Dramatists of the nineteenth century portrayed an exaggerated vision of reality. They offered heroes who accomplished amazing feats; Shaw questioned the conventional wisdom and recommended the domination of reason over emotion. In his plays, he offered a truthful portrayal of life. Shaw sought to transform society. Through his plays, he started a movement to disillusion humanity about its cherished beliefs. He liberated his plays from romanticism, which sets them apart from Shakespeare's and Ibsen's plays. Shaw's conceptual weapons are the elements, which depict the ideals of life as it is. Arms and the Man Bernard Shaw exposes the hollowness and devastating influence of war. Shaw’s romantic hero, Sergius, proves to be a fool in the end of the play. Arms and the Man is both amusing and thought provoking play. It is elementary and foremost, an anti-romance.

Shaw remarks that the play is essentially a drama of real life. In his words “I declare that I am tired to utter disgust of imaginary life, imaginary law, imaginary ethics, science, peace, war, love, virtue, villainy and imaginary everything else, both on the stage and off it. I demand respect, interest, and affection for human nature as it is.”

Shaw's primary goal was to purposefully and forcefully expose society. In his plays like Caesar and Cleopatra, Arms and the Man, and Man of Destiny, Shaw creates heroes who are innately magnificent and have access to knowledge that is beyond the reach of the average person. He describes his heroes by placing his heroes in extraordinary circumstances where they behave with self-control and complete disregard for convention. His realism is that of a social critic; he invents characters to serve as his spokesperson and represent his viewpoints.

War has historically been connected with glory, and romance frequently tinges love. It is believed that combat gives warriors a chance to display their bravery. Heroes who battle with reckless bravery and desperation are the stuff of war stories. Shaw opposes the notion of such heroes and is successful in shattering the myth that surrounds love and marriage in the minds of the general public. In the play Arms and the Man the hero Captain Bluntschli is a soldier with an ‘incurably romantic disposition’, but he never forgets that discretion is the better part of valour. His commonsense is a refreshing contrast to the reckless heroism of Sergius. Shaw believes that a soldier loves and should love nothing more than life and he fights most heroically when he has the greatest reason to be afraid of his enemy.

Sergius and Raina have idealistic views on war as well; they enlist in the military as missionaries rather than mercenaries like Captain Bluntschli. At Slivnitza, Sergius bravely led a cavalry charge that won the day. When Raina and Catherine learn this, they become overjoyed and embrace wildly. Raina views Sergius as a deity and is prepared to serve him as a "priestess" because to them, war is an act of heroism, a deed of glory and patriotism in which the bravest of the brave stake their life for the benefit of their country.

Bernard Shaw, however, very soon shattered the romantic notion about war. At this point in the play realism enters in the shape of runaway Serb officer, Captain Bluntschli. Unlike the “tall romantically handsome “Sergius, he is a man “of middling stature and undistinguished appearance” with a “hopelessly prosaic nose”. Shaw purposely contrasts between simple and sharp, between Sergius and Bluntschli, in this comic drama, and it makes for what is called “good theatre.” Bluntschli was being chased by Bulgarian soldiers so to save his life he climbs into Raina’s room. Bluntschli represents the anti-romantic view of everything. He tells Raina that it is one’s duty to live as long as he can. Bluntschli presents himself as hungry, frightened and unwilling to die.

Bluntschli will fight whenever it is necessary or to save his life. War for him is a necessity and should be fought when imposed. Man should not fight to gain glory and honour. Shaw does not accept any illusion about war, man should not fight to live; soldier should try to save their lives. Bluntschli’s this thinking prepares the audience for further manifestation of romantic ideals, now he discloses his identity to Raina. He tells Raina that he fights for living, not because of patriotic motives, “Don’t hate me, dear young lady, I’m a Swiss, fighting merely as a professional soldier, I joined the Serbs because they came first on the road from Switzerland.”

In addition to being a trained soldier, Bluntschli has the appearance of being an exceptionally wise man. Shaw specifically established Bluntschli as a character in the play to shatter romantic conceptions of love and war. He is aware of how pointless fighting is. He will fight for any country as a professional soldier if he receives cash.

He lacks any sense of patriotism, just like Sergius, and has no desire to win military glory. He won't use the weapons to endanger his life; instead, he will utilise them to make a living. If it is not possible to face the enemy on the field, he believes it is better to flee. We are surprised that Bluntschli supports the "save-your-skin" philosophy and is not ashamed of his opinions. Since he is self-employed, he is constantly mindful of his physical well-being. To stay healthy and active, he brings food with him even into battle.

He shows his presence of mind at many places in the play. He fully understands the delicacy of every situation and acts accordingly; when he was being chased by Bulgarians he takes all kinds of unfair steps to take shelter in Raina’s house. He snatches the Raina’s cloak so that she may not leave the place to tell others or she may not allow others to enter the room. However, this deed of Bluntschli is unromantic but thoroughly practical. He never loses his patience, presence of mind, and sense of humoring in adverse circumstances. Not only Bluntschli himself is unromantic and unheroic, he openly ridicules the romantic heroism of Sergius. The charge was folly not bravery; it succeeded only because through a logistical blunder the other side had been supplied with wrong ammunition.

Bluntschli likes to save his life as much as he can, yet he is not a coward. He feels helpless, he makes the decision to face it fearlessly when it becomes a matter of life and death. When he hears the sound of footsteps of Bulgarians, Instead of being nervous his response to Raina is, “The first man in will find out keep out of the way and don’t look. It won’t last long, but it will not be nice…. I promise you a fight: a devil of a fight.”

Raina is inspired by Bluntschli's honest perspective on the war at this point, and she decides to save his life. Raina's misconceptions about war were sufficiently dispelled by Bluntschli's actions in the first act. Now in the second act Sergius himself comes out fully disillusioned with war and the glory of the war. “Soldiering, my dear madam, is the coward’s art of attacking mercilessly when you are strong, and keeping out of harms way when you are weak. This is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your enemy at a disadvantage and never on any account fight him on equal terms.”

He says these things because he feels personally wronged by the military for not promoting him. He comes to the conclusion that he could not have won by doing things the right way since he had done them the wrong way. He should be promoted since, to him, winning is victory no matter how it is achieved. As Petkoff claims, Sergius is in wrong; he shouldn't be promoted in order to put the entire brigade in risk. Sergius had, in essence, lost all hope. Sergius realizes that soldiering is a mere trade, so he makes a decision to resign from the post of it. He tells Catherine that he has “no ambition to shine as a tradesman”.

In a nutshell, Shaw has skillfully ridiculed the romantic concepts of battle and love in Arms and the Man. People who join armed conflicts in the name of romantic heroism are fools. Willpower and presence of mind are more important in winning battles than bravery or equipment. Shaw contends that a hero should be guided by an original morality that is independent from moral conventions and generalizations.