G.B. Shaw’s Approach Towards Love and
Marriage
George Bernard Shaw,
the writer of ‘Arms and the Man’, takes a realistic view about love and
marriage and exposes the hollowness of romantic love in ‘Arms and the Man’. He
does not believe in romantic notions of love and marriage.
In the play, he admits
the value of love in human life and presents a matter of fact attitude towards
marriage. Raina and Sergius are two apostles of romantic love. They are engaged
to each other. When Raina learns from his mother that Sergius has won a great
victory at the battle of Slivnitza, she becomes wild in joy. She thinks that
all her heroic ideas about Sergius have been proved true. She takes the
portrait of Sergius. She worships the portrait like a priestess and addresses
it as the hero of her soul.
When Sergius returns from the battle field, Raina idealises
him as a hero and a king. Sergius also idealises her as a queen. She tells him
that they have found “higher love”, and in this state of “higher love” when he
is in her mind, she can do nothing base or think anything ignoble. She also
asserts that he has been always present in her mind. Sergius reciprocates this
“higher love” by saying that, all his deeds of bravery were possible only on
account of the inspiration that he got from her. His love and devotion to her
gave him courage to fight like a knight in a tournament with his lady looking
down at him.
Soon afterwards, when Raina goes out of his sight, he sheds
his romantic illusions. His sexual instinct is stirred by the physical charm of
the maid-servant, Louka. He makes amorous advances towards her. At that time,
she informs him that, while he is making love to her behind Raina’s back, Raina
is also doing the same thing behind his back. She also poisons his ear by
saying that, Raina will marry the Swiss officer, if he comes back again.
Raina’s romantic
illusion about love begins to break when she meets Bluntschli. Bluntschli tells
her what is true about life and war. He describes Sergius’ cavalry charge from
a realistic point of view. He tells her that the leader of the cavalry charge
was not like a real hero. He led the charge like an utter fool. He tried to
show his bravery but did not realise that if the Serbians had the right kind of
ammunition in their machine guns, the Bulgarians could be massacred, It lowers
her ideas about Sergius. She begins to feel sympathy for Bluntschli. She gives
him shelter and chocolates. When he is to leave the house in the morning, she
gives him the old coat in the pocket of which she puts her photograph with the
inscription: “Raina to her Chocolate Cream Soldier: a Souvenir” intending for
Bluntschli.
Being jealous, Sergius
accuses Raina of loving Bluntschli and of allowing him to make love to her
behind his (Sergius’) back. He also accuses her of being received him
(Bluntschli) in her bedroom late at night. Raina wonders: “Oh, what sort of god
is this I have been worshipping!” Then she also accuses him of flirting with
the maid servant, Louka. She realises Sergius’ real character and becomes
completely disillusioned about him and begins to feel even more drawn towards
Bluntschli. Hence, both Raina and Sergius get rid of their “higher love”.
Sergius’ romantic love for Raina vanishes at the touch of his real passion for
Louka. When he is exposed, he declares to marry Louka and Louka, on her parts,
accepts him because it is her ambition to marry a person above her station.
Raina agrees to marry Bluntschli as she finds him a practical minded man with
great common sense and lot of firsthand knowledge of life and human nature. She
also finds in him economic security and comfort.
Thus, Shaw shows that
love is not a romance but a reality. According to him, love and marriage should
be based on mutual understanding and economic security.
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Written By
S. MALLICK
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BIBLIOGRAPHY – Text Book (FBC), A Study Guide
(FBC) & Handnote Series (Lecture)
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