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'{{Infobox play | name = Arms and the Man | image = | image_size = | image_alt = | caption = | writer = [[George Bernard Shaw]] | chorus = | characters = Raina Petkoff <br /> Sergius Saranoff <br /> Captain Bluntschli <br /> Catharine Petkoff <br /> Major Petkoff <br /> Louka <br /> Nicola<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.enotes.com/topics/arms-man/characters | title=E-NOTES | accessdate=20 November 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/arms-and-the-man/character-list | title=Cliff Notes | accessdate=20 November 2013}}</ref> | mute = | setting = | premiere = {{Start date|1894|04|21}} | place = [[Avenue Theatre]] | orig_lang = | series = | subject = Love and War<ref>{{cite book | url=http://books.google.co.in/books/about/Arms_and_the_Man.html?id=9qbC6BFBdUcC&redir_esc=y | title=Google Books | accessdate=20 November 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/35534/Arms-and-the-Man | title=Encyclopaedia Britannica | accessdate=20 November 2013}}</ref> | genre = | web = | playbill = | ibdb_id = | iobdb_id = }} '''''Arms and the Man''''' is a [[comedy]] by [[George Bernard Shaw]], whose title comes from the opening words of [[Virgil]]'s [[Aeneid]] in Latin: ''Arma virumque cano'' ("Arms and the man I sing"). The play was first produced on April 21, 1894 at the [[Avenue Theatre]], and published in 1898 as part of Shaw's ''[[Plays Pleasant]]'' volume, which also included ''[[Candida (play)|Candida]]'', ''[[You Never Can Tell (play)|You Never Can Tell]],'' and ''[[The Man of Destiny]].'' The play was one of Shaw's first commercial successes. He was called onto stage after the curtain, where he received enthusiastic applause. However, amidst the cheers, one audience member booed. Shaw replied, in characteristic fashion, "My dear fellow, I quite agree with you, but what are we two against so many?"<ref>Frezza, Daniel. [http://www.bard.org/education/resources/other/candidaplaywright.html "About the Playwright: George Bernard Shaw"], "Utah Shakespearean Festival," 2007. Accessed February 12, 2008. Shaw's contemporary, [[William Butler Yeats]], was present for the performance, and rendered this quotation differently in his autobiography: "I assure the gentleman in the gallery that he and I are of exactly the same opinion, but what can we do against a whole house who are of the contrary opinion?" (Yeats, ''The Trembling of the Veil, book 4: The Tragic Generation,'' from ''Autobiographies,'' in ''The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats,'' vol. 3, ed. William H. O’Donell and Douglas N. Archibald (New York: Scribner, 1999), 221).</ref> ''Arms and the Man'' is a humorous play which shows the futility of war and deals with the hypocrisies of human nature in a comedic fashion. ==Plot summary== [[File:Farr as Louka.jpg|frame|Production photograph of [[Florence Farr]] for ''Arms and the Man'']] The play takes place during the 1885 [[Serbo-Bulgarian War]]. Its heroine, Raina (rah-EE-na) Petkoff, is a young [[Bulgaria]]n woman engaged to Sergius Saranoff, one of the heroes of that war, whom she idolizes. One night, a [[Switzerland|Swiss]] mercenary soldier in the Serbian army, Captain Bluntschli, climbs in through her bedroom window and threatens to shoot Raina if she gives the alarm. When Russian/Bulgarian troops burst in to search the house for him, Raina hides him so that he won't be killed. In a conversation after the soldiers have left, Bluntschli's attitude towards war and soldiering (pragmatic and practical as opposed to Raina's idealistic views) shock her, especially after he tells her that he does not carry pistol cartridges but chocolate. When the search dies down, Raina and her mother Catherine sneak Bluntschli out of the house, disguised in an old housecoat. The war ends with the Bulgarians and Serbians signing a peace treaty and Sergius returns to Raina, but also flirts with her insolent servant girl Louka (a [[soubrette]] role), who is engaged to Nicola, the Petkoff's manservant. Raina begins to find Sergius both foolhardy and tiresome, but she hides it. Bluntschli unexpectedly returns so that he can give back the old housecoat, but also so that he can see her. Raina and her mother are shocked, especially when her father and Sergius reveal that they have met Bluntschli before and invite him to stay for lunch (and to help them with troop movements). Afterwards, left alone with Bluntschli, Raina realizes that he sees through her romantic posturing, but that he respects her as a woman, as Sergius does not. She tells him that she had left a photograph of herself in the pocket of the coat, inscribed "To my chocolate-cream soldier", but Bluntschli says that he didn't find it and that it must still be in the coat pocket. Bluntschli gets a telegram informing him of his father's death and revealing to him his now-enormous inheritance. Louka then tells Sergius that Bluntschli is the man whom Raina protected and that Raina is really in love with him. Sergius challenges Bluntschli to a duel, but Bluntschli avoids fighting and Sergius and Raina break off their engagement (with some relief on both sides). Raina's father, Major Paul Petkoff, discovers the portrait in the pocket of his housecoat, but Raina and Bluntschli trick him by removing the photograph before he finds it again in an attempt to convince him that his mind is playing tricks on him, but Petkoff is determined to learn the truth and claims that the "chocolate-cream soldier" is Sergius. After Bluntschli reveals the whole story to Major Petkoff, Sergius proposes marriage to Louka (to Mrs. Petkoff's horror); Nicola quietly and gallantly lets Sergius have her, and Bluntschli, recognising Nicola's dedication and ability, determines to offer him a job as a hotel manager. While Raina is now single, Bluntschli protests that being 34 years of age he is too old for her, believing her to be 17; upon learning that she is in fact 23, he immediately proposes marriage and proves his wealth and position by listing his inheritance from the telegram. Raina, having realized the hollowness of her romantic ideals, protests that she would prefer her poor "chocolate-cream soldier" to this wealthy businessman. Bluntschli says that he is still the same person, and the play ends with Raina proclaiming her love for him and Bluntschli, with Swiss precision, both clearing up the major's troop movement problems and informing everyone that he will return to be married to Raina exactly two weeks from Tuesday. = ==External links== {{wikisource|Arms and the Man (Shaw)|Arms and the Man}} * [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3618 The script of ''Arms and the Man'' at Project Gutenberg] * {{ibdb show|1681}} * [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0862646/ Internet Movie Database entry for ''Arms and the Man''] * {{cite web | last=McNabb | first=Jim | url=http://www.artsalive.ca/pdf/eth/activities/arms_guide.pdf | title=''Arms and the Man'' by George Bernard Shaw : Study Guide | publisher=National Arts Centre | location=Ottawa | accessdate = 2011-04-12}} * {{cite web | last=Smith | first=Nicole | url=http://www.articlemyriad.com/51.htm | title=''Arms and the Man'' by George Bernard Shaw : Class and Social Critique in the Play | accessdate = 2011-04-12 }} {{George Bernard Shaw}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Arms And The Man}} [[Category:1894 plays]] [[Category:Plays by George Bernard Shaw]] [[Category:Plays adapted into films]] [[Category:Serbo-Bulgarian War]]'