Arms And The Man by GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
"Arms and The Man" is an anti-romantic comedy by George Barnard Shaw. In this play, Shaw criticizes the idea of the hero and traditional heroism. Arms and The Man enables us not only to laugh but also to think.
Sergius and Bluntschli are two major characters in this play. Shaw criticizes Sergius showing as a failure who has blundered into heroism by mistake. Sergius leads a successful cavalry charge against the heavily armed Serbian soldiers.
Though he achieves victory it was a fortunate coincident for him because at that time Serbian soldiers were not equipped with the right ammo. Though he was in love with Raina he falls in love with Louka.
So Sergius is a traditional warlike hero in this play having romantic and unrealistic ideas about war and love. On the other hand, Bluntschli is a Swedish professional warrior who abandoned war but Shaw represents him as an authentic and practical soldier.
He is none of Sergius and Raina's romantic notion of war. He carries chocolate cream instead of bullets makes Raina call him a chocolate cream soldier affectionately represents Raina's romanticism.
Bluntschli's practical ideas expose the hollowness of Sergius' victory. Raina's romanticism is based on higher platonic ideals. Raina’s awakening from higher ideals and marriage with Bluntschli is the romantic notion of love and marriage in this play.
The hollowness of Sergius' victory and his disillusion, Bluntschli's realistic ideas and carrying chocolate instead of bullets, and ideas about its efficiency are anti-war plays. In the end, the play shows Raina's change from false romanticism towards authentic love towards Bluntschli. It ends marriage and love.
These are romantic elements in anti-romantic play. This play also represents the iconoclastic philosophy of love and war, an attitude against class prejudices. That is why we can say that Arms and The Man enables us not only to laugh but also to think.