The play follows Raina, a young Bulgarian woman engaged to Sergius, a cavalry officer. Raina helps a Swiss mercenary soldier, Bluntschli, escape after he hides in her room. Over time, Raina grows fond of Bluntschli and realizes her feelings for Sergius were superficial. Sergius is revealed to lack military skill. By the end, Raina is engaged to Bluntschli after he inherits wealth, and Sergius engages Louka, the servant, satisfying her desire for higher social status. The play explores the complexity of love, disillusionment with war, and the arbitrary nature of social status.

1. Plot Overview
SummaryPlot Overview
The play begins in the fall of 1885 during the Serbo-Bulgarian War. Raina, a
woman from a wealthy family, learns from her mother, Catherine, that the Bulgarian
cavalry have won a battle against the Serbs. Catherine adds that Sergius, Raina’s
was at the head of the charge, and was as heroic in life as he appears in the picture
keeps in her bedroom. Louka, their servant, enters and warns Catherine and Raina that
escaped Serbs fleeing the battlefield might be in the area, seeking refuge in the houses
of Bulgarian families. Raina is not worried, and chooses to keep her window unlocked.
In the night, a man enters the room through the unlocked window and says he will kill
Raina if she makes a noise. The man is Swiss and an escaped soldier, fighting as a
mercenary for the Serbians.
Raina is shocked to see that the man is tired and hungry, that he does not glorify battle,
and that he is merely happy to have escaped the carnage alive. Raina helps him hide
behind a curtain just as Catherine, Louka, and a Bulgarian officer enter to search the
room for any Serbs who might be hiding in the area. Raina convinces them that no
one is in her room, and they leave. Raina gives the man chocolate creams, which she
keeps in a box in her room, and is shocked to hear that the man has no ammunition for
his pistol, as he normally only keeps candies in his pockets. The man argues that
Sergius’s cavalry charge against the Serbs was foolish, and succeeded only by sheer
luck. The Serbs had machine guns but were given the wrong ammunition by accident,
and therefore could not mow down Sergius and his men. Raina agrees to help the man
escape later that night, though she rebukes him for making fun of her fiancé Sergius.
The man sleeps as Raina enlists Catherine’s help, and when Raina and Catherine
return, they allow the man to rest since he has not slept for days.
The second act begins in the garden of the same house, though it is now spring of
1886. Louka is engaged to the house’s head male servant, Nicola. Louka tells Nicola
that he will never be more than a servant, and that she has higher aspirations. Louka
tells him she knows many secrets about the Petkoff family, and Nicola says that he
does, too, but would never blackmail his masters. Major Petkoff, the head of the
family, returns from the war. He reports to Catherine that Sergius will never receive
the military promotion Sergius craves, because Sergius has no command of military
strategy. Sergius enters and is greeted warmly by the family, and especially by Raina,
who still considers him a hero. Sergius says he has abandoned his commission in the
army out of anger that he will never move up in the ranks. Sergius and Petkoff tell a
story they heard about this Swiss soldier being hidden by two Bulgarian women
during the soldier’s retreat. Catherine and Raina realize the story is about them, but do
not say anything.

2. Sergius speaks with Louka in private, and begins flirting with her. Louka reveals to
Sergius that Raina might not remain faithful to Sergius, and Sergius is taken aback.
They exit. A man named Bluntschli enters the family garden and Louka brings him to
Catherine. Catherine realizes that he is the man that hid in Raina’s room, the same
man that she and Raina helped escape. Catherine worries that Sergius and Petkoff,
who are conferring over military plans in the library, might encounter the soldier.
Sergius and Petkoff have no idea that the story they heard about a soldier being
helped by two Bulgarian women involves the Petkoffs. Bluntschli has come to return
Major Petkoff’s coat that Catherine and Raina lent him to escape. Raina is so happy to
see him that she blurts out, “the chocolate cream soldier!” when she walks in the room,
only to recover herself and blame her outburst, implausibly, on Nicola. Petkoff and
Sergius, who have in fact already met Bluntschli during the war, ask Bluntschli to stay
and pass the time.
In the final act, the various tensions of the play thus far are exposed. Louka tells
Sergius that the man with whom Raina is in love is Bluntschli. Sergius challenges
Bluntschli to a duel because of this, but Bluntschli explains his way out of it. A
picture of herself that Raina placed in her father’s cloak for Bluntschli to find is
exposed, proving that Raina has not been entirely truthful to Sergius. Raina admits
that she has had feelings for Bluntschli since they first met. Major Petkoff is aghast.
When Bluntschli acknowledges that he has loved Raina, Sergius and Louka reveal
that they have been having a secret affair at Sergius’ instigation, and Nicola releases
Louka from their engagement. Bluntschli, whose father has just died, has come into a
great deal of money, so Raina’s parents are glad to marry her off to him and his
handsome fortune. Raina is revealed to be twenty-three rather than seventeen,
enabling Bluntschli in good conscience to ask for her hand in marriage. Bluntschli
promises to hire Nicola, whom he admires, to run the hotels he has just received as
part of his inheritance. Sergius accepts Louka has his lover in public, thus satisfying
Louka’s desire to move up in the social ranks. The play ends with Sergius exclaiming,
of Bluntschli, “What a man!”

3. Character List -
Raina- The play’s protagonist and heroine. Raina is a young woman living in the
provinces in Bulgaria, and born into the wealthy Petkoff family. She pines 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.The heroine of the play, Raina’s inner self is more
nuanced than her outward appearances. Her true self is revealed not to be horrible or
evil, but simply complex and human. Raina aspires to a perfect romantic chastity for
Sergius, but really harbors affection toward Bluntschli after their initial encounter.
She claims never to have lied in her life, but admits later to telling strategic lies when
they can make a situation easier to handle. Raina is revealed to be not a symbol of
perfect femininity, but, rather, a human being, deserving of companionship with
another human. In structuring Raina’s character this way, Shaw subverts some of the
expectations of what might have been either a comedy of marriage or a serious play
about love and war. Arms and the Man, and Raina in particular, are instances of the
detail of lived experience complicating broader narratives about what “goodness,”
“valor,” or “truth” ought to be.
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
sophisticated, 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 bring out Catherine and Raina’s conspiracy to help him, and that lead
to his engagement to Raina and an ultimately happy ending.The “chocolate cream
soldier” is the driving force of the plot. Bluntschli is a rationalist, meaning a man who
believes in reacting to situations based on the facts, not on what is good versus what is
bad. This does not mean that Bluntschli is immaculate. Bluntschli’s pragmatism
entails that he will expect himself, sometimes, to behave irrationally, or to become
afraid. He knows that he loves Raina passionately, but he is willing to suppress these
feelings when he feels the match is impossible. When Bluntschli realizes Raina is a
potential match for him, he does away with his scruples and carries forward.
Bluntschli demonstrates a mode of life that is not divorced from passion or unreason,
but that takes these feelings into account. This, more than anything, is what seems to
inspire such devotion from the other characters at the end of the play. Sergius in
particular is taken by Bluntschli’s command of himself. Bluntschli’s ability to
expertly navigate the social interactions with the Petkoff family enable him to have
come out on top.

4. 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-aggrandizement. Sergius flirts with the Petkoffs’
servant Louka, and the play ends in their engagement.Sergius is Raina’s foil. He too is
revealed to be far different than he first appears. He is not quite the noble hero of the
Battle of Slivnitza. As Bluntschli notes, his cavalry charge was at best ill-informed,
and it played to Sergius’s vanity. On top of this, Sergius admits to Louka, later in the
play that he is a man of “many personalities.” He is no constant lover, and he has
designs on Louka even while he maintains his engagement to Raina. Whereas Raina is
revealed to be complex in a human and forgivable way, Sergius comes off as
duplicitous and willing to manipulate the truth for his own purposes and at the
expense of other people’s happiness. That Sergius winds up engaged at the play’s end
is a jarring example of Shaw’s moral universe. Shaw does not always punish
characters who might seem deserving of it. But Sergius does marry “below his
station,” even as Louka improves hers.
Catherine-Raina’s mother, and matriarch of the Petkoff household. Catherine wants to
marry off her daughter to as wealthy and prominent a man as possible. 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
allegiances to Bluntschli. Catherine is focused on making sure the Petkoffs’ are
up-to-date in their home furnishings and technology.Catherine is another of the play’s
benevolent opportunists, making the most of circumstances as they break in her
direction. At first, she is strongly supportive of the idea that Raina and Sergius marry.
She finds Sergius to be a fitting future husband for her daughter, as he is a man whose
bravery has been demonstrated on the battlefield. But once Sergius reveals that he has
major flaws, Catherine and Petkoff are more than willing to support their daughter’s
engagement to Bluntschli. This is especially true once Bluntschli indicates that he has
recently come into a substantial fortune.
Louka-The Petkoffs’ female servant. Louka is engaged to Nicola, the head male
servant. She has a vexed if flirtatious relationship with Sergius, who 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.Louka, the female servant, is
another character who is willing to leverage what she knows in order to get what she
wants. Louka admits to Nicola that she knows far more about the Petkoff family than
they would like. Nicola is scandalized that she would trade in gossip to gain power
over the Petkoffs, but for Louka this is not a moral calculation, it’s a practical one.
Louka figures that if Nicola wants to remain a servant, he will, because he knows the
rules of that game. But Louka wants to change the game itself and move up in the
social hierarchy. This involves the violation of norms typical for servant life. It is
Louka’s aspiration toward social rank that enables her to manipulate Sergius, who

5. seemed at first to be manipulating her, and to arrange for a marriage that will make
her a lady.
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 demonstrates just how
wealthy he is.
Nicola-Head male servant of the Petkoff estate. Nicola initially reprimands Louka for
her willingness to leverage 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 amicably with
Louka, allowing her to be engaged to Sergius.
Bluntschli’s friend-A soldier for the Serbian side, who knows Bluntschli. This
unnamed friend meets Petkoff and Sergius during an exchange of goods. He tells
them a story about his friend who hid in a Bulgarian home and escaped with the help
of two Bulgarian women. Petkoff and Sergius have no idea this soldier’s story is
about Bluntschli, Raina, and Catherine.

6. Themes -
1) Disillusionment with war-The play discusses how war is made, how it is fought,
and how parties sue for peace at the close of it. Indeed, the play’s title is a direct quote
from Virgil’s Aeneid, the Roman epic that glorifies war. Shaw used this quote
ironically, drawing attention to how war should not be seen as romantic.The
Serbo-Bulgarian War is not addressed directly in the text, although that is the
historical template on which Shaw bases his production. Bluntschli is a Swiss
mercenary who has hired himself to the Serb cause, along with soldiers from other
nations. Sergius is supposed to representing the “heart” of the Bulgarian enterprise,
with his gutsy charge at the start of the work demonstrating just how powerfully he
wishes to defend his nation’s honor. What becomes clear as the play progresses,
however, is that war is simply a job for soldiers, and nothing more. Sergius is not the
hero he is initially thought to be. He romanticizes war to such an extent that he leads a
foolish charge against the enemy, and only does so in order to climb the ranks for
recognition. Bluntschli also destroys Raina’s romantic idea of war and heroism when
he proves that the best soldiers are often not identified as such on the outside.For
Shaw, war is simply a way for men to occupy themselves, perhaps in redrawing small
parts of the national borders, while others on the domestic front, who are
predominantly women, shape many more aspects of life. Though Catherine and Raina
are ostensibly dependent upon the outcome of the war, in dealing with Bluntshli they
are also active participants in some of its intrigues. In harboring an enemy and
ultimately marrying him, they add to the argument that war and its divisiveness can be
meaningless.
???? 2)The complexity of romantic love-The interactions of characters are
primarily driven by romantic love, or lack of it. Social conventions of love during
Shaw’s time period included public and formal courting, parental approval, and
consideration of social status and wealth of each partner. However, the characters in
this play defy the norms and each end up with a person that is best suited to
them.Characters slowly disabuse themselves of the features of romantic love they
have most cherished all their lives, and realize that it is far more complex. For
example, Raina does appear to love Sergius in the beginning of the play, but when she
falls in love with Blunstshcli, she realizes her love for Sergius was superficial.
Perhaps Raina only felt this way because Sergius was lauded as a hero and because
Catherine and Petkoff supported the union to maintain the family’s social status.By
contrast, 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. Romantic love does not seem to be a factor in her decisions. The
beginnings of Louka’s relationship with Sergius are illicit, and defy social norms of
courtship. Bluntschli’s introduction to Raina is also unconventional, as they meet
secretly in her bedroom. And when they finally become engaged, Bluntschli, the

7. pragmatic and calculating soldier, surprises everyone by revealing himself to be a
lifelong romantic.
???? The arbitrary nature of social status-The social station of the characters in the
play is one of the dynamics that becomes most pronounced by its end. Louka wants to
be more than a servant, whereas Nicola seems content to remain one. Bluntschli
appears to be middle class, but reveals later that he is far, far wealthier than the noble
Petkoffs. Petkoff and Catherine want Raina to reinforce the family’s position however
she can, either by marrying the ostensibly bravest man in Bulgaria, Sergius, or by
adding greatly to the family’s coffers by joining with Bluntschli.As in any marriage
narrative of the nineteenth century, romantic love might be a part of the marriage
calculation, as it certainly didn’t hurt to love one’s partner. But that is far from the
point of marriage in this time period. Characters want to unite noble families and
improve financial situations. What romantic love tends to do in these situations, then,
is cut across and destabilize what might be the otherwise orderly transfer of money
between families.
Symbols -
1) Petkoff’s coat-Catherine and Raina lend Bluntschli Major Petkoff’s coat to escape
the estate in the fall, under cover of darkness. The coat is a symbol of the various
instances of deception around which the novel unfolds. Bluntschli brings the coat
back to the Petkoffs without realizing that Raina has left an inscribed picture of
herself in its pocket, thus indicating to anyone who might see it that she loves
Bluntschli despite being engaged to Sergius. The coat literally hides Raina’s love for
Bluntschli, and this love is only revealed once Raina’s photograph is removed from
the coat. Petkoff cannot find the coat in his closet until Nicola, on Catherine’s urging,
places the coat there after Bluntschli’s return in an attempt to cover up the story.
Major Petkoff is as sure the coat is not in his closet as he is that nothing is the matter
between Raina, Bluntschli, and Sergius in that moment. When Nicola produces the
coat, the turmoil between the characters is revealed, and Major Petkoff is just as
shocked at both revelations.
2) Chocolate creams-Raina keeps candies, including chocolate creams, in her
bedroom. She appears not to like chocolate creams, as they’re the only candies left in
the box. But Bluntschli loves them especially, and famished as he is after the battle,

8. he eats them greedily when Raina offers. From then on, she calls him “the chocolate
cream soldier.” Chocolate creams are a symbol of delicacy and high society, as well
as a symbol of youthfulness. However, Bluntschli’s willingness to stuff them in his
pockets in place of ammunition indicates that they are also a symbol of maturity and
knowledge. Bluntschli knows how difficult war is. He is a veteran, not a rookie. Thus
the creams are over-determined in the play, meaning there is no single significance
that can be placed on them. This is similar to how Raina and Bluntschli are neither
paragons of total good nor total evil, but complex humans who behave practically as
best they can.
???? The library-For the Petkoffs, the library is a sign of cultivation and status in
the family, which they perceive as rare among Bulgarians. The Petkoffs worry that the
Bulgarians are not as refined as their Russain enemies, and Raina is quick to point out
to Bluntschli that their library is perhaps the only one in the area. But as the Third
Act’s stage notes point out, the library is far from lavish. In fact, it’s only a small
room with dusty old volumes scattered on the shelves. The library symbolizes both
the Petkoffs’ preoccupation with what they see as fine taste, and the reality of the
family that falls far short of this ideal.