A beautiful comedy by George Bernard Shaw. Its title comes from the opening words of Virgil’s Aeneid: "Arma virumque cano"(Of arms and the man I sing). I did not know this till I found this out from good ol’ wiki, of course!:) 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War, that forms the backdrop, provides the scene of the war that, astonishingly, stays alive in everything said n done in the play.from romance to disgust, loyalty to falsehood.Its heroine, Raina, (The name’s PRETTY, no?) is a young Bulgarian woman, the saviour of an on-the-run soldier, Captain Bluntschli(doth the name say anything?) She’s engaged to Sergius Saranoff, one of the heroes of that war, whom she idolizes, in the most fervent manner so reminiscent of Byron n Pushkin.
One night, Bluntschli, to Raina a perfect stranger, bursts through her bedroom window and begs her to hide him, running away, as he is, from the Bulgarian army. Raina’s romanticism, and her conception of nobility allows her to grandly, n even happily, comply. In the events that follow, she finds the man a coward, in a way that all her romantic ideals about bravery n manhood and gallantry are outraged. And this, especially so, when he tells her that he does not carry pistol cartridges, but chocolates! This play then goes on in a way that today’s literature can never parallel, to show that at the end, Raina, having realized the hollowness of her romantic ideals and her own fiancé’s values, protests that she would prefer her poor "chocolate-cream soldier" to this wealthy businessman and’ideal’ soldier that Saranoff is.
I found myself wondering at times if Shaw intended more to highlight the superficiality of the so-called higher class, in his overt sarcasm exemplified in the showing off of their library by Raina’s family to guests, and I believe that if this is the case, it stands only to reinforce the shallowness of what our cultures often say is grand and desirable and happiness-giving, and what actually is.
The beginning, especially, is captivating. "On the balcony, a young lady, intensely conscious of the romantic beauty of the night, and of the fact that her own youth and beauty is a part of it, is on the balcony, gazing at the snowy Balkans." It’s very readable.especially coz of its satirical targetting of the false notions of both love and war. I love it!