Risultati di ricerca
Arms and the Man is a 1932 British film based on the play Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw. [1] It was written and directed by Cecil Lewis .
Arms and the Man: Directed by Cecil Lewis. With Barry Jones, Anne Grey, Maurice Colbourne, Angela Baddeley. Which soldier will the naive, impressionable Raina choose to love - the unromantic, hard-nosed, tough Bluntschli, or the handsome, dashing, reckless (and extremely stupid) Sergius?
- (15)
- Barry Jones, Anne Grey, Maurice Colbourne
- Cecil Lewis
- Introduction
- Author Biography
- Plot Summary
- Characters
- Themes
- Style
- Historical Context
- Critical Overview
- Criticism
- Sources
Shaw was already a celebrity arts critic and socialist lecturer when he wrote Arms and the Manin 1894. One of Shaw's earliest attempts at writing for the theatre, it was also his first commercial success as a playwright. Although it played for only one season at an avant-garde theatre, thanks to the financial backing of a friend, it was later produ...
Considered one of the greatest English-speaking dramatist since Shakespeare, George Bernard Shawwas born July 26, 1856, in Dublin, Ireland, and had a long and productive life. He was the only son and youngest of three children born to George Carr and Lucinda Elizabeth Gurly Shaw, who were Irish Protestant gentry. Shaw's education involved tutoring ...
Act 1
It is November 1885, during the Serbo-Bulgarian War. Raina Petkoff, a young Bulgarian woman, is in her bedchamber when her mother, Catherine, enters and announces there has been a battle close by and that Raina's fiancé, Major Sergius Saranoff, was the hero of a cavalry charge. The women rejoice that Sergius has proven to be as heroic as they expected, but they soon turn to securing the house because of fighting in the streets. Nonetheless, a Serbian officer gains entry through Raina's shutte...
Act 2
On March 6, 1886, Raina's father, Major Paul Petkoff, comes home and announces the end of the war. Catherine is upset that the Serbians have agreed to a peace treaty, believing that her side should have a glorious victory. Major Saranoff arrives just after Petkoff makes comments indicating that Saranoff is not a talented military leader. Catherine praises Saranoff, but he announces that he is resigning from the army. Raina joins the conversation just before the discussion turns to a Swiss off...
Act 3
Bluntschli is busy drawing up orders, and Saranoff signs them as everyone else is lounging in the library. Petkoff complains that he would be more comfortable in his old coat, but he cannot find it. Now that Bluntschli has returned it, Catherine insists that the coat is in the blue closet, where she placed it since the last time her husband looked. When the servant finds the coat in the appropriate closet, Petkoff dismisses the incident as a foible of old age. When Saranoff and Petkoff go out...
Captain Bluntschli
Bluntschli is a realist who believes in adapting to a situation in order to survive. A professional soldier, he knows that he is only a tool and he has no illusions about war and the practical actions one must take to win battles and stay alive. His most famous feature is that he keeps chocolates in his cartridge belt rather than bullets. His common sense appeals to Sergius, who is in awe of Bluntschli's ability to figure out troop movements. This influence helps Sergius make the decision to...
Louka
An ambitious and sometimes spiteful maid who is desperate to rise above her station, Louka is attracted to Major Sergius Saranoff, and he to her. However, Sergius is engaged to Raina, and he is gentry while Louka is just a servant. Louka shames Sergius about the hypocrisy of his behavior. She tries to break up his relationship with Raina when Captain Bluntschli returns, knowing that Bluntschli is the enemy soldier who hid in Raina's bedroom. Louka is herself supposedly engaged to another serv...
Nicola
A wily servant, Nicola covers for Raina and Catherine's intrigues. He believes that class division is an indisputable system, and he advises Louka to accept her place. He found Louka, taught her how to be a proper servant, and plans to marry her, but he comes to see how Louka's marriage to Sergius would create an advantage for both Louka and for himself. Thus, he changes his story about his engagement to Louka, and he promotes Louka's ambitions. Ultimately, Nicola wants to run his own busines...
Romanticism of War
In line after line, Shaw satirizes the romantic notions about war that glorify a grisly business. If not for the comic dialogue, the audience would more easily recognize that they are being presented with a soldier who has escaped from a horrific battle after three days of being under fire. He is exhausted, starving, and being pursued. Such is the experience of a real soldier. Late in the play, Shaw throws in a gruesome report on the death of the man who told Bluntschli's secret about staying...
Romanticism of Love
Shaw was a master flirt and he enjoyed the playful farce of romantic intrigues. But he recognized that playing a game differed from serious love, and he tried to convey as much in Arms and the Man, which is subtitled "An Anti-Romantic Comedy." In the play, Raina and Sergius have paired themselves for all the wrong reasons: because their social status requires a mate from the same social level; and because Sergius plays the role of the type of hero that Raina has been taught to admire, and Rai...
TOPICS FOR FURTHER STUDY
1. Shaw greatly admired the artist and socialist William Morris. Write a brief biography that identifies Morris and his legacy. 2. The title of Arms and the Mancomes from the opening line of Virgil's epic poem "The Aeneid." Write a summary of this poem and contrast its message to that of Shaw's play. 3. Shaw identified himself as a socialist and he helped to organize the Fabian Society. What is the Fabian Society, what were its goals, and what were some of the works that Shaw wrote while a Fa...
Ruritanian Romance
Although already established as a model for romances prior to the publication of Anthony Hope's popular 1894 novel The Prisoner of Zenda, Ruritanian romance takes its name from the imaginary country of Ruritania found in Hope's book. This type of story generally includes intrigue, adventure, sword fights, and star-crossed lovers, ingredients that are all found in Arms and the Man. However, Shaw ultimately attacks this genre by exaggerating the absurdities of the plot and by transforming the t...
Comedy
One standard trait of comedic plays—often used by Shakespeare and also used by Shaw in Arms and the Man—is the use of an ending in which all the confusions of the play are resolved, and every romantic figure winds up with his or her ideal partner. The gimmicks in Arms and the Manof the lost coat and the incriminating inscription on the hidden photograph are also ploys that are typical of comedy. The gimmicks serve as catalysts to spark the humorous confusion, and work as objects around which...
Redefining Romance and Heroism
Shaw does not simply dismiss Raina's idealism in favor of Bluntschli's pragmatism. He replaces her shallow ideals with more worthy ones. By the end of the play, Raina understands that a man like Bluntschli is more of a real hero than Sergius. The audience also discovers that Bluntschli's practical nature is not without romance because he has come back to see Raina rather than sending the coat back by courier. In fact, he admits to Sergius that he "climbed the balcony of this house when a man...
Victorian Rule
Queen Victoria, the longest-reigning monarch in British history, was born in 1819 and ruled from 1837–1901. She was married in 1840 to her cousin, Prince Albert, and it was he who insisted on the straitlaced behavior and strict decorum that have become known as Victorian values. They had nine children, whose marriages and prodigy entangled most of the thrones of Europe, including grandchildren Emperor William II of Germany and Empress Alexandra, wife of Nicholas II of Russia. Prince Albert di...
COMPARE & CONTRAST
1. 1890s: After centuries of rule by the Ottoman Turks, in 1878, northern Bulgaria becomes autonomous, and a united Bulgaria gains its independence in 1908.Today: A German ally in both world wars, Bulgaria falls to Soviet domination during World War II and remains under its control until 1990. Upon signing of the European Constitution in 2004, Bulgaria is de facto considered a full-fledged member of the European Union. Bulgaria also joins NATO in 2004. 2. 1890s: After becoming an autonomous p...
Victorian Society
During the second half of the nineteenth century, the family was considered to be the focal point of society. The term "Victorian" is now associated with an inflexible set of manners and prudishness. In truth, the morality of the times was based on a heroic idealism and an honorable work ethic. Character and duty were the watchwords of the times. Class divisions continued, but individual advancement within a class was encouraged. As in many societies, there was a Victorian underworld in which...
Although Shaw's drama was not generally appreciated or understood in his early years as a playwright, he was eventually recognized for his genius and is now considered one of the most important British playwrights of modern times, second only to Shakespeare in the history of British theater. This change of opinion developed over time as a result of...
Lois Kerschen
Kerschen is a school district administrator and freelance writer. In this essay, Kerschen examines the elements of the play that convey Shaw's socialist feelings about class structures and stereotypes. Although the dominant themes of Arms and the Man are the foolishness of romanticized love and of glorified war, there is another theme concerningsocial classes. Shaw was one of the key figures in the establishment of the Fabian Society, a middle-class socialist group that believed reform should...
WHAT DO I READ NEXT?
1. Shaw wrote The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism(1927) as a political primer for women, who had just gained suffrage in Britain. Available in a 1984 reprint edition from Transaction Publishers, this book strongly advocates socialism as the best economic solution. 2. Shaw's Complete Plays with Prefaces(1962), published by Dodd Mead, is a collection of all of Shaw's dramatic works, including the famous prefaces that are so valuable to the study of Shaw and his messages. 3...
A. M. Gibbs
In the following essay, Gibbs examines Shaw's balancing of the satire of romantic conventions with a less conventional romantic narrative inArms and the Man. Much of the laughter in Arms and the Manarises from the steady deflation of romantic ideas of love and war. Yet it is a misreading of the play to see it as simply an anti-romantic and anti-heroic work. In production, a fine balance of tones needs to be achieved in order to preserve the integrity and meaning of the play. In some words of...
Adcock, Arthur St. John, "George Bernard Shaw," in LitFinder.com, Ross Publishing, Inc., 2005. "Bernard Shaw," in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 5th ed., edited by M. H. Abrams, Vol. 2, W. W. Norton, 1986, pp. 1759–62. Borges, Jorge Luis, "For Bernard Shaw," in Other Inquisitions, 1937–1952, by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Ruth L. ...
Arms and the Man is a humorous play that shows the futility of war and deals comedically with the hypocrisies of human nature. Plot summary. Production photograph of Florence Farr portraying Louka in Arms and the Man, 1894.
- 21 April 1894
- Avenue Theatre
- Love and war
- George Bernard Shaw
Arms and the Man (1932) 09/20/1932 (GB) Romance, Comedy 1h 25m User Score. Overview. Which soldier will the naive, impressionable Raina choose to love - the ...
Find trailers, reviews, synopsis, awards and cast information for Arms and the Man (1932) - Cecil Lewis on AllMovie - This first film version of George Bernard Shaw's…
Answer. See more gaps » Edit page. Arms and the Man (1932) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.
