In Act 1 of Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw, Raina and Bluntschli have an extended conversation. The conversation begins when Bluntschli, a Swiss mercenary who has been fighting for the Serbs, climbs up Raina's drainpipe onto her balcony to escape the Bulgarian soldiers looking for Serbian stragglers after a battle.
Initially, Bluntschli appears to be in a position of power and Raina a frightened young girl threatened by a professional soldier armed with a pistol,...
In Act 1 of Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw, Raina and Bluntschli have an extended conversation. The conversation begins when Bluntschli, a Swiss mercenary who has been fighting for the Serbs, climbs up Raina's drainpipe onto her balcony to escape the Bulgarian soldiers looking for Serbian stragglers after a battle.
Initially, Bluntschli appears to be in a position of power and Raina a frightened young girl threatened by a professional soldier armed with a pistol, but as the conversation continues, their positions are reversed, and we discover Bluntschli to be practical, tired, hungry, and rather unthreatening. Over the course of the conversation, Raina's doubts about the traditional romantic and literary view of war are confirmed by the sensible views of a professional soldier who is distinctly anti-heroic in character. Bluntschli educates Raina while she protects him.
In this conversation we see that despite their initial apparent differences, the two characters are attracted to each other and compatible, something that sets up their marriage at the end of the play.
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