BRO MIRANDA SIGNING OUT FROM ARMS & THE MAN NOTES

Dear students, especially from Goethals Memorial School, Kurseong.

I hope you have found the notes I have put up on this blog for "Aras and The Man" helpful.

Over the last two months, I have completing the answers to the reference to context questions from the workbook for Acts 1 and 2. I leave the rest to your present teachers.

The purpose of me writing these answers was to help you to express yourself - I hoe you found it useful.

God bless and all the best.

You will always have a special place in my heart.

Bro Miranda

ACT 2 WK BK NO 10 PGS 133 TO 135

ACT 2 WK BK NO 10 PGS 133 TO 135

(i)                  Catherine tells Sergius that everyone is mad about him because Sergius was the hero of the battle at Slivnitza, having led his country too victory over their enemies – the Serbians. In that battle Sergius had personally led the charge and shown the mettle of Bulgarian soldiers by defying their Russian officers.

(ii)                Sergius had seen that the Bulgarians at Slivntza seemed to be no challenge to the Serbians, as the Bulgarians had cavalry regiments while the Serbians had artillery regiments ranged against them. Seeing the unequal status, the Russian officers had held back the Bulgarian forces. Sergius, however, took matters into his own hands and defying the Russian officers personally led his regiment into an attack against the Serbian artillery positions. The tactic seemed to have paid off as the Bulgarian cavalry regiment defeated the Serbian artillery regiment. The Serbian artillery regiment was not able to fire even a single shot at the cavalry regiment. The Bulgarian cavalry regiment had routed the Serbian regiment and sent them fleeing. The victory of the Bulgarians in that battle brought the Serbians to negotiating table.

(iii)               By saying that “it was the cradle and grave of my military reputation”, Sergius means that his role in the Bulgarian victory at Slivnitza brought him fame for having brought his country to victory, but since he had won the battle in an unconventional manner, his fellow soldiers far from thinking him great thought he was unfit as an officer and thus he was not rewarded with promotion in rank.

(iv)              Sergius says that he won the battle the wrong way because strategy in war means ensuring that before taking on the enemy one’s forces have a reasonable chance of victory. In the battle at Slivnitza, Sergius action seemed suicidal as normally a cavalry regiment would have been blown into pieces long before they even reached the artillery regiment lines. Thus it seemed that Sergius had taken a wrong military decision even though his action won h battle.

(v)                We have only Catherine’s and Raina’s accounts of Sergius earlier in the play. In those accounts, it seems that Sergius had an heroic and romantic view of war and battle, very similar to the sentiments expressed by Catherine. Such views would include that fighting and putting one’s life on the line for one’s country was the patriotic thing to do.

       However, here, it seems that Sergius’ romantic view of soldership and battle have been dashed and that he is disillusioned about army life. In his opinion people are promoted in the army because of favouritism – e.g. colonels who lost their battles being promoted and he having won a battle not being promoted.

(vi)              This extract highlights the theme of idealisation of war particularly from the expressed opinions of Catherine especially in her praise of Sergius in the opening lines of the quotation.

       However, the reality and disillusionment is expressed by Sergius.

ACT 2 WK BK NO 8 PGS 129 TO 131

ACT 2 WK BK NO 8 PGS 129 TO 131

(i)                  Catherine calls Paul “a barbarian at heart” because Paul was telling Catherine that he didn’t believe in washing too much. He had blamed her sore throats for her washing her neck too much. For himself, Paul said he didn’t mind washing once a week “to keep up my position” but he thought that washing daily was taking washing too “a ridiculous extreme”. Thus, Paul’s lack of faith in more frequent washing makes Catherine make that statement.

(ii)                Major Petkoff had tried to impress the Russian officers my mentioning to them that that his house had a library. We have heard from Raina that their’s was the only household in Bulgaria to have a library.

         This tells us that Paul Petkoff is boastful and tries to show others that he is in the same league of better than them.

(iii)               The reason Catherine gives for installing an electric bell into the house is that truly “civilised” people do not shout to call their servants. By “civilised”, Catherine refers to people in their strata in society. To Catherine and Paul holding one’s social position is important – thus the reason for the conversation.

(iv)              Paul tells Catherine that civilised people do not hang out the washed for clothes drying in the full view of everyone as Catherine has had allowed for them to be hung on the bushes in the garden.

(v)                The Petkoff’s do belong to the upper strata of Bulgarian society, but Shaw is poking fun at the upper classes of society by showing that their airs are just pretentions and put ons. Thus they are ordinary people who would like to better their position in society by being more socially conscientious of their behaviour in society. We know this from the examples they have given. Paul only washes because he wants to keep up his social position and not because of true concern for his personal hygiene. Catherine only has a bell to impress others about her sophistication – she does not care for the way in which such a behaviour demeans the person called.

ACT 2 WK BK NO 6 PGS 125 TO 126,

ACT 2 WK BK NO 6 PGS 125 TO 126,

(i)                  Catherine wants the Bulgarian army and its allies the Russians to Annex Serbia. However, we know that she has no love lost for the Russians and wants to see the dominance of her own country over the Balkans.

         She wants her country to annex Serbia as she is deeply patriotic and wants Bulgaria to dominate the Balkans – the symbol of this dominance and the rise of Bulgarian power would be the declaration of Prince Alexander of Bulgaria, Emperor of the Balkans.

         Catherine’s strong and passionate patriotism is seen from this statement.

(ii)                By saying “I don’t doubt it in the least”, Paul emphasises that if the roles were reserved between him and his wife, she would have pushed for the Bulgarian army to carry forward the momentum of their victory in Slivnitza. Paul emphasises his faith in Catherine’s patriotism.

(iii)               The reason Paul Petkoff gives for not annexing Serbia is that military action would have required that the Bulgarians would have to fight not only the Serbians but their allies the Austrians who had dominance over the Balkans – having created an Austrian Empire and such military action would have taken a very long time, even if the Bulgarians could have managed it, and have kept him far too long away from Catherine whom he loved and missed. Thus Paul’s reason was both correct and just as the Bulgarian’s present advantage might easily be reversed when they would take on a stronger enemy.

(iv)              Major Paul Petkoff has been kept away from his wife whom he says he has missed greatly by the war the Bulgarians were waging against the Serbians.

(v)                This extract tells us that while Catherine and Paul have a very caring and loving relationship, the two of them are very different personalities. Catherine is the stronger personality and Paul knows that he would do well do placate his wife and side track any confrontation.

ACT 2 WK BK NO 5 PGS 123 TO 125

ACT 2 WK BK NO 5 PGS 123 TO 125

(i)                  Catherine is talking about the surprise of seeing her husband Paul who is a major in the Bulgarian army back home from the war. She is both surprised that he has returned home so soon after the war ended and that he is home so early in the day – she has had to shorten her morning toilet and rush oout to meet him.

(ii)                That Catherine asks whether her husband has been served some fresh coffee tells us that she is a caring wife – as we have been told before in the play – her “house keeping iinstincts” are very strong.

(iii)               The war Major Petkoff is talking about is the recent war the Bulgarians have been fighting against the Serbians, which ended with the Serbians being defeated at the Battle at Slivnitza. Major Petkoff was fighting on the Bulgarian side and he was the Bulgarian with the highest rank in the army – the higher officers being Russians as the officers on the Serbian side were Austrian.

(iv)              The treaty being referred to was the treaty signed by the Bulgarians and Serbians through their officers the Russians and Austrians respectively at Bucharest, following the defeat of the Serbian army at Sivnitza. The treaty had been signed three days previous to Paul sharing the information with Catherine.

      According to Paul Petkoff the war between the two countries was thus over and a decree fot the Bulgarian army to demobilise had been issues.

       Under pressure from his wife, Paul states that the treaty was an honourable one and that while the treaty declared “peace” it did not mean that the two countries would have “friendly relations”.

(v)                Instead of signing a peace treaty Catherine would have hoped that following on their victory, the Bulgarians had capitalised on their advantage and annexed Serbia and made Prince Alexander of Bulgaria, Emperor of the Balkans.

         This tells us that Catherine is a strong and passionate personality. She is strongly patriotic. She does not give up her enmity easily. 

ACT 2 WK BK NO 4 PGS 121 TO 123

ACT 2 WK BK NO 4 PGS 121 TO 123

(i)                  The secret that Nicola is talking about is the fact that Raina had hidden a Serbian soldier in her room to protect him from the Bulgarian soldiers who were searching for him. Raina’s mother, Catherine, was a part of the conspiracy as she had assisted her daughter in disguising the soldier in the coat of the master of the house, so that he would not be detected when he was sent off the following morning.

(ii)                Nicola had been advising Louka t be respectful to the members of the household for whom they worked. He was explaining to her that as they worked in positions of trust in the house, they were sure to privy to secrets f the family. They were expected as faithful servants to keep the confidences of the household. Both Louka and Nicola needed the positions they had in the Petkoff household and thus he advised Louka she was expected to keep secrets confidential and to be depended upon.

(iii)               Louka tells Nicola that he has the “soul of a servant” because she believes that being a servant is only a job and she is an equal as a human being to any other person, even the persons she worked for and she wanted to be treated as such. She was not willing to humble herself in a manner which would take away her dignity as a human being. Nicola on the other hand, believed that he could in no way change the ways things were. He believed that it was unrealistic that they would be allowed to rise above their social class.

         Louka is partly correct in her assessment of Nicola, because he wants her to be respectful to Raina and Catherine, just as he is. He will accept, as we shall see later in the play being accused wrongly, but he will never let down the people he works for.

(iv)              According to Nicola, the secret of success in service is to so prove that one is good and dependable servant that the person one works for has absolute in the servant – the servant can then expect advantages of that relationship – as he hopes to have – he wants open a shop in Sofia and he would like that venture to be a success by having the Petkoffs and all the people of their class, whom the Petkoff will direct to him, as his customers.

(v)                Both Nicola and Louka makes the “most out of” the higher classes in the play. In the end Louka marries Sergius. Nicola, however, gains the favour of Bluntschli who notes that he is “the ablest man” he’s met in Bulgaria and that he would be willing to make him the manager of one of his six hotels. Thus, both Louka dn Nicola get what they want – Louka rises in social class and Nicola gets a position in which he could earn a lot more money. Both are appreciated for who they are.

ACT 2 WK BK NO 3 PGS 119 TO 121

ACT 2 WK BK NO 3 PGS 119 TO 121

(i)                  Nicola has just remarked that Louka was “young” – he was emphasising her inexperience, but Louka reminds him that he finds her youthfulness attractive.

(ii)                One example of the secrets Luka knows is that Raina had hidden a fugitive Serbian soldier from a Russian officer and the soldiers of the Bulgarian army when they had come to search the house. She also knows that Raina is in love with that man.

(iii)               Louka thinks that the family dare not offend her because she would then threaten them about revealing the unpatriotic behaviour of Raina and her mother in giving refuge to an enemy soldier and hiding him from the Bulgarian army officer and soldiers. She believes that she can blackmail them into keeping her because they would not allow this secret to be let out as they would be seen as traitors to the nation.

(iv)              According to Nicola, far from being afraid of Louka, the family would say that she was a liar and dismiss her from service. Because of the status of the family everyone would believe the family and no one would believe Louka and she would never be employed again and her poor father would lose his land due to their destitution.

(v)                The impact of Louka’s dismissal from the Petkoff household would be that she would not be able to secure another job and thus she would not have any income and she would not be able to support her father who would then have to sell his property in order to care for themselves. In other words Louka dn her family would be reduced to destitution.

(vi)              The extract points out the theme of social discrimination because Nicola ends off his speech to Louka with the line “you don’t know the power such high people have over the like of you and me when we try to rise out of our poverty against them.” In this statement Nicola states that when a poor person tries to flaunt his or her social equality, the higher classes use all their power to suppress them. Thus if Louka tried to expose the unpatriotic behaviour of Raina and Catherine, it would be used against Louka and she would be driven to destitution with her family. The others in the Petkoff social class would close ranks and support their own and ensure that the lower classes do not come up.