Catherine is one of the important female characters of the play “Arms and the Man” by George Bernard Shaw, a great British playwright. She, in the play, rules over all the characters. She is an affectionate mother, at the same time, she is also a careful guardian and ideal house wife. Now we are going discuss his character.
First of all, we see, Catherine is a very careful mother about her daughter’s safety. As, at the very beginning of the play, Catherine says:
“Raina! Raina! Why, where-? Heavens child! Are you out in the night air instead of in your bed? You will catch your death. Louka told me you are asleep.”
Again, she shows her concern about the house when she comes to know that some enemy solders have run away from the battle field and are being pursued by Bulgarian cavalrymen. She orders Louka to shut all the doors and the windows against any possible intruders.
Riana seems to be very jubilant even more than Raina, when she comes to know that the Bulgarian have won a great victory over the Serbs by the extra-ordinary performance of Sergious. She admires Sergious in a way it seems that she worship him. As she says:
“Sergious is the hero of the nation, the idol of the regiment.”
Farther more, we see Catherine has a domineering attitude over her husband. Her husband is a high military officer but she keeps this man under the thumb. we see, when Petkoff expresses his view that a daily bath is something unnecessary, Catherine shows her reaction thus:
“You are a barbarian at heart still, Paut.”
Catherine’s domination over her husband become more clear towards the end of the play, when she gives a assent to Bluntschli’s proposal to marry Raina, says Catherine:
“I shall not stand in the way of her happiness. That is major Petkoff’s feeling also.”
Catherine possesses both the strength and weakness in her character. She is strong enough to dominate over husband and the subordinates. She shows her weakness in yielding to Raina’s wishes. It appears most explicitly when Raina says her mother:
“Oh, I know Sergious is your pet. I sometimes wish you could marry him instead of me. You would just suit him”
Catherine has worldliness in her. We see it she thinks more about wealth and status in connection with her daughter’s marriage than of suitability of temperaments of daughter and would-be-son-in-law.
In fine we can say that, Catherine is a typical Bulgarian woman as well as an affectionate mother, careful house wife. She has a dominating attitude over other character which makes her an important person in the play.
This paper is prepared for you by Talim Enam, BA (Hons), MA in English.
If you have any query, suggestion or complain regarding the article, please feel free to contact me at +8801722335969. You can also follow me at www.fb.com/talimenam and www.fb.com/enamur and visit my blog http://talimenam.blogspot.com
Please pray for me, if you find the article beneficial to you, and never forget to add your valuable comments.
Comments
Post a Comment