Literature-In-English Paper 3 May/June 2015

Question 5

        Arms and the Man

    How is Romantic love treated in the play?


Observation

A good number of candidates attempted this question.  However, many of them did not meet the demands of the question. Romantic love in the play is treated in the following ways:

  • Raina’s romantic perception of love; her reading of Byron and Pushkin has impacted her idea of love.
  • Raina’s affection for her fiancée Sergius who is fighting in the war between Bulgaria and Serbia. His supposed heroic performance feeds into her romantic perceptions of love.
  • Bluntschili’s blunt but realistic perception of both love and war.
  • Raina’s flirting with Bluntschili behind Sergius’ back and Sergius’ flirting with Louka
  • behind Raina’s back.
  • Nicola’s giving up on Louka for business and profit, and Louka for social status.
  •  

    Candidates’ performance in this question was poor.