Major concerns in the Arms and the Man
Main preoccupations
The subversion of ideas about class and social class structures
The subversion of ideas about gender relations
o Why must women be meak and mild and simply and men being heroic and
brave
The subversion of romanticised/idealized notions of love, and of war
o People got married for power not for love.
o You married to try better your social position.
o Love people for who they are not what they can promise you
o War is ugly it's not romantic
The play functions as social commentary:
Shaw tries to highlight and criticize the problems with these views(through the use of
humour) that he suspects many of the audience members in his context might hold.
By making them laugh at these views when presented on stage, he hopes to prompt the
audience to interrogate their own similar views. Its satirical.
Treating the play as play
Not a novel or poem
It was written to be performed and experienced by an audience
A lot of implied information, not extensive place for characters to say everything
they're thinking and for detailed description
-therefore things like tone of voice and stage directions are important
You need to be aware of it as a text but also as a script for a performance that
has an effect on an audience
Therefore, you need to be aware of stage directions and of how shaw writes for a
performance on front of an audience
Stage directions
Everything characters do,rather than say, how they do. Describes way they
speak or move.
Stage directions are meaningful, shaw shows facial expressions, tone of voice,
physical movements
Analysis stage directions to better analyse the characters, their behaviour and
their personality
E.g shaw often uses the stage directions in the play to emphasize the
exaggerated, contrived kinds of interactions between Raina and Sergius--it's not
just about what they say to each other, but also how they say to those things. The
ridiculous posing and preening, the swooning and sighing, these are all indicated
not in the dialogue but in the stage directions, and they offer a much richer
understanding of the characters and the fantasy they seem to be living out.
Main preoccupations
The subversion of ideas about class and social class structures
The subversion of ideas about gender relations
o Why must women be meak and mild and simply and men being heroic and
brave
The subversion of romanticised/idealized notions of love, and of war
o People got married for power not for love.
o You married to try better your social position.
o Love people for who they are not what they can promise you
o War is ugly it's not romantic
The play functions as social commentary:
Shaw tries to highlight and criticize the problems with these views(through the use of
humour) that he suspects many of the audience members in his context might hold.
By making them laugh at these views when presented on stage, he hopes to prompt the
audience to interrogate their own similar views. Its satirical.
Treating the play as play
Not a novel or poem
It was written to be performed and experienced by an audience
A lot of implied information, not extensive place for characters to say everything
they're thinking and for detailed description
-therefore things like tone of voice and stage directions are important
You need to be aware of it as a text but also as a script for a performance that
has an effect on an audience
Therefore, you need to be aware of stage directions and of how shaw writes for a
performance on front of an audience
Stage directions
Everything characters do,rather than say, how they do. Describes way they
speak or move.
Stage directions are meaningful, shaw shows facial expressions, tone of voice,
physical movements
Analysis stage directions to better analyse the characters, their behaviour and
their personality
E.g shaw often uses the stage directions in the play to emphasize the
exaggerated, contrived kinds of interactions between Raina and Sergius--it's not
just about what they say to each other, but also how they say to those things. The
ridiculous posing and preening, the swooning and sighing, these are all indicated
not in the dialogue but in the stage directions, and they offer a much richer
understanding of the characters and the fantasy they seem to be living out.
