miércoles, 7 de enero de 2009

Arms and the Man


Shaw wrote Arms and the man. It was his first comercial success as a playwritter although Shaw considered it a failure.
True success didn´t come until 1898, when it was published as part of Shaw's Plays Pleasant volume.

The play takes place during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War.
Raina Petkoff is a romantic young girl who has an idealistic view of war. She is engaged to Sergius, a handsome ineffectual young officer with an equally romantic attitude towards war.

In the first act an escaping enemy soldier, Bluntschli, breaks into Raina's bedroom. He is a practical man and tries to convince her of the realities of war. It makes more sense to carry chocolates than ammunition he tells her. She lets him escape; clearly she has become attracted to him.

In the second act the soldiers return and bring with them Bluntschli who has helped them in moving their armies, since as a pragmatist, he is willing to fight for whichever side pays. Now he has to deal with the romantic Sergius for the love of Raina.

Adaptation
A British film adaptation of 1932 was directed by Cecil Lewis.
A filmed version of Arms and the Man in German entitled Helden in 1958.

Links:
1. en.Wikipedia.
2. Allreaders.

Crédito de la imagen:
http://www.amazon.com/Arms-Man-George-Bernard-Shaw/dp/1599869209

By Alejandro, Eric and Juan

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