Drama of ideas or the drama of social criticism in the real sense is a modern

development . a number of contemporary problems and evils are subjected to

discussion and criticism in these sort of plays. The structure and character in
these sort of dramas takes a backseat in it , the discussion here counts c=more.
To Shaw drama was pre-eminently a medium of articulating his own ideas and
philosophy. He enunciated the philosophy of life force which he sought to
disseminate through his dramas. To express and propagate his unique ideas
about various problems of humanity, he choose the medium of drama.
Prostitution, war, love, marriage, morality, conduct, religion, etc all comes under
the microscope of his ideas. A drama of ideas or problem play concerns itself
with the problems of lifethe maladies of society. The dramatist presents those
vividly before the audience/readers with a view to bringing about radical changes
in the real situation. Arms and the Man can definitely be classified as a drama of
ideas since it deal s with the undesirable presentation of the romantic concept of
love and war.
In such sort of dramas the dramatist uses the characters as instruments for
propagation of their ideas. The characters are puppets drawn by the string of
their ideas and are as wooden and lifeless as personified abstractions. The
conflict, the soul of drama, is in a play of ideas , is not the conflict of wills,
passions or persons but the conflict of ideas.
In Arms and the Man , Shaw puts the traditional idea about love war and
marriage in contrast to the reality. In this sense , this drama is a play of ideas.
The romantic view of war is based on the idealist=ic notion that men fight
becai=use they are heroes and that soldier who takes the biggest risk wins the
biggest glory and the greatest hero. Shaw shatters this gfalse nitiion about
warwith the introduction of bluntschilli s character who talks rationally and says
that heroism consists not in risking life but in saving it. Stuffing the holster with
chocolate shows that a soldier is a human being not a superman. In another
occasion Shaw comments that war is horrible reality , a fraud and a hollow sham
and not a glorious thing.
On the other hand the relationship between Sergius and Raina is based on false
notion about love . sergius poses himself to be apostle of higher love . but at the
back of Raina he does not hesitate to flirt with the attractive servant Louka . he
himself says that higher love is a very boring concept . so when Raina ges
attracted towards Butschilli , the more same person n who is suffering from
incurable romantic disposition, we cannot observe that this relationship is based
on instinct physical attraction , which must be the v=basis of love. So here also
Shaw very successfully establishes that love should be based not on any illusion
but on reality.
In Arms and the Man, plot and character is subordinate to ideas. The action is
reduced to the minimum. The play is made up od=f scenes in wh9ch the
characters are engaged in discussion that turns around convention and realistic
notions of soldering and live . the first act consists of the discussion between
Bluntschilli and Raina on the conduct of a professional soldier in the battlefield.

The discussion is designed to free Ranias mind from the illusions of Romantic
notions of military heroism and open her eyes to suicidal character of Sergius
cavalry charge. The second acts turns on the discussion between Sergius and
Louka on the unreality of higher love between Nicola and Louka on the duty of a
servant.. The third act is made up of the discussion on the observation of social
standing for marriage , socially useful conduct which approves of lying , nature of
true courage etc. the drama presents a conflict between realism and
romanticism, n=between conventional morality and natural morality , between
high love and physical love, between servility and freedom
Shavian drama primarily deals with ideas, using characters as spokespersons
and dialogues/situations as polemical. Arms and the Man is a celebrated example
of the Shavian drama of ideas. The play aims to satirize the long-cherished
conventions of love and romance on the one hand, and those of soldiering and
heroism on the other. The victorious Bulgarian cavalry-charge led by Sergius
Saranoff against the Serbian artillery at the battle of Slivnitza which makes him
"the hero of Slivnitza" is actually a gross act of romantic adventurism. Sergius's
heroism makes Raina, his betrothed Petkoff daughter, and her mother instantly
ecstatic, but Sergius fails to get promoted in the army because his act of
adventurism is rightly looked upon as a piece of amateurish idiocy. The Shavian
protagonist in the play, Bluntschli, who enters Raina's bed-chamber secretly,
explains Sergius's ludicrous suicidal bid to the young romantic girl who gathers
from the professional soldier what the realities of war actually are. Raina's "soul's
hero" Sergius and the fugitive Serbian artillery-man, Bluntschli, are a pair of
contrasted characters to highlight the conflict of the two ideas/attitudes to war,
heroism, soldiering and patriotism. Sergius, Raina, Major Petkoff and Catherine
are all men and women inclined to the conventional ideas of heroism,
adventurism and patriotism. Bluntschli serves as a typical Shavian ideologue to
argue his way in his characteristic serio-comical manner to lead the entire
romantic-sentimental host to disillusionment. Raina gradually discovers that
Sergius is as much an adventurist in the domain of soldiering as he is a hypocrite
in the domain of love. He is found as making secret overtures to the Petkoff
house-maid, Louka, behind Raina's back. Louka, an example of a new woman, is
very clever and ambitious to trap Sergius in love and marriage. At the end of the
play, Raina righly chooses to marry her "chocolate-cream soldier" Bluntschli, and
rejects the foolishly and falsely romantic Sergius Saranoff. The play can also be
seen as a problem play on the Ibsenian model. The play presents, analyzes and
sarcastically exposes the problems relating to love, relationships and marriage,
problems relating to patriotism, heroism and soldiering. Characters represent
contrary and confronting ideas; dialogues and situations underscore the
problems and the conflicting trajectories. The whole play does have a strong
purpose of criticism and reformation. It would hardly be an exaggeration if we
say that the characters of arms and the man are type characters. This is a typical
of the play of ideas . all the characters are used as mouth piece to Shaws
intention to getting forward his message . bluntschilli for eg, stands for common
sense . Nicola for practical sense and faithfulllness, Louka for social equality,
Sergius and Raina for romantic idealism and Catherine for snobbery.

To conclude we can say that the play has all the characteristic qualities of a play
of ideas . but its brilliant witty dialogues, superb presentation of the situation
saved it from the dan=ger of being monotonous which is often associate with the
play aof ideas.
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