Arms and the Man Essay

G. B. Saws Freedom truly is one of the series of radio talks delivered in 1935 on the B. B. C. As it was intended for the larger circles in their capacity as listeners, the lecture seems to be free from theoretical jargons. But Shaw brush off-key be truly much deceptive in what he says. For, behind his homour lies the raillery of the contemporary social source. Not only that, his simple talk was actu every last(predicate)y a denunciation of the conventional and capitalistic view of freedom.Politically Shaw conformed to republican socialism, a variant of Marxism, agree to which the society should try to reach the collectivized governmental condition gradually by the democratic instrument. The c one timept of freedom, which Shaw satirises, was the unsounded principle of Enlightenment, and he does so because in a capitalist society, tally to the Marxian view, freedom of the individual can never be realised. Shaw begins the essay with the proffer that a person can be called completely free in such a condition, in which he will be capable to do what he likes, when he likes, and where he likes, or do zippo at all if he prefers it.He firmly denies the possibility of the public of such a person as gay worlds are all slaves to genius we must(prenominal) all sleep for one third of our lifetime__ lave and dress and undress__ we must spend a couple of hours eating and drinking__ we must spend nearly as much in getting intimately from one place to place. From this funny yet inexorable condition of hu universe life, Shaw very cleverly hightail its on to the fact that few of the natural jobs can be placed on opposites shoulders What you do to a horse or a bee, you can do to a man or fair sex or childsort.With this Shaw, however, comes to the immediate social and political condition of the time, in which the concept of freedom __ derived from the grand idealistic project of the Enlightenment, and nationalistic bias produced by the First World War __ was being laud and used by the upper class as a means to achieving their self-interests. According to Shaw the farce of the democratic remains in a capitalist state lies in the fact that most actual governmentsenforce your thraldom and call it freedom.But the citizens of the state continue to be duped by the system of rules instead of rising to protest. Shaw terms this unequal relationship the moved(p) slavery of man to man. Shaw plosive speech sounds out an important rest amidst the natural slavery of man to Nature and the unnatural slavery of man to man. According to him, the first, though unavoidable, provides pleasure after its fulfilment for instance, if nature forces us to drink, she makes drinking pleasant. The same is true of eating, drinking, sleeping and other activities.Shaw introduces this struggle and cites examples much importantly to explain the evils of the former in more than sharp-worded terms. He refers to few thinkers like Karl Marx and Thomas Moo re, who denounced this slavery and tried to eliminate it. At this point his explanation of the capitalist mechanism, that is, the means by which the system tries to dupe people and establish, legitimize and perpetuate itself approaches the ideological systemal theories of Althusser and Gramsci. Ideology represents, Althusser tells us, the notional relationship of individuals to their real condition of existence. He points out that there are found a number of ideologies namely, religious ideology, ethical ideology, legal ideology, political ideology all of which operate invisibly in the superstructure. Shaw strikes at the very root when he says, Naturally the master class, through its parliaments and schools and newspapers, makes the most heroical efforts to pr even sot us from realizing our slavery. He explains historically how the British capitalist system has established itself by propagating the so-called glorious events as the Magna Charta, the defeat of the Spanish Armada and Napoleon.Then he explains how ideological apparatuses, to quote Althusser, manipulate the common caboodle to cast votes in favour of the capitalist leaders. What is more alarmingly effective, according to him, is the educational system, which operates in the superstructure and ends in deluding the master class much more completely. olibanum Shaw explains the difference between two kinds of slavery and conclusively tells the listeners/readers Wipe out from yours dreams of freedom the hope of being able to do as you please all the time. For, according to him, people have to remain occupied doing the natural slavery for at least twelve hours a day, while their unnatural slavery is controlled and regulated by the legal and administrative system of the country. Character of Louka in Arms and the Man Shaw conceived of Louka as a strong willed woman, necessary for his dramatic purpose of exposing the vanity of the upper-class and the political purpose of showing the socialist princ iple of showing equality among individuals in a society.It must be said that it was daring attempt on Shaws part to lead and raise a maid handmaid to the posture of an aristocratic lady. But he does not do this as a kind of poetic justice or as a proposition of mercy he makes her capable of realizing her aims and object by her price as a human being and by her strong will power. In the beginning of the play Louka is presented as a maid-servant having some sort of accent with the lady she serves. She behaves in defiant manners and her physical movements, gestures and postures produce the legal tender of haughtiness and discontent.The audience ascribes this to typical feminine jealousy of a servant for the lady of the same age, but in Act II they bring in that she is Rainas rival in love and is eyeing something above her position. Her confidence is generated from some of the secrets she knows about the ladies of the house. Always on the lookout for those sorts of things, she disco vers a terrible justice about the fugitive in Rainas chamber at darkness and keeps it for use in future. In Act II Louka is given a loud voice justifying her position.While being instructed threateningly by the middle-aged maid servant Nicola, she scornfully rejects his advice and brands him as a person with the fountainhead of a servant. From Nicola, however, we come to know the predicament of Louka and her father on his little farm. Shaw here brings out the conflicts between rich and the poor, fuming in the backyard of patriotism and nationalism. Shaw makes this explicit by making Nicola fully aware of the effectuate any confrontation with the aristocracy will bring about.It is not that Louka is not conscious of this in fact, her defiance of the upper-class people can be ascribed to the angst deposited in her. But while Nicola chooses to reap profit by service the upper-class and thereby cashing on their weaknesses, Louka resorts to using her youth and feminine skills plunk for up by her will-power to trap an upper-class gentleman. In Act II Louka employs her youth and charms when she finds Sergius posing as a playboy. From the familiarity of their conversation we can guess that this is not the first time that Sergius engages himself in relaxation from the pressure of high love for Raina.As soon as Louka detects his susceptibility or vulnerability, she subject to break Rainas pose of higher love by informing him of the presence of another man in her chamber at night. She does this in differentiate to bring her down to her level of an ordinary human being before Sergius. Even she goes to the extent of saying I am worth 6 of her, meaning that she is capable of serving or satisfying the six different persons in Sergius, which Raina, according to her, is not capable of.But it would be an injustice to the character if we say that Louka uses only her youthful charms we find her possessing crafty power of observation, by which she can surely foretell Rainas move away from Sergius in the grimace of the fugitives return. No other person, including Raina could have this kind anticipation because Louka observes her from a pragmatic position I know the difference between the sort of manner you and she put on before one another and the real manner. Thus she creates agitations in Sergiuss mind rather consciously and deliberately in order that she may win him away by exposing both of them. But since she is intelligent nice to anticipate that he will not believe her unless and until he discovers the equity himself, she lets him out to find the rest of the truth. In Act III Louka enters the present with her usual gauzy free gait with the marked difference that her left wing sleeve is looped up to the shoulder with a brooch, shewing her naked arm, with a roomy gilt bracelet covering the bruise.She does this intentionally in order to remind Sergius of the mark he made on her arm, and perchance to give away proudly the mark as a g ift of love in a sort of masochistic exhibitionism. Nicola, as a man with pragmatic wisdom can sense something wrong with her, and that is why he reward to warn her about her unusual fashion. Here once again she reiterates her disrespect for his servile mentality and refuses to accept 10 levas from him as share of the bribes.Her staple fibre independent nature is to be found in the following lyric You were born to be a servant. I was not. When you set up your grass over you will be everybodys servant instead of somebodys servant. She demonstrates the place she is eying to reach at by seating herself regally in Sergiuss chair, an act which the audience notice with surprise and amusement. As Nicola understands her and basely makes way for Sergius, she once again attracts Sergius now with the mark of bruise, which she uses as a kind of bait for him.When Sergius tries to compensate for the bruise by offering her an romantic favor, she rejects it straight and tries to make him u nderstand that she wants more. She entangles him in a sort of delirious cheating with the protestation of the courage she can show in the case of realizing her true love If I loved you, though you would be as far beneath me as I am beneath you, I would hardiness to be the equal of my inferior. Here by implication of the logic Louka wants him to come out of the class-barrier and accept her on equal terms.When Sergius expresses his inability and insults her by making a comparison between Raina and her in terms of the difference between heaven and earth, she returns this and the charge of her being jealous of Raina with a bold assertion I have no reason to be. She will never marry you. The man I told you of has come back. She will marry the Swiss. Thus she succeeds in creation an emotional storm in his mind and in making him confess If I choose to love you, I dare marry you in spite of all Bulgaria. In true bold fashion he even pronounces an oath, which she readily jumps upon to win him away in the next encounter.In the final encounter with Sergius Louka gathers all her strength of mind and risks being caught up in eavesdropping. However, quite unexpectedly she finds a suspensor in Bluntschli, who defends her act by saying that he too once committed this kind of act as his life was at wager. Louka takes the cue from him and boldly declares her love was at stake. At this point we find Raina insulting her from her supposed social superiority and thus quite unknowingly provoking her to disclose the truth about her chocolate bat soldier.Louka is further insulted after the discovery of the chocolate cream soldier, and she turns the accompaniment in her favor by forcing Sergius to apologize to her. As he heretofore clings to his false heroic ideals, he apologises and falls motionless in her trap. In fine, we can say that through the presentation of Louka, Shaw illustrates once again the bliss of women in the chase of the men of their desire. There may be pe rhaps another reason she is necessary as the woman for Sergius because she can fit the excess of romantic ideas and impractical dreams in him.But the audience cannot be sure of her capacity for, immediately after becoming Major Sergius Saran offs affianced bride, she addresses the lady she was serving by her name and tries to scandalize Raina by openly expressing her doubt of the latters being fonder of him than Sergius. The audience and more particularly the readers can take note of the fact that she does not spill a single word after that. She remains speechless even at the climax of the action when the chocolate cream soldier becomes Rainas man amidst many revelations and amazements.