George Bernard Shaw is certainly one of the major playwrights in the history of English literature. Shaw’s Arms and the Man, is one of the most popular plays in English literature. Arms and the Man is a thought-provoking, anti-romantic and anti-war play. “Arms and the Man is a fitting entry-point into Shaw’s career, which goes on to encompass many more plays investigating the nature of relationships between men and women.”1 The play satirizes the social issues of the day by highlighting and condemning the romantic notions present in some characters. George Bernard Shaw, by presenting a conflict between the realistic and the idealistic notions, satirizes the artificiality, sterility and hollowness of the latter. The paper aims to study Arms
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Being influenced by Ibsen, a Norwegian playwright, he took his pen to write dramas to satirize the rotten attitudes, conventions and manners of the society. Arms and the Man is the most popular and successful staged drama of Shaw. It is also an anti-romantic comedy because it exposes the folly cowardice of soldiers, shatters the romantic illusions about war and attacks severely romantic and sentimental love. Bernard Shaw himself calls Arms and the Man an anti-romantic comedy. Shaw himself was anti-romantic by nature. The principle objection raised by Shaw against romantic literature is that it deals with imaginary ideas and artificial emotions. So, Shaw decidedly and intentionally wrote the play Arms and the Man in his innovative design of anti-romantic comedy. In Arms and the Man, Shaw wittily, humorously and critically exposes the hollowness of romantic and emotional concept of war, love and …show more content…
There are only two sorts of soldiers: old ones and young ones…how is it that you’ve just beaten us? Sheer ignorance of the art of war, nothing else.” (Indignantly) “I never saw anything so unprofessional.”
Raina (ironically): “Oh! Was it professional to beat you?”
Bluntschli here presents a realistic picture of war and satirizes Sergius’s and Raina’s romantic notion: “Well, come! Is it professional to throw a regiment of cavalry on a battery of machine guns, with the dead certainty that if the guns go off not a horse or man will ever get within fifty yards of the fire?” When Raina inquires about the in-charge of the cavalry, Bluntschli satirizes her idealistic notion about war and also exposes the supposed-heroics of Sergius:
Raina: “First One! The bravest of the brave!”
The man (prosaically): “Hm! You should see the poor devil pulling at his horse.”
Raina: “Why should he pull at his horse?”
The Man: “Do you suppose the fellow wants to get there before the others and be
Being influenced by Ibsen, a Norwegian playwright, he took his pen to write dramas to satirize the rotten attitudes, conventions and manners of the society. Arms and the Man is the most popular and successful staged drama of Shaw. It is also an anti-romantic comedy because it exposes the folly cowardice of soldiers, shatters the romantic illusions about war and attacks severely romantic and sentimental love. Bernard Shaw himself calls Arms and the Man an anti-romantic comedy. Shaw himself was anti-romantic by nature. The principle objection raised by Shaw against romantic literature is that it deals with imaginary ideas and artificial emotions. So, Shaw decidedly and intentionally wrote the play Arms and the Man in his innovative design of anti-romantic comedy. In Arms and the Man, Shaw wittily, humorously and critically exposes the hollowness of romantic and emotional concept of war, love and …show more content…
There are only two sorts of soldiers: old ones and young ones…how is it that you’ve just beaten us? Sheer ignorance of the art of war, nothing else.” (Indignantly) “I never saw anything so unprofessional.”
Raina (ironically): “Oh! Was it professional to beat you?”
Bluntschli here presents a realistic picture of war and satirizes Sergius’s and Raina’s romantic notion: “Well, come! Is it professional to throw a regiment of cavalry on a battery of machine guns, with the dead certainty that if the guns go off not a horse or man will ever get within fifty yards of the fire?” When Raina inquires about the in-charge of the cavalry, Bluntschli satirizes her idealistic notion about war and also exposes the supposed-heroics of Sergius:
Raina: “First One! The bravest of the brave!”
The man (prosaically): “Hm! You should see the poor devil pulling at his horse.”
Raina: “Why should he pull at his horse?”
The Man: “Do you suppose the fellow wants to get there before the others and be