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Situational Irony
Style
Explanation and Analysis:
Shaw employs several important stylistic techniques in Arms and the Man that reinforce his comedic and critical aims. Breaking from tradition, Shaw includes three acts in his play, but does not break these acts up into distinct scenes. This is an appropriate choice for a comedy of this kind, allowing the kinetic energy generated by the characters' humorous interactions and conversations to, in a certain sense, run away with itself. This choice to deviate from a more regimented structure allows the characters space to breathe and the humorous scenes room to build upon themselves naturally.
This stylistic choice is also appropriate for the setting of the play, which is largely limited to a singular location (the Petkoffs' house) and takes place over a short time frame. Contrast this with the work of Shakespeare, which would have been considered a traditional model for formal structure by Shaw and his contemporaneous playwrights. Shakespearean dramas often contain a wider range of characters and settings, requiring greater division of acts into scenes to account for shifts in location and perspective. Arms and the Man does not require such a high level of segmentation; the simple three-act structure of the play fits better with the limited setting and smaller cast.
