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When Bernard Shaw was writing 'Arms and the Man' in 1893-1894, Romantic ideals concerning love and war were still widely accepted and considered normal; an attitude that did not change, even with Bernard Shaw's efforts to the contrary, until the dreadful losses of the First World War. Shaw, a socialist, was greatly influenced by Henrik Ibsen who "took social themes, treated them realistically and condemned the crushing effects of society." Shaw continued in this vein, …

…a model of him. Instead, in Raina’s case especially, in her first passion all she loved was the sense of the higher love, whilst in her second love, she loved the person, be it the chocolate cream soldier or Bluntschli. I believe, that whilst Shaw allowed Romanticism to re-enter the plot at the end, possibly because he realised it’s inevitability, he still succeeded in persuading, through satirical means, that “love…is a sham.”