Arms and the Man

"My whole secret is that I have got clean through the old categories of good & evil, and no longer use them even for dramatic effect."

The writer was George Bernard Shaw, and the occasion was the debut performance in 1894 of Arms and the Man. Shaw's explanation didnt't keep some critics from damning the play for its moral frivolousness. To their eyes, the genial revolutionary was making light of virtue, military valor, and romantic love, while making a hero of a Swiss soldier who prefers cho...