Describe the scene of flirtation between Sergius and Louka.

Write an essay on the dramatic significance of the Sergius-Louka episode.

Ans.

The relationship between Sergius and Louka forms an important part of the plot of Arms and the Man. In fact, this relationship runs parallel to the relationship between Sergius and Raina and helps the dramatist in bringing to the forefront the hollowness of the romantic conceptions about love one of the two major themes of the play the other one being the hollowness of the romantic notions about war.

From the very first appearance of Louka it becomes clear that she is a highly ambitious young girl, not ready to accept her present social status and hoping to rise above it in some way or the other. She has a soul above her station, exhibits insolence towards Raina and tries to go as far as she can on the path of disobedience with Catherine. Nicola the man-servant warns her again and again to mend her manners but she treats him insultingly even though she is supposed to be betrothed to him. Louka is a beautiful, extraordinary young girl. As Sergius puts it she is “witty as well as pretty”. The support provided by Nicola to make her capable of marrying into nobility can never be over-estimated. It was Nicola only who made a woman of her. As he himself says “who was it made you give up wearing a couple of pounds of false black hair on your head and reddening your lips and cheeks like any other Bulgarian girl! I did. Who taught you to trim your nails, and keep your hands clean, and he dainty about yourself, like a fine Russian lady? Me…….” Not that Louka listens to every bit of advice given to her by Nicola but whatever he says, goes a long way in helping her attract the eyes of the men of nobility. Even her master Major Petkoff jokes with her. “Well, the Serbs haven’t run away with you, have they?” More importantly Major Sergius Saranoff the man who is engaged to be married to Raina feels fascinated towards her.

The fact that he cannot keep himself away from her surprises Sergius also. When he finds himself flirting with the servant maid, immediately after an adoring love scene with Raina, he analyzes himself frankly, “I am surprised at myself, Louka. What would Sergius the hero of Slivnitza, say if he saw me now? What would Sergius, the apostle of the higher love, say if he saw me now? What would the half-dozen Sergius who keep popping in and out of this handsome figure of mine say if they caught us here ?” Sergius who just said that even five minutes of Raina’s separation appeared to him like five hours, “takes a stealthy look at her (Louka) and begins to twirl his moustache mischievously, with his left hand akimbo on his hip,” as soon as Raina’s back is turned. It is clear that what he is interested in now is only flirtation because higher love is a very fatiguing thing. One feels the need of some relief after it.” He tries to take her hands into his and asks her “Do you consider my figure handsome, Louka ? Louka pretends to be offended by his embrace but at the same time advises him to stand back where they cannot be seen. She takes full advantage of the situation and very cunningly and shrewdly sets out to poison his mind against Raina. “Gentlefolk’ she says. “are all alike: you making love to me behind Miss Raina’s back; and she doing the same behind yours.” Hearing this he feels enraged but she refuses to disclose the identity of Raina’s supposed lover. “I don’t know. I never saw him. I only heard his voice through the door of her room.” Then she gives him the severe blow with the words. “And I tell you that if that gentleman ever comes here again, Miss Raina will marry him, whether he likes it or not.” These words really infuriate him and he grabs her arms above, the elbows so very tightly that her arms get bruised. “You have stained my honour,” he says, “by making me a party to your eavesdropping.” And you have betrayed your mistress.” Sergius feels so wrathful that he hurls insults on her- That shews that you are an abominable little clod of common clay, with soul of a servant.” Louka whimpers angrily and retaliates-“You know how to hurt with your tongue as well as with your hands. As for her, she’s a liar; and her fine airs are a cheat; and I’m worth six of her.” When Sergius feels sorry for hurting a woman and wants to compensate for her injury by giving her some money. she refuses to take it. She wants her arm to be kissed instead. Sergius refuses to do so. In the meantime Raina comes back and asks him jokingly. “Have you been flirting with Louka?” She little knows the truth behind her jovial comment. But this brings the scene of flirting between Sergius and Louka to a close.

Sergius and Louka get a chance to meet alone again in Act III. Sergius feels concerned about Louka’s injury. He tries to take her in his arms but Louka immediately shrinks and retorts, “Don’t trifle with me, please. An officer should not trifle with a servant.” He is clearly ashamed of his conduct of hurting a woman but is too proud to accept it. Louka then accuses him of being a coward an insult no man is ever able to bear least of all a soldier. She says, “I wish I could believe a man could be as unlike a woman as that. I wonder are you really a brave man ?” To this accusation Sergius responds by saying, “Yes. I am a brave man. My heart jumped like a woman’s at the first shot: but in the charge I found that I was brave. Yes, that at least in real about me.” Louka takes this reference to the charge as an opportunity to talk about the poor soldiers and opines that bravery has nothing to do with the wealth or social status of a person. But Sergius is adamant and says that though poor soldiers are as brave as any other ones still the awe of hierarchy is always there in their minds. They exhibit bravery against the enemy but are afraid of their officers. Such a declaration makes Louka compare Sergius with a schoolboy and she cries out. “How easy it is to talk! Men never seem to me to grow up: they all have schoolboy ideas. You don’t know what true courage is.” She tells him that a really courageous person does whatever he or she desires to do without caring for public opinion. She declares that if she herself were the Empress of Russia, she would not hesitate to marry her lover even if he belonged to a very low strata of society. She thus pumps up Sergius so much that he gets driven to declare “If I loved you and I were the Czar himself. I would set you on the throne by my side.” When he says that he is engaged to be married to another lady who is as high above Louka as heaven is above earth, Louka feels insulted and with insolence and impertinence tells him that his dream of marrying Raina would remain so forever because Raina is now going to marry the Swiss soldier who is “A man worth ten of you.” Perhaps then Sergius will choose to come to Louka but she will then refuse him as a man not good enough for her. Her words sting Sergius in the heart and in fury he expresses his resolve to kill Bluntschli. Louka, however, does not relent and firmly says. “The Swiss will kill you, perhaps. He has beaten you in love. He may beat you in war….”Sergius finds it difficult to believe that Raina has been flirting with some other person behind his back but Louka says that all his doubts are baseless. The reality will remain as it is. This derives a cynical exclamation from Sergius mouth “Damnation! Oh, damnation! Mockery ! mockery everywhere !” In desperation he turns to Louka and wants the reassurance that she at least belongs to him. He promises her. “I will not be a coward and a trifler. If I choose to love you, I dare marry you, inspite of all Bulgaria. If these hands ever touch you again, they shall touch my affianced bride.”

And Sergius remains true to his words. Louka’s habit of eavesdropping, no doubt, fills him with disgust, Louka openly and frankly says that she was listening, to the private conversation going on in the library for her love was at stake. Bluntschli supports her and makes Sergius realize that everything is fair in love and war. Louka then traps Sergius into kissing her hand as a mark of apology and when he does so, she immediately says, “That touch makes me your affianced bride.” Sergius refuses to go back on his word, accepts Louka as his bride and takes her in his arms to the astonishment of all present there. Thus, the Sergius-Louka episode comes to an end.

The depiction of this relationship between the Bulgarian soldier and the maid servant has a high dramatic significance. As pointed out earlier it is through this that the playwright has exposed the futility, stupidity and emptiness of the romantic notion of higher-love.” The castle of the ‘higher love’ crumbles to dust the moment Sergius finds an opportunity for physical love. Higher love exists perhaps but only in poetry or dreams. Shaw felt really hurt when he saw discriminations being made on the basis of the financial or social status of individuals. As such he has many times poked fun at them and satirized them. In the play ‘Arms and the Man’ too through the episode under consideration he has brought the reality of the false notions of superiority to light and insists that servants are made of the same stuff as their masters and more often than not they are more clever, more cunning, more witty and more intelligent. The episode throws a lot of light on the characters of the major persons of the play. Louka’s intelligence, Sergius swagger amorousness and stupidity. Nicola’s practically and sharp mindedness as also his love for Louka, Bluntschli’s matter of factness are all brought to the forefront by this episode. Last but not the least it is this episode alone which paves way for the marriage of Raina with Bluntschli. It is thus an important feature of the play and has been dexterously interwoven by the playwright into the texture of the play. It presents a comparison with the Raina Bluntschli episode and serves as a foil to it making the play more effective and more appealing than it would have been otherwise i. e., in the absence of this simultaneous and symmetrical relationship.