Summary :
The play begins in the bedroom of Raina Petkoff in a
Bulgarian town in 1885, during the Serbo-Bulgarian War. As the play opens,
Catherine Petkoff and her daughter, Raina, have just heard that the Bulgarians
have scored a tremendous victory in a cavalry charge led by Raina's fiancé,
Major Sergius Saranoff, who is in the same regiment as Raina's father, Major
Paul Petkoff. Raina is so impressed with the noble deeds of her fiancé that she
fears that she might never be able to live up to his nobility. At this very
moment, the maid, Louka, rushes in with the news that the Serbs are being
chased through the streets and that it is necessary to lock up the house and
all of the windows. Raina promises to do so later, and Louka leaves. But as
Raina is reading in bed, shots are heard, there is a noise at the balcony
window, and a bedraggled enemy soldier with a gun appears and threatens to kill
her if she makes a sound. After the soldier and Raina exchange some words,
Louka calls from outside the door; she says that several soldiers want to
search the house and investigate a report that an enemy Serbian soldier was
seen climbing her balcony. When Raina hears the news, she turns to the soldier.
He says that he is prepared to die, but he certainly plans to kill a few
Bulgarian soldiers in her bedroom before he dies. Thus, Raina impetuously
decides to hide him. The soldiers investigate, find no one, and leave. Raina
then calls the man out from hiding; she nervously and absentmindedly sits on
his gun, but she learns that it is not loaded; the soldier carries no
cartridges. He explains that instead of carrying bullets, he always carries
chocolates into battle. Furthermore, he is not an enemy; he is a Swiss, a
professional soldier hired by Serbia. Raina gives him the last of her chocolate
creams, which he devours, maintaining that she has indeed saved his life. Now
that the Bulgarian soldiers are gone, Raina wants the "chocolate cream soldier"
(as she calls him) to climb back down the drainpipe, but he refuses to; whereas
he could climb up, he hasn't the strength to climb down. When Raina goes after
her mother to help, the "chocolate cream soldier" crawls into Raina's
bed and falls instantly asleep. In fact, when they re-enter, he is sleeping so
soundly that they cannot awaken him.
Act II begins four months later in the garden of Major
Petkoff's house. The middle-aged servant Nicola is lecturing Louka on the
importance of having proper respect for the upper class, but Louka has too
independent a soul to ever be a "proper" servant. She has higher
plans for herself than to marry someone like Nicola, who, she insists, has the
"soul of a servant." Major Petkoff arrives home from the war, and his
wife Catherine greets him with two bits of information: she suggests that
Bulgaria should have annexed Serbia, and she tells him that she has had an
electric bell installed in the library. Major Sergius Saranoff, Raina's fiancé
and leader of the successful cavalry charge, arrives, and in the course of
discussing the end of the war, he and Major Petkoff recount the now-famous
story of how a Swiss soldier escaped by climbing up a balcony and into the
bedroom of a noble Bulgarian woman. The women are shocked that such a crude
story would be told in front of them. When the Petkoffs go into the house,
Raina and Sergius discuss their love for one another, and Raina romantically
declares that the two of them have found a "higher love."
When Raina goes to get her hat so that they can go for a
walk, Louka comes in, and Sergius asks if she knows how tiring it is to be
involved with a "higher love." Then he immediately tries to embrace
the attractive maid. Since he is being so blatantly familiar, Louka declares that
Miss Raina is no better than she; Raina, she says, has been having an affair
while Sergius was away, but she refuses to tell Sergius who Raina's lover is,
even though Sergius accidently bruises Louka's arm while trying to wrest a
confession from her. When he apologizes, Louka insists that he kiss her arm,
but Sergius refuses and, at that moment, Raina re-enters. Sergius is then
called away, and Catherine enters. The two ladies discuss how incensed they
both are that Sergius related the tale about the escaping soldier. Raina,
however, doesn't care if Sergius hears about it; she is tired of his stiff
propriety. At that moment, Louka announces the presence of a Swiss officer with
a carpetbag, calling for the lady of the house. His name is Captain Bluntschli.
Instantly, they both know he is the "chocolate cream soldier" who is
returning the Major's old coat that they disguised him in. As they make rapid,
desperate plans to send him away, Major Petkoff hails Bluntschli and greets him
warmly as the person who aided them in the final negotiations of the war; the
old Major insists that Bluntschli must their houseguest until he has to return
to Switzerland.
Act III begins shortly after lunch and takes place in the
library. Captain Bluntschli is attending to a large amount of confusing
paperwork in a very efficient manner, while Sergius and Major Petkoff merely
observe. Major Petkoff complains about a favorite old coat being lost, but at
that moment Catherine rings the new library bell, sends Nicola after the coat,
and astounds the Major by thus retrieving his lost coat. When Raina and
Bluntschli are left alone, she compliments him on his looking so handsome now
that he is washed and brushed. Then she assumes a high and noble tone and
chides him concerning certain stories which he has told and the fact that she
has had to lie for him. Bluntschli laughs at her "noble attitude" and
says that he is pleased with her demeanor. Raina is amused; she says that
Bluntschli is the first person to ever see through her pretensions, but she is perplexed
that he didn't feel into the pockets of the old coat which she lent him; she
had placed a photo of herself there with the inscription "To my Chocolate
Cream Soldier." At this moment, a telegram is brought to Bluntschli
relating the death of his father and the necessity of his coming home
immediately to make arrangements for the six hotels that he has inherited. As
Raina and Bluntschli leave the room, Louka comes in wearing her sleeve in a
ridiculous fashion so that her bruise will be obvious. Sergius enters and asks
if he can cure it now with a kiss. Louka questions his true bravery; she
wonders if he has the courage to marry a woman who is socially beneath him,
even if he loved the woman. Sergius asserts that he would, but he is now
engaged to a girl so noble that all such talk is absurd. Louka then lets him
know that Bluntschli is his rival and that Raina will marry the Swiss soldier.
Sergius is incensed. He sees Bluntschli and immediately challenges him to a
duel; then he retracts when Raina comes in and accuses him of making love to
Louka merely to spy on her and Bluntschli. As they are arguing, Bluntschli asks
for Louka, who has been eavesdropping at the door. She is brought in, Sergius
apologizes to her, kisses her hand, and thus they become engaged. Bluntschli
asks permission to become a suitor for Raina's hand, and when he lists all of
the possessions which he has (200 horses, 9600 pairs of sheets, ten thousand
knives and forks, etc.), permission for the marriage is granted, and Bluntschli
says that he will return in two weeks to marry Raina. Succumbing with pleasure,
Raina gives a loving smile to her "chocolate cream soldier."
Historical context:
Bernard Shaw’s childhood was overshadowed by the failure of
his parents’ marriage. And the realities of human relationships and the bond of
marriage became one of the most important themes in his plays. To Shaw,
marriage is not the domesticity of lovers with rosy dreams of a beautiful
future, it is a solemn contract between two people who share the
responsibilities of providing a better future to the world. The other important
theme of the play is the brutality of war. The play, published in 1898, showed the
viewers what war is actually like. Shaw was criticized for belittling soldiers,
the brave patriots who sacrifice their lives to save their country. But the two
world wars of the twentieth century proved the power of Shaw’s prophetic
vision.
Wind up :
Throughout the play, Shaw arranged his material so as to
satirize the glories associated with war and to ultimately suggest that
aristocratic pretensions have no place in today's wars, which are won by using
business-like efficiency, such as the practical matters of which Bluntschli is
a master. Arms and the Man presents a world where the practical man who
lives with no illusions and no poetic views about either love or war is shown
to be the superior creature.