the field, and that:
Nine soldiers out of ten are born fools.
Gradually, Raina is made to see the facts of the case, and her romantic ideals of war are
demolished. Similarly, Sergius is disillusioned by war, and realizes that soldering is a trade like
any other trade.
soldering has to be a trade like any other trade.
It is not heroism, but the, cowards art, of mercilessly attacking when you are strong and

having your enemy at a disadvantage.

Soldering, my dear madam, is the cowards art of attacking mercilessly when you are
strong, and keeping out of harms way when you are
weak. That is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your enemy at a disadvantage;
and never, on any account, fight him on equal terms.
Similarly, both Raina and Sergius are disillusioned in their romantic ideals of love. Sergius finds
to his great disappointment that behind his back Raina made love to Bluntschli, and Raina
discovers that her hero is made of clay and can flirt with her maid at her back. Instinctively, she
turns to Bluntschli not because he faces bullets, but because he faces facts. He helps her to find
herself, to understand reality about life. He breaks the web of illusion woven around her, and
makes her see the light of day. The hero of Slivnitza appears in a comic light; the absurdity of his
heroics is exposed and ridiculed.
Thus Shaw is a realist who places before his readers the facts of life, the truth about love and war
to make people think and understand. He spreads truth, and demolishes all that is false and
irrational by focusing on it the searchlight of logic and reason. But it must be remembered that
Shaw is not merely a realist but also an anti-romantic. His realism is not mere photographic
realism; there is also much heightening of reality. In order to achieve his anti-romantic purpose,
the dramatist resorts to exaggeration of reality which often results in distortion and falsification
of reality. His anti-romantic intentions militate against absolute fidelity to fact, and the dramatist
often becomes unconvincing and incredible. A fugitive soldier may demand food when he is
hungry, but we hardly believe that he would demand chocolates. Sex may be an impersonal
instinct, but in real life Sergiuses are usually married to Rainas and not to Loukas. Soldiers may
be born fools, but it does not seem credible that they will not observe a pistol lying in their very
eye, even after a thorough search, while an ignorant maid-servant, Louka, notices it as soon as
she enters the room.
The play is anti-romantic and Shaw succeeded fully in exposing the romantic ideas of life,
specially the romantic attitude towards love and war. But this does not mean that there is no
romance in the play. In fact, there is enough romance. The play opens in an atmosphere of
romantic melodrama. There are thrills and sensations, shootings, fugitives and pursuers. There
are news of a heroic knight and his heroic cavalry charge. There is a beautiful, romantic girl
enjoying the beauty of nature and dreaming for her knight gone to the front and inspired by the
thought of her love. There is also the love at first sight between Raina and Sergius. Such things
do happen but in a romantic fairytale. Bluntschli himself, despite all his realism is a romantic
idiot who comes sneaking to have a look at the pretty lady, considers her to be a schoolgirl of
seventeen, while she is twenty-three, and ultimately turns out to be The Emperor of
Switzerland in a manner of a fairy tale. Louka may be a realist as far as Sergius is concerned,
but she is a romantic in relation to Nicola, dreaming of becoming a rich lady and ignoring his
practical advice. Louka is romantic in her ambition to cut through barriers of birth and rank. Her
love-affair with Sergius is the result of her romantic dreams and she succeeds again in the
manner of a fairy tale.
Shaws views on love and war are characterized by strict realism and are clearly brought out if

we compare them with that of Tolstoy. Like Tolstoy he tells that romantic war is only butchery
and romantic love is only lust. Shaw only objects to them in so far as they are ideal. He objects
not so much to war as to the praise of war. He does not so much dislike love as the love of love.
Shaw is quite content to say:
Do not be taken in by it.
Tolstoy seems really to propose that high passion and patriotic valour should be destroyed. Shaw
is more moderate and only asks that they should not be desecrated.