Chesterton says, "Arms and the Man is a play which is built not on

Chesterton says, “Arms and the Man is a play which is built not on pathos but on bathos.” Do you agree. Give a reasoned answer.

Write a note on bathos or downward descent found in the play ‘Arms and the Man.”

Discuss how the changes and transformation take place in the attitude of various characters.

Ans.

While making a critical estimate of the play ‘Arms and the Man‘, G. K. Chesterton remarked. “Arms and the Man is a play which is built not on pathos but on bathos.” The play is mostly light-hearted fun with simply no truth of anything pathetic. By laughing at certain solemnities Shaw has successfully exposed the foolishness, stupidity and hollowness of what is usually regarded glorious about both war and love and has established the superiority of the practical and down to earth attitude.

Bathos, as a literary term stands for anti-climax or a downward descent. It has been defined as “a ludicrous descent from the elevated and the noble to the mean and the low in speech or writing.” The Advanced Learners’ Dictionary defines bathos as “a sudden change in writing or speech, from what is deeply moving or sublime to what is foolish or unimportant. When it is used in a play the action does not move upwards towards a climax. It, on the other hand, goes downwards towards an anti-climax.

The play,’ says A. C. ward, “has two themes: one is war, the other is marriage. These themes are interwoven for Shaw believed that while war is evil and stupid, and marriage desirable and good, both had become wrapped in romantic illusions which led to disastrous wars and also to unhappy marriages.” For the purpose of exposing the hollowness of romantic ideals Shaw has first of all presented his characters surrounded by a romantic halo existing on a plain of idealism and having no contact at all with reality. From the level of sublimity they descend to one of ridiculous. And this is the dramatic technique of ‘bathos’ employed by Shaw.

When the play opens we see Raina Petkoff who intends to become the wife of Major Sergius Saranoff who is then away fighting the Serbs. News has come home to Raina and her mother that Sergius has ridden bravely at the head of a victorious cavalry charge. He with his fellow Bulgarian subordinate soldiers thundered down like an avalanche” and scattered the wretched Serbs and their dandified Austrian officers like chaff.” She adores Sergius portrait and goes to bed murmuring ‘My hero! My hero !’ Sergius is now not only Raina’s hero but “the hero of the hour, the idol of the regiment.”

But then there comes an enemy officer, in headlong retreat with the defeated Serbs. He climbs up the balcony and enters the bedroom of this romantic young girl. Gradually one by one he shatters all her illusions about the war being an opportunity to display one’s bravery and courage and about the heroic valour of her fiance. The idealistic notion that men fight because they are heroes gets broken when the intruder informs. Raina that he is not a native Serb and has not been fighting for patriotism or any such great emotions. He is a mercenary “fighting merely as a professional soldier. I joined the Serbs because they came first on the road from Switzerland.” Raina is astonished to see a soldier so much afraid to die and he says that all the soldiers are exactly like him. “It is our duty to live as long as we can.” He is an unchivalrous soldier who does not hesitate to use Raina’s cloak as a weapon if it can save his life. She feels contemptuous when he tells her that instead of ammunition he carries chocolates in his cartridge cases, having found that food is more useful in battle than bullets – “You can always tell an old soldier by the inside of his holsters and cartridge boxes. The young ones carry pistols and cartridges: the old ones grub.”

As if this were not enough, one by one he proceeds to make all the ideas crumble and snatch the halo of glory from Sergius image. At Raina’s request the man describes the recent cavalry charge in detail and tells her that the Serbian army has been beaten by the Bulgarian by the sheer ignorance of the art of war. He calls the whole charge an unprofessional act a folly. He tells her that its leader (who he knows was Sergius rode like an operatic tenor…..with flashing eyes and lovely moustache ….. thinking he’d done the cleverest thing ever known, whereas he ought to be court-martialled for it. Raina uptil now imagined war as an exciting sport but now she see it as a dreadful reality through contact with one of the defeated. Sergius whom she regarded as a conqueror, a hero proves to be a poor strategist and indiscipline soldier.

The realities of war get exposed even more. Now when Sergius says that he is so disgusted by them that he has sent in his resignation because “soldiering…..is the coward’s art of attack mercilessly when you are strong. and keeping out of harm’s way when you are weak. That is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your enemy at a disadvantage: and never, on any account, fight him on equal terms,” Major Petkoff also agrees that in a war the soldiers are not allowed to make a fair stand up fight of it and that soldiering has also become a trade just like any other one.

The same descent from the sublime to the ridiculous is visible in the character of Sergius as a lover. Sergius who is reduced to a mere Don Quixote charging at the windmills suffers a real blow to his image as a romantic lover too. When he is alone with Raina he calls her ‘My Queen’ and says that he went through the war like a knight in a tournament with his lady looking down at him. He elevates her to the position of ‘my saint’ and wants to be her worshipper and says that in her separation even five minutes appear like five hours to him. But as soon as her back is turned he feels fascinated towards Louka’s physical charms and says that higher love is a “very fatiguing thing to keep up for any length of time, Louka. One feels the need of some relief after it. Later we see him abusing Raina, calling her (tiger cat.) In the end the spectators and readers also feel like echoing the words of Sergius when he says, “Oh, war ! war ! the dream of patriots and heroes! A fraud, Bluntschli. A hollow sham, like love.”

The same sort of degeneration is perceptible in Major Petkoff’s personality too. He is the head of the richest and best known family in Bulgaria. He holds the highest command of any Bulgarian in the army but is not even consulted when the peace is established. Raina’s admiring description of her father falls to the ground when Shaw informs us that Major Petkoff is cheerful, excitable, insignificant, unpolished man of about 50. naturally unambitious except as to his income and his importance in local society but just now greatly pleased with the military rank which the war has thrust on him as a man of consequence in his town. The fever of plucky patriotism which the Serbian attack roused in all the Bulgarians has pulled him through the war but is obviously glad to be home again.” Raina describes her family as “civilized but the appearance of the head of the family denies the truth of the statement. He very ungracefully makes a comment on her maid servant “The Serbs haven’t run away with you have they?” The man hates the habit of having a daily wash, ignores his wife’s advice and shouts loudly for the servant, does not consider the story narrated by Sergius. He is befooled by Sergius who comes to negotiate the exchange of on behalf of the defeated Serbs. When he has to despatch the three regiments to Philippopolis he finds the task beyond his capacity. When Bluntschli asks him to go and supervise the arrangement for sending the messengers, he needs the help of his wife for the purpose and says, “By the bye, Catherine, you may as well come too.” So much so that Bluntschli remarks with surprise “What an army? They make cannons out of cherry trees; and officers send for their wives to keep discipline !” He is absolutely henpecked. Even his daughter pokes fun at him and says “Oh, poor father! As if he could help himself!” When Catherine is told about Sergius’s engagment with Louka, Major Petkoff immediately comes out with an explanation that he has nothing to do with it and requests his wife not to be angry with him.

When the play begins Raina’s head is in the skies. She professes to be deeply in love with Sergius. But then we immediately see her not only giving shelter to a stranger in her bedroom at night but also calling her ‘poor darling’ giving him a token of love ultimately she gives up all the romantic notions comes down to the earth and instead of the ornamental Sergius takes as her husband the plain Bluntschli, whose commonsense and six hotels in Switzerland will give her stability comfort. ‘By the end of it’, says Chesterton, “the young lady has lost all her military illusions and admires this mercenary soldier, not because he faces guns but because he faces facts. With her we find her mother Catherine also getting disillusioned and giving consent for Raina’s marriage with Bluntschli who does not at all fit into her romantic definition of a hero and a soldier. Thus, the play ‘Arms and the Man’ shows a downward descent and is built on bathos. The play is anti romantic and hence it not built up on any particular human emotion. That is why there is no pathos in it. It is built upon the conflict of ideas in the mind of a human being. Hence, there is distinct bathos to be found in it.