Raina - The play’s protagonist and heroine. Raina is a young woman living in the area in Bulgaria and born into the wealthy Petkoff family. She longs for her fiancé Sergius, who has just led a successful if ill-planned, cavalry charge against the Serbs. Raina meets and falls in love with Bluntschli, the Swiss “chocolate cream soldier” fighting for the Serbs.
Bluntschli - Swiss mercenary fighting for the Serbs, and Raina’s love interest, who she calls “the chocolate cream soldier.” He is skilled in warfare and emotionally refined but has a weakness for sweets. Bluntschli hides in Raina’s room with her help. When he returns in the spring to return Major Petkoff’s cloak, events are set into motion that brings out Catherine and Raina’s plan to help him, and that lead to his engagement to Raina and an ultimately happy ending.
Sergius - Raina’s fiancé, and the hero of the Battle of Slivnitza. Sergius, by his own and many others’ admission, has no military skill. He led the charge out of a mixture of foolhardiness and desire for self-promotion. Sergius flirts with the Petkoffs’ servant Louka, and the play ends in their engagement.
Catherine - Raina’s mother, and woman of the Petkoff household. Catherine wants to marry off her daughter to a wealthy and a prominent man. When Sergius appears to be this man, Catherine approves of the union. As it becomes clear that Sergius is not the man he presented himself to be, Catherine is willing to switch her loyalties to Bluntschli. Catherine is focused on making sure the Petkoffs’ are up-to-date in their home furnishings and technology.
Louka - The Petkoffs’ female servant. Louka is engaged to Nicola, the head male servant. She has a flirtatious relationship with Sergius, who is engaged to Raina. Louka wants to better her social station by marrying a noble and criticizes Nicola for having no aspirations over those of a common servant.
Major Petkoff - Head of the Petkoff family, and Raina’s father. The Major is a decent if unambitious soldier, and he seems concerned mostly with maintaining his family’s social position in the rural parts of Bulgaria. He and Catherine are willing to accept Bluntschli as Raina’s suitor by the play’s end only after he proves just how wealthy he is.
Nicola - Head male servant of the Petkoff estate. Nicola initially warns Louka for her willingness to make use of the information she’s heard as gossip against the Petkoffs. Louka feels that Nicola is not ambitious enough because he is content to be a servant for the rest of his life. Nicola ends the play by breaking his engagement politely with Louka, allowing her to be engaged to Sergius.
Author Bio:
In 1856 George Bernard Shaw was born in a lower-middle-class neighbourhood in Dublin, Ireland, and was the youngest of three siblings. His mother, who was a professional singer, encouraged his interests in the arts, and eventually left Shaw’s alcoholic father. In his twenties, Shaw began a course of private reading at the British Museum, allowing him to engage not only with English poets like William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley but with the political thought of the 1870s. Written in 1893-4 and first performed in 1894, Arms and the Man is one of Shaw’s earlier plays and one that grows out of several contexts. The first is historical. There was a Serbo-Bulgarian War in 1885. Some scholars have called Arms and the Man a satire, or a work that criticizes political or social issues of the day. The second context man-woman relationship.
Main ideas in the play:
Disappointment with war -War should not be seen as romantic. War is simply a job for soldiers, and nothing more. Bluntschli also destroys Raina’s romantic idea of war and heroism.
The difficulty of romantic love: Raina does appear to love Sergius at the beginning of the play, but when she falls in love with Bluntschli, she realizes her love for Sergius was insincere. Louka, though engaged to her fellow-servant Nicola, does not appear to have ever been in love with him, and demonstrates that she is willing to work hard to marry into a higher rank.
Social class and social status: The Petkoff family represents the high social class and the servants in the family represent the low social class. Louka wants to belong to the high social class (by marrying Sergius), whereas, Nicola is happy to continue as a servant.
