Question: write an essay on the fallacy (a mistaken belief, especially one based on unsound
arguments) of the romantic conceptions of war, love, and marriage as exposed in the arms and
the man.
Arms and the Man written by Gorge Barnard Shaw is a modern romantic drama where he highly
attacks the traditional ideas of love and war including marriage. Barnard Shaw believes the idea
that in modern dramas, love and war should be presented in a realistic way so that people can
find themselves out in a new way out of their romantic visionary world in the old age. So, in
fulfilling that idea, he creates the character of Bluntscli who is unromantic but very much
practical. In this drama, the arrival of bluntschli is something magical which divides the drama
with two different viewpoints. Such as, from the very beginning of the drama, Raina was seen to
have an unrealistic notion about love and war that she has developed through three things; opera
watching, reading the novels of Byron and Pushkin, and seeing Sergius. But after the arrival of
Bluntschli, these ideas have become changed and she became much more practical than before
that was also evident in her voice. To her, war was something glorifying and dying in the
battlefield is a heroic act but this idea was shattered by bluntschli’s dialogue “All of them dear
lady, all of them, believe me. It’s our duty to live as long as we can”. Moreover, Bluntschli told
her about the foolish act of Sergius in the battlefield and she started to change her romantic ideas
about sergius. Previously Raina addressed Sergius with some Victorian title like my king, my
saint etc. but when the reality of war came out by Bluntscli, she became revolutionary and told
her mother “I sometime wish you could marry him instead of me”. Besides, the real scenario of
the battlefield has become unfold towards Raina by Bluntschli’s dialogue that an experienced
soldier is quite familiar with the realities of war so he carries food inside his leather cases and
cartridge boxes instead of weapons and gunpowder; but the young soldiers carry pistols and
bullets, and no food, as they have romantic ideas of war.
In addition, love in this drama is very much fictitious in many cases. Love between raina and
sergius does not come out of emotion rather it is very much calculative. Raina started to love
sergius when he won the battle but before that she was waiting for a proof to judge the worth of
sergius with her imaginery hero. On the other hand, sergius’s love towards raina was deceptive
as he continued another relationship with the maid louka. Even sergius’s love towards louka is
also not emotional rather it is physical love.
Another issue that was highly criticized in this drama by George Bernard Shaw is marriage.
Marriage is a mutual relationship between two people that is very serious and out of any strict
condition. But here in this drama, marriage was seen to be the secure instrument of financial
stability through which one can easily uplift his position in the society. Such as, Raina wanted to
marry sergius by the force of his parents. On the other hand, raina’s parents at last decided to
marry her with Bluntschli when they knew about that Bluntschli was financially much more
capable than Sergius. Even, louka wanted to uplift her position by marrying sergius. Thus,
bluntschli criticized the notion of love, war and marriage in the present day world.
